Relations of religious affiliation group norms, human capital, and autonomy to Israeli men's participation in household duties

Objective: In this work, I document variation in husbands' participation in household duties, an indicator of gender equality, by comparing ethnoreligious affiliation group, human capital, and autonomy. Background: Scholars posit a relationship between religiosity and traditional gender relations, impacted by cultural norms and women's human capital. Israel's diverse ethnoreligious landscape provides an excellent context for empirically evaluating posited relationships. Method: The study analyzed quantitative data from the Israel Social Survey on 1,900 married women (1,529 Jews and 371 Arabs). Results: Husbands of Arab women were 83% less likely than husbands of Jewish women to share household duties. Among Jewish couples, husbands of traditional-religious women were 29% less likely than husbands of secular women to share household duties. Further, among Jewish couples, there was no difference in husbands' sharing of household duties between ultra-Orthodox women and secular women. Among Arabs, Druze husbands were almost 3 times more likely to participate than Muslim husbands. Among Arab Muslims, religious husbands were 2.40 times more likely to share household duties than nonreligious Muslims. Conclusion: Findings support C. Goldscheider's culture hypothesis, suggesting that the uniqueness of the affiliation group is most important. However, although human capital did not strongly moderate husbands' participation, women's autonomy did. Implication: Public policy should be sensitive to differences between ethnoreligious groups in supporting gender equality. For instance, policy makers should encourage religious leaders to preach values that promote such equality.