Attitudes towards Gender Equality in Palestine: The Role of Nationalism

This Paper examines Palestinian public opinion towards gender equality. Using interview and opinion poll data I hope to explore the factors which impact upon attitudes towards gender equality in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. This Paper builds upon the assertions of Pippa Norris and Ronald Inglehart in Rising Tide (2003) that with modernisation should come greater support for gender equality. This Paper finds that the factors that they suggest, such as socio-economic status, and level of religiosity do impact attitudes towards gender equality, usually in line with their predictions. However, I contend that there is an important additional ideological variable which they do not assess, but which plays an important role in the political context of the Palestinian Territories, namely nationalism. Nationalism has for a long time been a focus of the literature on feminism and the Middle East, but it has rarely played a role in quantitative analyses. Nationalism is known to play a negative role for women hoping to achieve gender equality as it prioritises group membership and nationalist aims over women’s rights. Cultural and religious forms of nationalism also often portray women’s social role as cultural signifiers and mothers. The impact of nationalism on women’s rights movements is broadly understood at a theoretical and qualitative level but this paper aims to show that nationalist sentiment also negatively impacts support for gender equality more widely.