Reflections on ‘Oil, Islam and Women’ by Michael Ross (2008)
Having studied Global Development at SOAS University of London, I was familiar with the ‘resource curse’; the theory put forth by Richard Auty (1993) which proposes that countries with an abundance of natural resources may experience poor economic growth, lower levels of democracy, and worse development outcomes compared to resource-poor countries
Hence, reading Oil, Islam and Women by Michael Ross (2008) was particularly fascinating. Ross’s research article builds on the resource curse theory, using the MENA region as a case study to challenge the traditional view that the limited participation of women in the labour force is solely due to the influence of Islam (World Bank, 2004).
In his paper, Ross identifies gender equality as one of the main issues which divides the West and the Islamic world. Consequently, his central thesis is based on the idea that an oil-production boom, leading to higher oil rents, tends to marginalise women from the labour market, not necessarily Islam. Ross’s work draws on the framework established by Mammen and Paxson (2000), who argue that two primary factors influence the number of women in the labour market: 1) Female wages, which are positively correlated with the number of women entering the labour market, and 2) female unearned income, which is negatively correlated with the number of women joining the labour market. Additionally, Ross assumes, using work from Anker (1997), that female employment tends to be concentrated in the traded sectors, such as manufacturing and agriculture, while women are often excluded from non-traded sectors, like services and construction, perceived as heavy labour or involving interactions with men outside the family.
The two most important factors of Ross’ thesis relate to how high oil rents will ‘squeeze’ women out of the labour force from both a) demand and b) supply perspectives;
An oil boom in production will transform the economy away from the traded sector and towards the non traded sector. This shift increases the demand for male labour at the expense of female labour.
Next, the rising demand for male labour leads to higher wages, thus increasing household incomes. As a result, there is less economic incentive for women to participate in the labour force, leading to a decline in the supply of female labour.
Ross reinforces his thesis with a case study of three Muslim countries - Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia - in the early twenty-first century. Algeria, being a major oil producer since the 1960s, has a low percentage of women in the nonagricultural labour force (around 12%), a small proportion of women in parliament (6.6%), and ranks poorly in areas like ‘non-discrimination and access to justice’ and ‘economic rights and equal opportunities’. In contrast, Morocco and Tunisia, with little to no oil resources, have developed a robust export-oriented textile industry. This contributed to the highest rates of female labour force participation (33.5% in Morocco) and female-held parliamentary seats (Tunisia at 22.8%) in the region, alongside a strong women’s rights movement.
While this paper does not provide a definitive answer to the correlation between MENA countries and low female labour force participation, it is important because it highlights the necessity of an intersectional analysis when addressing complex issues, especially those related to religion.
Refrences
Anker, Richard. (1997). ‘Theories of occupational segregation by sex: an overview’. International Labour Review. 136: 315–39.
Auty, Richard M. (1994). ‘Industrial policy reform in six large newly industrializing countries: The resource curse thesis’. World Development. Volume 22, Issue 1, Pages 11-26.
Mammen, Kristin, and Paxson, Christina. (2000). ‘Women’s Work and Economic Development’. Journal of Economic Perspectives. Vol 14: 141–64.
Ross, Michael. (2008). ‘Oil, Islam and Women’. American Political Science Review. February Issue.
World Bank. (2004). ‘Gender and Development in the Middle East and North Africa’. World Bank. Washington DC.
