ABSTRACT
This study builds on the Policy Studies Institute’s Fourth National Survey of Ethnic Minorities1 in the United Kingdom (conducted in 1994) and other studies that point towards great diversity and polarity in the employment profiles of South Asian women in Britain, especially the markedly different economic activity rates of Pakistani and Bangladeshi women on the one hand and Indian and African Asian women on the other (Modood et al., 1997). A number of explanations have been posited; for instance, Owens’s analysis of 1991 census data emphasizes the economic and sociodemographic factors (1994), whilst a series of PSI studies have found that the lower economic activity rates of Bangladeshi and Pakistani women are partly explained by cultural factors (Brown, 1984; Jones, 1993; Modood et al., 1997). These would suggest that Muslim communities espouse gender roles that firmly locate women within the domestic sphere. However, the issues are far more complex than the above studies have shown. Religion cannot be the only factor, since employment patterns in Muslim countries also exhibit great diversity and, as Bruegel (1989) points out, Muslim women from East Africa and India have higher activity rates than other Muslim women (though Modood et al., 1997, found that it was not as high as non-Muslims from the same groups). Similarly, Brah and Shaw (1992), in a valuable qualitative study on South Asian Muslim women and the labour market, found that demands of housework and child care, language and qualifications, family and community pressures and discrimination in the labour market were also relevant factors. In examining differentials in economic activity in Bristol, West and Pilgrim (1995) identified similar patterns and variables affecting economic activity in their research, and also proposed that local economies and male unemployment may have a bearing on levels of labour market participation.
