Correlates of religious affiliation, religiosity and gender role attitudes among Lebanese Christian and Muslim college students

Abstract

Purpose

The aim of this paper is to examine gender role attitudes between Christian and Muslim college students towards 11 most heatedly debated cliches in Lebanon that concern equal access of men and women to political and social spheres including employment.

Design/methodology/approach

A three‐way MANOVA (gender by religion by class) was conducted on gender role items. Correlation of religiosity were performed between Christian and Muslim college students to explore associations between religiosity and gender role attitudes among respondents.

Findings

Main effects were found among respondents, with females consistently holding less gendered attitudes than males; hence attesting to the universality of gender role attitudinal differences. The gender by religion interaction showed that Christian respondents and Muslim females documented less “traditionally demarcated” gender roles in social and public domains than Muslim males. Furthermore, class appeared to be a weak predictor of gender beliefs compared to the impact gender and religion had on gender role attitudes. Finally, correlation results showed that religiosity was associated with traditional gender roles.

Research limitations/implications

While the temptation is strong to generalize the attitudes of college students to the general public in Lebanon, the present study recognizes that its findings are only a mild reflection of gender role attitudes in Lebanon since it was exclusively limited to college students.

Practical implications

Comparing gender role attitudes between Lebanese Muslim and Christian college students is of particular importance to academics, public citizens and policymakers interested in the removal of gender inequalities.

Originality/value

Scarcely any research in the Arab World compared gender role attitudes among Arabs, particularly between Christian and Muslim samples.

Citation

Abouchedid, K.E. (2007), "Correlates of religious affiliation, religiosity and gender role attitudes among Lebanese Christian and Muslim college students", Equal Opportunities International, Vol. 26 No. 3, pp. 193-208. https://doi.org/10.1108/02610150710735480