Are Women in the MENA Region really that Different from Women in Europe?

Abstract

This chapter compares women in the MENA region with women in Europe as to how globalization affects their conservatism, and, thereby, their labor market participation. Conservative values are defined as both religious values and socio-political attitudes. Using micro data from the World Values Survey 1981-2014 from 80 countries, we employ various indicators of globalization that reflect, first, international trade and, second, global flows of information. In pre-1994 Western Europe, economic globalization appears to weaken those conservative secular values that pertain to female employment, while all remaining secular-conservative values erode after 1994. The MENA region of today resembles pre-cold war Western Europe, with post-cold-war Western Europe possibly predicting changes to come in the MENA region. In the MENA region, women respond to intensifying economic globalization with deeper religiosity, possibly as form of self-protection. Global exchange of information, however, weakens all kinds of conservative values in general in either region.