Ethnic differences in female labour force participation in the Netherlands: Adding gender role attitudes and religiosity to the explanation

Abstract

Female labour force participation varies greatly between different ethnic groups, but previous re- search on human capital and household conditions has not been able to fully explain these differ- ences. Using large-scale representative survey data of four ethnic minority groups and the Dutch ma- jority in the Netherlands, we add gender role attitudes and religiosity to the explanatory model. The results of heterogeneous choice models and interval regressions show that the predicted negative ef- fects of traditional gender role attitudes and of religiosity contribute to the explanation of ethnic differ- ences in female labour force participation, in addition to human capital and household conditions. These factors moreover partly explain differences between Dutch, Turkish, Moroccan, Surinamese, and Antillean women.