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Asia Pacific Journal of Management
Published in: Asia Pacific Journal of Management 1/2008

01-03-2008

A context-specific perspective of equal employment opportunity in Islamic societies

Author: Jawad Syed

Published in: Asia Pacific Journal of Management | Issue 1/2008

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Abstract

The purpose of the paper is to offer a context-specific perspective of gender equality and its implications for equal employment opportunity in Islamic societies. The paper discusses various discourses on the Islamic perspective of gender and how they might impact female employment in the formal employment sector. The study highlights some major differences among Muslim countries with respect to gender ideology and the corresponding prospects for equal employment opportunity. Furthermore, the paper argues that any attempts to reform the socio-political institutions and labor policies in Islamic societies must be informed by their particular formal and informal institutional features.
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Footnotes
1
The term ‘Islamic societies’ has been used in this paper to denote Muslim majority countries or regions where religion-based principles and traditions have a central role in everyday life. The plural term has been used to acknowledge the diversity of Islamic interpretations and practices across the world.
 
2
Actually, there is ample evidence that despite affirmative action and EEO legislation, job-type gender segregation is still commonplace in many Western countries. In particular, women’s participation rate in decision-making roles in organizations remains extremely low (e.g., Beck & Davis, 2004; Syed & Murray, 2006). Connell (1995) notes that gender integration is not on equal terms, it rather “occurs in a context of patriarchal institutions where the ‘male is norm’, or the masculine is authoritative” (p. 231).
 
3
The United Nations Development Program uses the Gender Empowerment Measure as a composite index to measure “gender inequality in three basic dimensions of empowerment—economic participation and decision-making, political participation and decision-making and power over economic resources” (UNDP, 2004: 270).
 
4
The perspective offered in this section is based on an egalitarian interpretation of the Qur’an.
 
5
Indeed, there is no country in the world where patriarchy does not inform the social structures. Each society remains male-dominated, male-identified, and male-cantered, though to varying extents (Johnson, 2005). However, the implications are particularly severe in Islamic societies because of a lack of democratic and pluralistic structures.
 
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Metadata
Title
A context-specific perspective of equal employment opportunity in Islamic societies
Author
Jawad Syed
Publication date
01-03-2008
Publisher
Springer US
Published in
Asia Pacific Journal of Management / Issue 1/2008
Print ISSN: 0217-4561
Electronic ISSN: 1572-9958
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10490-007-9051-6

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