arbiter
JournalsAccount

Missionary Legacies of Gender Equality: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa

Bastian Becker & Felix Meier zu Selhausen

European Review of Economic History2025https://doi.org/10.1093/ereh/heaf007article
AJG 3ABDC A
Weight
0.46

Abstract

What is the long-term influence of Christian missions in colonial Africa on gender equality? Combining novel data on the locations and gender composition of European-run missions with contemporary social surveys on c. one million respondents in 28 African countries, we find that missionary presence is associated with greater present-day (i) educational gender equality, and (ii) women’s household autonomy, but (iii) no decrease in gender disparities in labor market participation. Contrary to previous studies, these long-term effects are not driven by Protestant-Catholic differences or a greater presence of Western female Protestant missionaries, whose early influence on African girls’ education dissipated after the colonial era. We argue that policies promoting universal education, along with the continued feminization of the teaching profession, disrupted the gender-specific legacy of colonial Africa’s early centers of female education.

4 citations

Open via your library →

Cite this paper

https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1093/ereh/heaf007

Or copy a formatted citation

@article{bastian2025,
  title        = {{Missionary Legacies of Gender Equality: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa}},
  author       = {Bastian Becker & Felix Meier zu Selhausen},
  journal      = {European Review of Economic History},
  year         = {2025},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1093/ereh/heaf007},
}

Paste directly into BibTeX, Zotero, or your reference manager.

Flag this paper

Missionary Legacies of Gender Equality: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa

Flags are reviewed by the Arbiter methodology team within 5 business days.

Evidence weight

0.46

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.37 × 0.4 = 0.15
M · momentum0.60 × 0.15 = 0.09
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.