Variations in Muslim women’s mosque attendance by individual and country characteristics: the significance of women’s societal engagement

Women are more religious than men whether measured by religious belief, attendance, or membership, but worship attendance by gender varies across religious groups. While Christian women attend more than Christian men, Muslim women attend less than Muslim men (Pew Research Center 2016). The worship attendance of Muslim women varies, however, across different contexts, but the reasons for this variation are yet to be understood. Using data from the 7th wave of the World Values Survey conducted in 59 countries worldwide between 2017 and 2022, as well as other cross-national data produced by the World Bank and the United Nations Development Programme, this article examines Muslim women’s mosque attendance cross-nationally and within countries. Findings from the quantitative analysis demonstrate that individual and structural factors which suggest social participation restrictions on women, are affecting patterns of Muslim women’s mosque attendance. Significant factors include women’s organisational membership and labour market participation, and countries’ overall gender development and gender inequality. Contrary to existing theories of secularization and gender, our findings indicate that women’s mosque attendance is likely to increase with growths in labour market participation and gender equality. This has implications for extant theories about secularization, religious participation and gender.