The Sources of Gender Role Attitudes among Christian and Muslim ...

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216 SOCIOLOOY OF RELIGION Muslim affiliation TABLE 2 OLS ~cients for the Estimated Effects of Religion and Ethnici~ on Arab-American Women's Gerder Role Attitudes (n = 501) Ethn/c/ty Duration of U.S. residence Native-bom Less than 15 years 15 q ca" more Amb spouse Amb ethnic organizatiom Rd/g/os/oj Belief in scriptural inerrancy High attendance Religiosity over the life cycle Low in childhood and adulthood Dr sime childlxxxt Increased since chiidhood Hi$h in childhood and aduldxxxt Bac~ound/'aams: College education Children present in home Age Age 2 Constant R 2 Adjusted R 2 + p = < .10, * p = < .05, ** p - < .01. Gender Traditionalism Index Model 1 Model 2 Model 3 b Beta b Beta b Beta 1.315"* .195 .498+ .074 -.116 -.017 2.150"* .154 2.185"* .157 1.059"* .159 1.255"* .188 .824** .125 .711"* .108 1.001"* .146 .754** .111 1.767"* .266 .573* .083 n .616 .058 1.306"* .122 1371"* .193 -1.625"* -.239 -1.239"* -.182 -.523* -.077 .837* .126 .255+ .038 .164 .025 -.015+ .148 -.131+ -.164 -.055+ -.184 .001+ .063 .002+ .359 .001+ .363 8.973 9.616 7.371 .150 .233 .337 .142 .219 .318 Model 2 examines whether the relationship between Muslim affiliation and gender traditionalism holds when Amb ethnicity is considered. As Model 2 indi- cates, each dimension of Amb ethnicity has a robust Ÿ on women's degree of gender traditionalism- those who ate foreign-bom, married to ah Arab spouse, and share most of all of their organizational memberships with other Arabs are significantly more traditional in their gender tole attitudes than ate those respondents without these ethnic affiliations. Duration of U.S. residence is particularly salient, with the newest arrivals holding the most traditional views. Importantly, when these dimensions of Arab ethnicity ate considered, the association between Muslim affiliation and gender traditionalism drops appre- ciably, both in magnitude and significance. Downloaded from http://socrel.oxfordjournals.org/ by guest on January 18, 2013
GENDER ROLE ATTITUDES AMONG ARAB-AMERICAN WOMEN 217 Similarly, when measures of religiosity are added in Model 3, the effect of Muslim affiliation on women's gender ideologies is no longer significant. The effects of Amb ethnicity, on the other hand, remain hrgely unchanged, which underscores the distinctiveness of women's ethnic and religious affiliations. Model 3 also shows that religiosity is linked to inegalitarian views on gender, and the effects are especially strong for women who believe in sc¡ inerrancy and who maintain religious convictions over the life course. Taken together, results in Table 2 suggest that ethnicity and religiosity mediate the effects of Muslim affiliation on gender traditionalism. Put differ- ently, the findings suggest that Muslim affiliation may be acting asa proxy for acculturation u Muslim respondents are more likely to be newer immŸ arrivals, have an Amb spouse, affiliate with ethnic organizations, and believe in scriptural inerrancy, and correspondingly, hold more traditional gender tole attitudes. What remains unclear from Table 2 is whether ethnicity and religiosity have similar effects on Christian respondents' gender role attitudes, or if they ate only significant for Muslim women's. To examine this question, Table 3 examines separate models for Muslim and Christian women. In general, the effects of Arab ethnicity on gender traditionalism ate comparable to those found in Table 2 and are surprisingly similar for both groups of respondents. Newer immigrant arrivals are more gender traditional than their native-bom counterparts, a finding that corroborates stronger ties to indigenous values among immigrants. Having an Arab spouse is more important for Muslim than Christian respondents, which may in part reflect differences in marital status between the two groups (see Table 1). Ethnic networks have a stronger effect on Christian respondent's gender role attitudes, but again, the difference is minimal. The effects of religiosity on gender traditionalism ate more variable by religious affiliation. Belief in scriptural inerrancy is associated with inegalitarian attitudes for both Christian and Muslim respondents, which is not surprising since the Bible and Qur'an prescribe female domesticŸ (Memissi 1991; Sherkat 2000). Religiosity over the life course, on the other hand, appears more significant for Muslim women, even though they share similar patterns of relŸ socialization with Christian respondents (Table 1). Likewise, religious attendance has a greater impact on Muslim women's gender ideologies than Christian respondents'. 10 Despite these variations, the general finding in Table 3 is that ethnicity and religiosity ate associated with inegalitarian gender tole attitudes for Christian and Muslim respondents alike m gender egalitarianism is greatest among women with longer exposure to U.S. norms and values and weaker attachments to Amb ethnic and religious institutions. 10 Lesser variation in Christian womea's attendance rates may contribute to this finding. Downloaded from http://socrel.oxfordjournals.org/ by guest on January 18, 2013
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