Gender equality attitudes of Muslim immigrants in Italy

Abstract

In European public debates, Islam is often described as having a determinant role on gender inequality. However, Islamic community in Italy is significantly diversified and gender-related attitudes are affected by the different contexts of origin. By using multipurpose Istat data, we estimate a synthetic index of gender equality attitudes and conduct multivariate empirical analyses on migrant Muslim men and women. Results show that the heterogeneity among migrant groups persists after controlling for other factors. In addition, more religious Muslims are on average more opposed to gender equality. However, the role of religious communal integration is more important than that of individual religiosity.