Education and national economic success linked for young Muslim women

Source: Pew Research Fact Tank. Scatterplot on educational attainment of young Muslim women versus economic output.

Pew Research suggests that the state of women's education in Muslim societies today boils down to economic success, and not religion in a new analysis of Pew Research Center data on educational attainment and religion.

"It’s true that, historically, Muslim women have received less schooling than females of other major religions (except Hindus); they also have lagged behind Muslim men in educational attainment, according to previous analysis by Pew Research Center. More recently, however, Muslim women have been catching up – not only with Muslim men but also with other women around the world," said Conrad Hackett, a Senior Demographer and Associate Director of research at Pew Research Center, and Dalia Fahmy, Senior Writer/Editor at Pew Research Center, in a Fact Tank article.

The new study*, co-authored by Hackett, analyses the Center’s education data and appears in the Population and Development Review. The analysis shows that a country’s wealth is the most important factor determining how much education a woman receives.

For example, young Muslim women who are Saudi citizens, defined as those born between 1976 and 1985 in KSA have an average of 11.5 years of schooling, compared with 11.8 years for the country’s young men and two years of education for older Muslim women, defined as those born between 1935 and 1955. 

Researchers also examined factors in Muslim communities that might play a role in influencing education for women, such as the degree of gender discrimination in a country’s family laws, the percentage of its population that is Muslim and the share of Muslims who reported that religion is very important to them. "The study finds that none of these elements had a significant impact on the results," said Hackett.

*The study was by David McClendon, Hackett, Michaela Potančoková, Marcin Stonawski and Vegard Skirbekk. McClendon is a former Research Associate at the Center.

Book discusses the trend of Indonesian women in politics

Source: NUS Press.

NUS Press has released Indonesian Women and Local Politics: Islam, Gender and Networks in Post-Suharto Indonesia by Kurniawati Hastuti Dewi, Senior Researcher, Research Center for Politics, Indonesian Institute of Sciences in Jakarta, Indonesia.

The book focuses on a significant social change in the history of Indonesia: the success of female Muslim political leaders in Java at direct local elections following the fall of President Suharto, the second president of Indonesia, in 1998. 

Indonesian Women and Local Politics shows that Islam, gender and social networks have been decisive in their political victories. Islamic ideas concerning female leadership provide a strong religious foundation for their political campaigns. However, their approach to women's issues shows that female leaders do not necessarily adopt a woman's perspectives when formulating policies. According to the author, this trend of Muslim women in politics will continue to shape the growth and direction of democratisation in local politics in post-Suharto Indonesia and will colour future discourse on gender, politics and Islam in contemporary Southeast Asia.

The paperback (ISBN: 978-9971-69-842-3) costs US$34 (S$38).