Preferences or Patriarchy: Why Do Religious Women Work Less?

Abstract

Do religious women work less because they want to? To address this question, we consider whether the gender employment gap for six world religions can be explained by the gender gap in the employment happiness premium, defined as the happiness gain associated with being employed. We find that preferences plausibly explain the gender employment gap for Buddhists, Orthodox Christians, and the non-religious. In contrast, they explain less than half the gender employment gap for Hindus, Muslims, Catholics and Protestants. Our findings are consistent with a significant role for patriarchal social norms in constraining female employment in these four religious traditions.