Tempora mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis: religion and female employment over time

This study analyzes whether the role of religion for employment of women in Europe has changed over time and along women’s life cycles. Using information on 44’000 married European women from the World Values Survey, spanning more than thirty years (1981-2013), we find that over time the impact of religion on female employment has been changing. In Western Europe, behavioral differences across denominations seem to have disappeared since roughly 1997. In contrast, for Eastern Europe, we find that differences by religion have reemerged again particularly among young women. However, for women in Eastern Europe who are older than 40 years, religion plays no role – a finding that we attribute to an upbringing under secular communist regimes that strongly promoted gender equality in the labor market. Only Muslim women show a lower employment probability that persists across time, across regions, and across life cycles