Labor Force Participation and

Value of time in Marriage of

Israeli Women:
Effect of Religion and Family
Life

Genevieve Saldanha
Theology 360

Based on,
The Extra Burden of Moslem Wives: Clues from Israeli
Women’s Labor Supply.
By Shoshana Grossbard-Shechtman and Shoshana Neuman
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1. Why did you choose this topic and why is it interesting to you?

Through the ages religion has played an important role in formulating and

influencing social and cultural norms of a particular community or society. It has also

been given importance in economic and political matters. This impact of religion is

existent even today in many spheres of life and not restricted to the spiritual development

of an individual. For example in many countries politics and religion are separate but

they are still related to each other. In other countries, especially many Islamic nations, the

religious laws are strongly followed by the government.

In a similar manner, religion and the ideal family life that it preaches influence, to

a great extent, the economic life and labor participation in a community or country. This

article by Shoshana Grossbard-Shechtman and Shoshana Neuman studies the effect of

ethnicity and religion on labor supply among Israeli married women. The study analyzes

the value of time in marriage and the labor force participation (LFP) of Israeli women

belonging to Judaism, Islam and Christianity.

Role of women in any society has always given rise to discussions and debates.

However, the role of women and their rights is a very broad topic and cannot to be

covered in the scope of this paper. This article however focuses on the participation of

married women in the work force. In this fast-progressing world this labor participation is

becoming very important for the development and recognition of women as having an

equal status to that of men. This topic, in spite of being extremely specific, shows the

effect of religion, family life and especially the marriage institution on the labor force

participation of Israeli women as also it compares the three major religions, i.e., Judaism,

Islam and Christianity.

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2. What specifically does this author say about this topic? What are the main points
she/he makes?

The authors study the women’s labor supply and the value of time in marriage

based on many factors like husband’s income, number of children, education and the age

of the woman. There have been many theories including religion, ethnicity, social life,

etc. that try to determine the differences between various groups in the labor force. This

article mainly focuses on the economic theory of marriage. According to this study,

institutional differences in marriage play a significant role in the labor participation in

different cultural communities since different religions have some distinct set of laws for

marriage (Grossbard-Shechtman and Neuman 492).

According to the economic models of labor supply, the attractiveness to work is

measured by potential wage or wage and the attractiveness to stay at home is called

reservation wage. The rational choice between these two alternatives forms the basis for

labor supply theories like the Becker-Mincer theory. This theory focuses mainly on the

personal choices of individuals and the institutional background of the person is kept

constant across all groups. Therefore a common background for family and marital life is

considered while determining the labor participation of an individual. Therefore, this

theory fails to see the impact of different marriage institutions on the labor supply of

different cultures, especially the women belonging to those groups. The authors of this

article therefore incorporate the effects of different marriage and family regulations along

with other labor economics in order to study the participation of Israeli women in the

work force (Grossbard-Shechtman and Neuman 493).

Islam, Christianity and Judaism differ in many aspects in social and cultural

thoughts and principles. They have differing marriage institutions with their own rules,
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regulations and customs which influence the value of time in marriage. This value of time

in marriage is compensated by a woman’s access to her husband’s income (Grossbard-

Shechtman and Neuman 494). The value of time is higher when the compensation is

higher and therefore the reservation wage is higher. This value of time in marriage is

influenced by several factors such as the number of offspring, the age of the marrying

woman, the rules regarding polygamy as well as exogamy, divorce laws, judicial and

social steps against domestic violence, forced marriages and lastly the system of dowry

and bridewealth. Therefore, due to the varying customs between the three religions, all

Israeli women do not have the same norms or behaviors. Both, the labor force

participation and the value of time in marriage, fluctuate greatly depending upon the

above mentioned factors and many times it is the combination of most of the factors that

is reflected in the Israeli women labor force. Based on the number of children, the age of

the women and the rules on polygamy the authors predict the Muslim women may have a

higher value of time in marriage than the Christian or Jewish women. This is because, as

compared to the other two cultures, Muslims have high fertility demands, the age

difference in the Muslim married couple is greater and Islam has practices of polygamy

too. There are also factors that decrease the value of time in marriage for Muslim women

and higher values are seen among Christians and Jews. These are exogamy and divorce

laws in Islam which favor men, increasing domestic violence as well as bridewealth

payments seen among Muslims but not Christians or Jews (Grossbard-Shechtman and

Neuman 501). Therefore, the effect of religion and marriage on the labor force

participation gets confusing and hard to interpret but nonetheless the impact is great and

cannot be ignored.
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In order to analyze the patterns in the Israeli female population the authors

estimated regressions of employment with a pooled sample of women from the three

different religions. This method is called logit and it helped to study the effects of

children, age, husband’s income and education on LFP rates (Grossbard-Shechtman and

