Determinants of Gender Inequality in the MENA Region
(2018) EKHS21 20181Department of Economic History
- Abstract
- With time, the race among countries to reduce gender inequality has resulted in a worldwide reduction in gender discrimination. However, all regions have not performed equally; lagging behind most is the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Many potential reasons have been put forward, but in recent times the most discussed sources of this disparity have been the region’s religion and oil dependency. Some have also suggested that neither have contributed more in suppressing women’s rights in MENA than the region’s unique non-Islamic culture. This paper will attempt to shed light on this contemporary debate through quantitative analysis, using a 25 yearlong panel data set (1991-2015) for 80 countries. The final results indicate that... (More)
- With time, the race among countries to reduce gender inequality has resulted in a worldwide reduction in gender discrimination. However, all regions have not performed equally; lagging behind most is the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Many potential reasons have been put forward, but in recent times the most discussed sources of this disparity have been the region’s religion and oil dependency. Some have also suggested that neither have contributed more in suppressing women’s rights in MENA than the region’s unique non-Islamic culture. This paper will attempt to shed light on this contemporary debate through quantitative analysis, using a 25 yearlong panel data set (1991-2015) for 80 countries. The final results indicate that though Islam does play a role, non-Islamic cultural characteristics of MENA also play a role in keeping gender inequality high in that region. Oil dependency on the other hand does not seem to influence gender inequality in any significant way. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/8952588
- author
- Rahman, Wahidur LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- EKHS21 20181
- year
- 2018
- type
- H1 - Master's Degree (One Year)
- subject
- keywords
- MENA, gender inequality, oil, Islam, culture
- language
- English
- id
- 8952588
- date added to LUP
- 2018-08-20 14:51:39
- date last changed
- 2018-08-20 14:51:39
@misc{8952588, abstract = {{With time, the race among countries to reduce gender inequality has resulted in a worldwide reduction in gender discrimination. However, all regions have not performed equally; lagging behind most is the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Many potential reasons have been put forward, but in recent times the most discussed sources of this disparity have been the region’s religion and oil dependency. Some have also suggested that neither have contributed more in suppressing women’s rights in MENA than the region’s unique non-Islamic culture. This paper will attempt to shed light on this contemporary debate through quantitative analysis, using a 25 yearlong panel data set (1991-2015) for 80 countries. The final results indicate that though Islam does play a role, non-Islamic cultural characteristics of MENA also play a role in keeping gender inequality high in that region. Oil dependency on the other hand does not seem to influence gender inequality in any significant way.}}, author = {{Rahman, Wahidur}}, language = {{eng}}, note = {{Student Paper}}, title = {{Determinants of Gender Inequality in the MENA Region}}, year = {{2018}}, }