Invisible Muslim Women: Gender-Specific Stereotypes of Muslims in Germany

Stereotypes about Muslims seem to rely on different public discourses: There is a strong association of Muslims and Islam with violence and terrorism, but there is also a discourse of submissiveness and oppression (cf. the wearing of headscarves). Still, Muslims are typically presented as a homogenous group and research on gender-specific stereotypes is missing. In this study, we compared stereotypes of Muslims, Muslim men and Muslim women with stereotypes of Germans, German men and German women, and of men and women. Using a free-response procedure, we analysed a total of 2,560 words or phrases generated by 256 German research participants. In line with Intersectionality Theory, results showed that each target group at the intersection of ethno/religiosity and gender elicited unique stereotypes that did not result from merely adding stereotypes of ethno/religiosity (e.g., Muslim) to stereotypes of gender (e.g., women). Furthermore, we found that stereotypes of Muslims were slightly more similar to stereotypes of Muslim men than to stereotypes of Muslim women, while stereotypes of men or women (ethno/religiosity unspecified) resembled stereotypes of German men and women more strongly than stereotypes of Muslim men and women. Muslim women seem to neither fit stereotypes of women, nor of Muslims, and they run the risk of being invisible in the debate on Muslims in western societies. These results show that stereotypes are diverse, and theory, research and practice should take the intersectionality of these social categories into account. [Co-Authored with Anette Rohmann, Agostino Mazziotta, & Maren Hotz, FernUniversität Hagen, Germany]