Women’s employment, religion and multiculturalism: Socio-demographic emphasis

Abstract

Giving the central focus to 'religious affiliation' which 'was once at the forefront of demographic research' (McQuillan 2004: 25), this paper examines the association between religion and women's market employment. Generally speaking, gender characteristics such as high fertility and low employment levels for Muslim women in both intracountry and worldwide comparisons have been asserted in an extensive literature. The context, method and comparison groups of this study provide the opportunity to examine the longstanding debate as to whether religion per se or other determinants explain such gender characteristics in Islamic settings. It is, however, acknowledged that the present study faces limitations mainly associated with the selectivity of migrants. Using logistic regression and the multicultural context of Australia containing a substantially diverse ethnic composition of Muslims, this paper highlights Muslim/non-Muslim employment differentials. The paper also analyses the employment level of Muslim women across the regions of origin representing various contexts in order to provide empirical evidence to examine the above debate.