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

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208 SOCIOLOGY OF RELIGION striking because Arab Americans are diverse in their affiliations as Christians and Muslims, which offers an ideal opportunity to compare the influences of Islam and Christianity on women's attitudes and behaviors. Cultural stereotypes of Amb-American women tend to collapse religion and ethnicity into synonymous components of culture, portraying them as veiled Islamic traditionalists (Shakir 1997; Suleiman 1999; Terry 1985). However, there are numerous reasons to believe that cultural influences on Arab- American women's attitudes are more complicated than these images would suggest. On the one hand, Arab Americans as a group ate more highly educated, have higher labor force participation rates, and earn higher incomes than the U.S. adult population, aU of which suggest an assimilated and progressive ethnic population (Samhan 2001; U.S. Bureau of the Census 1990). On the other hand, Arab cultural and religious customs reinforce traditional gender roles, especially those regarding women's responsibilities in the home and family (Bilge and Aswad 1996; Haddad and Smith 1996). This research constitutes the first national study of Arab-American women and aims to distinguish religious and ethnic influences on women's gender tole attitudes. Using national survey data collected from 501 Arab-American women, this study examines the impact of Muslim affiliation, Arab ethnicity, and religiosity on women's degree of gender traditionalism. Prior research flnds that religious affiliation, religiosity, and ethnicity can have complicated and contradictory effects on women's attitudes and behaviors (e.g., Lehrer 1995; Wilder and Walters 1998). The current study aims to extend this literature to a lesser-known population of Arab-American women. BACKGROUND Ah extensive body of research on Judeo-Christian influences finds a strong association between fundamentalist affiliation and participation and inegali- ta¡ gender tole attitudes (Bartkowski 1999, 2001; Bartkowski and Read 2003; Beaman 2001; Heaton and Cornwall 1989; Lehrer 1995; Peek, Lowe, and Williams 1991; Read and Bartkowski 2000; Sherkat 2000; Wilcox and Jelen 1991). Women who belong to and participate in orthodox Jewish and conser- vative Christian denominations, where issues regarding the family and gender roles ate particularly important, hold more traditional gender tole attitudes than women who belong to more moderate denominations of who have no religious affiliation (Hardacre 1997; Peek et al. 1991). Explanations for these variations highlight the importance of religion in promoting and maintaining subcultural differences in social attitudes, especially on issues that are salient to the group (Hertel and Hughes 1987; Gay, Ellison, and Powers 1996). Family and gender relations are among the most important for aU major religious traditions, and there has been extensive attention paid to denominational variations on these decisive issues (e.g., Bartkowski 2001; Downloaded from http://socrel.oxfordjournals.org/ by guest on January 18, 2013
GENDER ROLE ATTITUDES AMONG ARAB-AMERICAN WOMEN 209 Hunter 1991; Williams 1997). 1 While the vast majority of research has focused on America's more established Christian and Jewish populations, a rapidly growing literature describes the importance of religion in the adjustment process of immigrant populations, especially in maintaining group identity and cultural traditions (Bankston and Zhou 1996; Ebaugh and Chafetz 1999, 2000; Warner and Wittner 1998). Women's roles ate central to this process, and available evidence highlights the importance of distinguishing ethnic and religious influences on their attitudes and behaviors. Religion reinforces traditional gender expectations to varying extents for different immigrant groups, depending on their unique historical and situational circumstances (Chong 1998; Ebaugh and Chafetz 2000; Sabagh and Bozorgmehr 1994). Arab Americans similarly represent a population at the intersection of religion and ethnicity, and historical conditions have likewise shaped their assimilation experiences. By definition, Amb Americans constitute an ethnic group that originates from seventeen Arabic-speaking countries in northern Africa and western Asia (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990). 2 Although Arab ethnicity can be derived from the birth and ancestry questions on the long forro of the U.S. Census, the standard classification for Amb Americans is with non- Hispanic whites. Thus, to date, their exact numbers are unknown. The most frequently cited estimate is 3 million, roughly equal to the size of the Native- AmerŸ population (e.g. Samhan 2001). Arab Americans have immigrated to the United States in two major waves over the past century, resulting in considerable heterogeneity in their socio- economic and cultural adaptation. Contrary to popular perceptions of this ethnic group, most Arabs in America today are native-born (59 percent), U.S. citizens (82 percent), proficient in the English language (83 percent), and well educated, with 36 percent holding a bachelor's degree or higher (U.S. Bureau of the Census 1990). 3 In the past decade, a smaller stream of less-skilled immi- grants has arrived in the United States as refugees from Iraq, Palestine, and Yemen. Nevertheless, Arab Americans asa group remain more highly educated and more concentrated in prestigious jobs and higher income brackets than the U.S. adult population as a whole (U.S. Bureau of the Census 1990). Notably, two-thirds of Arabs in America affiliate with Christianity and one- third follow the Muslim faith, reflecting distinct migration patterns from the Middle East (Samhan 2001). Despite diversity in their immigration histories, 1 There are extensive debates surrounding the culture wars thesis; however, a review of these debates is be?ond the scope and pm~ose of this study. 2 The Census Bureau defines Arab Americans as people who trace their ancestry to Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia (North Africa) and to Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Ornan, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen (westem Asia). 3 Ancestry data from the 2000 census wiU not be available until the spring of 2003. Downloaded from http://socrel.oxfordjournals.org/ by guest on January 18, 2013
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