Neuman 505). The results showed that Muslim women had a higher value of time in

marriage than Jewish or Christian Israeli women. The small population that was tested

showed that only 4.5% of Muslim women were employed as compared to 46.9% Jewish

and 22.7% Christian women (Grossbard-Shechtman and Neuman 506). Also, the

husband’s income resulted in a higher reservation wage for Jewish women and a lower

reservation wage for Muslim women. Therefore, this shows that the marriage institution

among the Muslims discourages the woman from getting a greater access to the

husband’s income. This is not the case in the marriage laws of Christianity or Judaism

and thus the women belonging to these faiths show more value of time in marriage.

The study showed that the number of children decreases the LFP of the women

across all three religions. The LFP decreases by 7.16% for Christians, 5.63% for Jews

and 1.84% for Muslims. This shows that the Muslim marriage culture may prevent the

value of time in marriage of mothers with more children from reaching higher levels as

compared to the other two religions (Grossbard-Shechtman and Neuman 510).

Furthermore, with the increasing age, the labor supply of women is positively affected.

The older the woman, more are the chances of her participating in the work force.

However, this is seen more among Jewish women than Muslim women. The chance for

LFP of Muslim women is 2.29% as compared to a 6.77% chance for Jewish women

(Grossbard-Shechtman and Neuman 510).

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Finally, education is a very important factor for studying the LFP of married

Israeli women. The results showed that a year of education added 2.37% to the chance of

Muslim women joining the work force while it added 4.85% to the chance of Christian

women and 4.16% to that of Jewish women (Grossbard-Shechtman and Neuman 511).

This shows that the education helps increase the value of time in marriage for the Muslim

wife because with education the women can obtain a higher compensation of the

husband’s income as well as stand up for their rights. Therefore, due to the benefits of

education the need to participate in the labor force decreases considerably.

In such a way the authors studied the patterns in the women’s labor supply in

Israel and determined the factors within marriage institutions that affect labor force

participation and the value of time in marriage. They strongly emphasized the need for

the combination of the marriage theory and the economic labor-supply theory in order to

lay out the framework for the labor force of women in Israel.

3 & 4.
In order for scholarly articles to be accepted for publication, they must make new
and significant contributions to academic literature in their field. What is the new,
significant, and unique contribution which this article is making? How is this
author’s interpretation of the topic different from others who have written on this
subject? If this author is not presenting a new interpretation, then what kind of
new ideas or materials is she/he bringing to light? You will have to do additional
research in order to answer these questions.

You must also provide background information about the issue which the author
discusses in order to make your summary and analysis of the article meaningful and
understandable.

This article is very specific to the condition of women in Israel and similar studies

were hard to find. This is because this article displays the participation of women in the

labor force and the study is based on the marriage and family institutions of the different

religions the women belong to. The authors compare the role of women in Judaism,
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Christianity and Islam. Due to the dissimilar marriage laws and customs, the women from

the different faiths have different views, characteristics and therefore participate

differently in the work force. According to the authors, the various religious factors have

ambiguous effects on labor force participation of women but the effects are visible

nonetheless. They predict that the Muslim women show higher reservation wages than

the Jewish or Christian Israeli women mainly due to the family customs, limitations and

obligations. Therefore an analysis of the Islamic family is very important to see the role

of married women.

The Quran greatly encourages marriage. Great respect and honor is given to the

man who has entered into marriage. Now for marriage and family life the Quran and the

hadith have laid out many laws and customs. Among the Muslim community most of the

marriages are arranged by the parents and the bride has no say in the matter. There is no

specific age for marriage but generally women marry at a young age and many a times

the age difference between the bride and the groom is large. Bridewealth and dowry is a

common feature in a Muslim wedding. All of these aspects form a part of the marriage

(Chamberlayne 123-125). According to study by Grossbard-Shechtman and Neuman, in

Israel the arranged marriages and dowry in the Muslim community tend to decrease the

value of time in marriage for the wives since they are considered completely subordinate

to their husbands (497). Divorce laws also favor Muslim men. In many countries the

procedure of talaq is still prevalent wherein the husband abandons all rights and

obligations towards the wife. In modern times the husband repeats the statement for talaq

to the wife three times in the presence of a witness and the divorce is finalized. If he

wishes to remarry the wife, he has to wait till she is legally married to and then divorced

by another man. The wife generally does not have many rights in the matter of divorce. If
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children are involved their custody is given to the husband (Chamberlayne 126). Also,

Muslim men are permitted exogamy but women are restricted. This, in addition to the

divorce laws, decreases the woman’s value of time in marriage. Another thing that

decreases this value of time is the mild punishment for men who use severe physical

violence on female relatives (Grossbard-Shechtman and Neuman 496). One last this thing

that affects the Muslim woman’s LFP is the role of women as mothers in a family unit.

