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Research

What does it mean to be a Muslim young woman in Britain today?

Ursula McKenna & Leslie Francis

Research Summary

What does it mean to be a Muslim young woman in Britain today? With which religious and social values do these young women identify? This research tests the idea that Muslim identity involves having particular values, among female adolescents (13 to 15 years of age). The data demonstrate that for these female adolescents, self-identification as Muslim meant a distinctive profile in terms both of religiosity and social values.

Researchers

Ursula McKenna & Leslie Francis

Research Institution

University of Warwick

What is this about?

  • What values do young Muslim women in Britain have?
  • How can their religiosity be described?
  • Do young Muslim women in Britain have a particular profile, in relation to values and religiosity?

What was done?

The young Muslim women participated in a survey conducted across the four nations of the United Kingdom. From the 11,809 participants in the survey, the research compares the responses of 177 female students who self-identified as Muslim with the responses of 1183 female students who self-identified as religiously unaffiliated. Comparisons are drawn across two themes,
religiosity and social values.

Main findings and outputs

  • Religious identity is important to young Muslim women in Britain: 84% agreed that this is so, and 88% said that being Muslim was the most important factor in their identity.
  • Further, they tend to be surrounded by family and friends who think religion to be important.
  • Nearly three quarters regarded themselves as a religious person (71%) but only one quarter regarded themselves as a spiritual person (26%).
  • At least three in every five often talked about religion with their mother (66%) and slightly less frequently with their father (49%).
  • Studying religion at school had helped 90% to understand people from other religions and 81% to understand people from different racial backgrounds. 78% found learning about different religions in school interesting, and 68% found studying religion at school had shaped their views about religion.
  • 89% believed in God, 94% believed in heaven, and 89% believed in hell.
  • The majority supported the views that we must respect all religions (94%) and that all religious groups in Britain should have equal rights (90%).
  • 82% agreed that having people from different religious backgrounds made their school an interesting place.

Relevance to RE

There are two main ways in which this research is relevant to RE. Firstly, the findings can help teachers to be accurate when teaching about Islam in Britain today. Secondly, they can help teachers to understand the values and views likely to be held by their own female Muslim pupils.

Generalisability and potential limitations

These findings are generalisable, arising from a large survey analysed with high expertise.

Find out more

Ursula McKenna & Leslie J. Francis (2019) Growing up female and Muslim in the UK: an empirical enquiry into the distinctive religious and social values of young Muslims, British Journal of Religious Education, 41:4, 388-401.

https://doi.org/10.1080/01416200.2018.1437393 (open access)

 

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