Chapter 11
In: Annual Review of the Sociology of Religion. Volume 12 (2021)
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Abstract
This chapter examines the interactive influences of endogenous cultural and structural factors, specifically religion, religious freedom, and Gender Inequality Index (gii) scores on level of commitment to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (cedaw) for 184 nation-state members of the United Nations and then, more specifically, for forty-five predominantly Muslim nations. The inclusion of religious freedom, religious repression, and secular repression in the analysis qualifies previous research results showing significant and persistent differences between predominantly Muslim nations and other nations on gender inequality measures and cedaw commitment. The analysis partially corroborates the earlier findings; Muslim majority nations reveal higher gii scores and lower cedaw commitment. However, adding religious freedom to the data categories shows high gii and low cedaw commitment to be most applicable to religiously repressive Muslim majority nations. Religiously free and secular repressive nations approximate all other United Nations member states’ patterns.