The more number of children decreases the LFP of mothers in general across all and

Islam is no exception. Also the fertility demand in a Muslim family is high. Also it is the

mother’s responsibility to care of the child especially in the early years. Even in the case

of divorce the mother is required to nurse the child. In general the mother is responsible

for the physical, mental and spiritual care of a boy till the age of two and a girl till the age

of seven after which the children are the father’s responsibility (Chamberlayne 134-135).

In this way the family life in Islam places a lot of restrictions and obligations on the

women. Very few of these traits are seen in the Christian or Jewish family institutions

and therefore, a higher LFP is observed among women belonging to these religions.

Most of the research on labor supply carried out in many places is based on

economics and labor supply theories such as the Becker-Mincer theory. This study

emphasizes the need to include religion, ethnicity, marriage and family laws, etc. in

determining the labor supply of an area or region. As mentioned before, theories like

Becker-Mincer focus on individual choices and assume a common institutional

background for all cultures and groups. These studies overlook the immense impact of

institutional differences on women’s labor force participation (Grossbard-Shechtman and

Neuman 493). Therefore, the authors of this article promote the amalgamation of the

marriage theory and the labor-supply theory. Both are linked to and inter-dependent on
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each other. Another contribution is the method of empirical research that the authors use.

The type of theoretical inferences and methodology, namely logit, used in this study help

compare different groups whether they are classified by caste, religion, class, ethnicity or

location (Grossbard-Shechtman and Neuman 513).

5. What did you learn about Islam, and/or Judaism, and/or Christianity and/or
their relationships which you did not know beforehand? What are your own
perspectives on the author’s stance on the issue?

Through this article I gained a lot of information on the structure of labor force in

Israel for women belonging to three religions. In the course of this research I learned

many things about the family life in Islam. I was amazed by the emphasis the Quran and

hadith lay on marriage. The conditions of marriage between families and the marriage

laws were essential pieces of information for understanding the impact of marriage

institutions on the labor participation and value of time in marriage for women. Coming

from India, I had some idea about the divorce laws but the detailed information in this

article as well as the article “The Family in Islam” helped me better understand the

implications of divorce for a Muslim couple. Another interesting aspect of the family was

the role of mothers and their responsibilities towards the children.

Moving further, I agree with the authors of this article to a great extent. Religion

and family life do play an important role in society. The way one leads his/her life is

based on personal choice but nonetheless this choice is based greatly on the nature of that

person. Nature and behavior are in turn influenced by culture, tradition, society, religion

etc. Therefore, while studying the labor force participation of women, it is very important

to consider the effects of the family institution of the faiths that these women belong to.

6. Which criticisms do you have of this article or the author’s stance? For example,
are there any weaknesses in the author’s use of evidence, her/his argument, and/or
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does she/he display a bias that shapes her/his argument? Which other possible
weaknesses do you perceive in this article?

One of the weaknesses was that this study was taken from the 1983 Israeli

Population Census since that was the most recent census available at that time. Therefore,

even though this research was done around 1995 and then updated in 1998 the data was

still more than a decade old. There may not have been a considerable change in the

statistics over the ten years but the gap was large enough to be a hindrance in obtaining

accurate and up to date results. The study used the 20% sample of the 1983 census

wherein 89% were Jewish, 9% were Muslim and 2% were Christian (Grossbard-

Shechtman and Neuman 501). According to the authors, this composition was similar to

the religious composition of the Israeli population. This was definitely a good

representation in terms of population but there was no proper representation of the

division in urban or rural populations. Therefore, the impact of location and habitation on

labor supply was overlooked. In some parts of the article the effects of location was

briefly mentioned but it was not given its due importance.

In conclusion, labor force participation is progressive step towards the

development of women. Along with that, women definitely deserve a higher value of

time in marriage too. An important point that comes across through this article is that

education definitely helps women to balance family as well as work life. It helps women

to demand a higher value of time in marriage. This study of women in Israel shows the

impact that education, age and family life have on the role of women in society and how

all these factors help shape labor supply.

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Works Cited

Chamberlayne, John H. "The Family in Islam." Numen 15.2 (1968): 119-41.

Grossbard-Shechtman, Shoshana, and Shoshana Neuman. "The Extra Burden of Moslem

Wives: Clues from Israeli Women's Labor Supply." Economic Development and

Cultural Change 46.3 (1998): 491-517.