Preferences or Patriarchy: Why Do Religious Women Work Less?

Religious women work less than their non-religious counterparts. Is this because they want to work less or because patriarchal social norms limit their choices? To address this question, we estimate the employment happiness premium, which we define as the happiness gain associated with being employed, for men and women belonging to six world religions and for the non-religious. Our results indicate that the employment happiness premium is higher for men than for women for every world religion and that the gender gap in the employment happiness premium varies significantly across religions. Next, we ask whether the gender gap in the employment happiness premium can explain the gender gap in employment. That is, is it plausible that preferences explain employment patterns across religions and genders? We find that preferences plausibly explain the gender employment gap for Buddhists, Orthodox Christians, and the non-religious. In contrast, they explain less than half the observed gender employment gap for Hindus, Muslims, Catholics and Protestants. Our findings are consistent with a significant role for patriarchal social norms in constraining female employment in these religious traditions.