Sociology of religion and gender : a theoretical and empirical study focusing on women's employment

Yaghoob Foroutan

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

From a sociological perspective, this paper analyzes both theoretical and empirical aspects of the relations between gender and religion, focusing on women’s employment status in the Islamic settings. The literature review shows that despite a substantial consensus among scholars regarding the status of women in Muslim societies, the explanation of this status remains a controversial debate so that there are a large variety of theories explaining the status. This is mainly because of the lack of sufficient empirical research. Accordingly, the present paper firstly reviews the theories in two main groups; then, it focuses on the results of an empirical research. Using logistic regression, the results of this research show that there are various patterns to explain the association between gender and religion focusing on women’s employment status in the Islamic settings. This echoes a more significant role that varying socio-cultural backgrounds and experiences play in the status of women in different Islamic settings throughout the world. Since Iran is a Muslim country and particularly due to the increasing achievements of Iranian women, such as women’s substantial achievement in education and rising aspiration for labor force participation, this paper can provide a good basis to understand and explain gender roles and women’s employment status in Iran both now and in the future.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)107-138
Number of pages32
JournalSocial Problems of Iran
Volume16
Issue number63
Publication statusPublished - 2009

Keywords

  • gender
  • religion
  • women

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