IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/wdevel/v105y2018icp48-58.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

An impediment to gender Equality?: Religion’s influence on development and reproductive policy

Author

Listed:
  • Forman-Rabinovici, Aliza
  • Sommer, Udi

Abstract

The effects of religion on development in the area of gender equality have been considered substantial in academic work as well as in popular and political discourse. A common understanding is that religion depresses women’s rights in general and reproductive and abortion rights in particular. The literature on reproductive rights, however, is disproportionately focused on Western cases, and is limited in its definition of religion as a variable. What happens, though, when we switch to a more inclusive framework? To what extent do a variety of religious variables correlate with policy on reproductive rights outside of the Western context? We examine the relevance of the religion-abortion link in a broad comparative framework. We introduce the Comparative Abortion Index and test the effects of a wide range of denominations and religious characteristics on reproductive rights. Our study finds that reproductive rights correlate only with some religious denominations, while others have no significance. Additionally, while religiosity correlates with reproductive policy, variables such as religious freedom, separation of religion and state and religious diversity show no correlative effect. The comparative analyses suggest that the connection between religion and development in general—and in the area of women’s rights in particular—is far more nuanced than previously thought.

Suggested Citation

  • Forman-Rabinovici, Aliza & Sommer, Udi, 2018. "An impediment to gender Equality?: Religion’s influence on development and reproductive policy," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 48-58.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:105:y:2018:i:c:p:48-58
    DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2017.12.024
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X17304175
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.worlddev.2017.12.024?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Laura R. Olson & Wendy Cadge & James T. Harrison, 2006. "Religion and Public Opinion about Same‐Sex Marriage," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 87(2), pages 340-360, June.
    2. Jaime S. King, 2012. "Politics and fetal diagnostics collide," Nature, Nature, vol. 491(7422), pages 33-34, November.
    3. Htun, Mala & Weldon, S. Laurel, 2012. "The Civic Origins of Progressive Policy Change: Combating Violence against Women in Global Perspective, 1975–2005," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 106(3), pages 548-569, August.
    4. Joshi, Shareen & Sivaram, Anusuya, 2014. "Does it Pay to Deliver? An Evaluation of India’s Safe Motherhood Program," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 434-447.
    5. Wald, Kenneth D. & Wilcox, Clyde, 2006. "Getting Religion: Has Political Science Rediscovered the Faith Factor?," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 100(4), pages 523-529, November.
    6. Wang, Qingfeng & Sun, Xu, 2016. "The Role of Socio-political and Economic Factors in Fertility Decline: A Cross-country Analysis," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 360-370.
    7. Achim Hildebrandt, 2015. "What Shapes Abortion Law? – A Global Perspective," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 6(4), pages 418-428, November.
    8. Echávarri, Rebeca & Husillos, Javier, 2016. "The Missing Link Between Parents’ Preferences and Daughters’ Survival: The Moderator Effect of Societal Discrimination," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 372-385.
    9. Ross, Michael L., 2008. "Oil, Islam, and Women," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 102(1), pages 107-123, February.
    10. Zeev Maoz & Errol A. Henderson, 2013. "The World Religion Dataset, 1945--2010: Logic, Estimates, and Trends," International Interactions, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(3), pages 265-291, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Udi Sommer, 2018. "Women, Demography, and Politics: How Lower Fertility Rates Lead to Democracy," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 55(2), pages 559-586, April.
    2. Arno Tausch, 2019. "Multivariate analyses of the global acceptability rates of male intimate partner violence (IPV) against women based on World Values Survey data," International Journal of Health Planning and Management, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(4), pages 1155-1194, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Leopoldo Fergusson & Carlos Molina, 2020. "Facebook Causes Protests," HiCN Working Papers 323, Households in Conflict Network.
    2. Charléty, Patricia & Romelli, Davide & Santacreu-Vasut, Estefania, 2017. "Appointments to central bank boards: Does gender matter?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 155(C), pages 59-61.
    3. Niklas Potrafke, 2016. "Policies against human trafficking: the role of religion and political institutions," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 17(4), pages 353-386, November.
    4. Martin Mosler & Niklas Potrafke & Markus Reischmann, 2019. "How to Handle the Fiscal Crisis in Greece: Empirical Evidence Based on a Survey of Economic Experts," Fiscal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 40(3), pages 375-399, September.
    5. Stephan E. Maurer & Andrei V. Potlogea, 2021. "Male‐biased Demand Shocks and Women's Labour Force Participation: Evidence from Large Oil Field Discoveries," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 88(349), pages 167-188, January.
    6. Isis Gaddis & Stephan Klasen, 2014. "Economic development, structural change, and women’s labor force participation:," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 27(3), pages 639-681, July.
    7. Udi Sommer & Aliza Forman-Rabinovici, 2020. "The Politicization of Women’s Health and Wellbeing," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-10, April.
    8. Chatterjee, Somdeep & Poddar, Prashant, 2019. "Maternal Health, Children Education and Women Empowerment: Quasi-Experimental Evidence from India," GLO Discussion Paper Series 332, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    9. Bertoli, Simone & Marchetta, Francesca, 2015. "Bringing It All Back Home – Return Migration and Fertility Choices," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 27-40.
    10. Dean Karlan & Adam Osman & Nour Shammout, 2021. "Increasing Financial Inclusion in the Muslim World: Evidence from an Islamic Finance Marketing Experiment," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 35(2), pages 376-397.
    11. Michael Mintrom & Jacqui True, 2022. "COVID-19 as a policy window: policy entrepreneurs responding to violence against women [The pandemic paradox: The consequences of COVID-19 on domestic violence]," Policy and Society, Darryl S. Jarvis and M. Ramesh, vol. 41(1), pages 143-154.
    12. Jubril Animashaun & Ada Wossink, 2020. "Patriarchy, Pandemics and the Gendered Resource Curse Thesis: Evidence from Petroleum Geology," Economics Discussion Paper Series 2006, Economics, The University of Manchester.
    13. Hallward-Driemeier, Mary & Hasan, Tazeen & Rusu, Anca Bogdana, 2013. "Women's legal rights over 50 years : progress, stagnation or regression ?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6616, The World Bank.
    14. Kumo, Kazuhiro & Perugini, Cristiano, 2023. "Religion, Ideology and Fertility," IZA Discussion Papers 16159, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    15. Jacqueline H.R. DeMeritt & Joseph K Young, 2013. "A political economy of human rights: Oil, natural gas, and state incentives to repress1," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 30(2), pages 99-120, April.
    16. Grohmann, Antonia & Klühs, Theres & Menkhoff, Lukas, 2018. "Does financial literacy improve financial inclusion? Cross country evidence," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 111, pages 84-96.
    17. Juyoung Cheong & Do Won Kwak & Kam Ki Tang, 2020. "Trade Elasticity: Estimates From Product-Level Data," Discussion Papers Series 616, School of Economics, University of Queensland, Australia.
    18. Benjamin M Hunter & Sean Harrison & Anayda Portela & Debra Bick, 2017. "The effects of cash transfers and vouchers on the use and quality of maternity care services: A systematic review," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(3), pages 1-37, March.
    19. Axel Dreher & Shu Yu, 2020. "The Alma Mater effect: Does foreign education of political leaders influence UNGA voting?," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 185(1), pages 45-64, October.
    20. Amany Gouda-Vossos & Barnaby J Dixson & Robert C Brooks, 2016. "Sexual Conflict and Gender Gap Effects: Associations between Social Context and Sex on Rated Attractiveness and Economic Status," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(1), pages 1-14, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:105:y:2018:i:c:p:48-58. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.elsevier.com/locate/worlddev .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.