Your working paper ‘Parental religiosity, educational attainment, and gender equality’ examines how parental religiosity influences children’s education. Could you explain the novelty of your research? How did you analyse the complex interplay between parental religiosity, gender, and children’s education?
My research explores how parents’ religious beliefs influence their children’s educational opportunities, particularly in relation to gender disparities. While education is a key driver of economic and social mobility, cultural norms, socioeconomic conditions, and religious beliefs shape educational choices in complex ways.
Although previous studies have examined the association between religion and education, isolating the effects of parental religiosity has been challenging. Religious parents may differ from less religious parents in ways that also influence education—such as income levels, traditional gender norms, or access to resources. If a child from a religious family receives less schooling, is it due to their parents’ beliefs or because their family prioritises early marriage over education? Similarly, religious families may live in rural areas with fewer schooling options, making it difficult to separate the impact of religiosity from geographical constraints. We, empiricists, call this ‘the endogeneity problem’, specifically omitted variable bias—when unobserved factors affect both religiosity and education, making it difficult to determine the true causal effect and, consequently, to design effective education policies.
When it comes to Turkey, where my research is focused, these dynamics are quite evident. Additionally, past policies, such as the headscarf ban in schools, have negatively impacted female education rates, particularly at the secondary school level, due to parents’ concerns about preserving cultural and religious values. To better understand these mechanisms, I leverage Turkey’s historical experience with mass education, particularly in primary schooling, where children have not yet reached puberty and girls are not required to wear a headscarf.
My research examines the role of parental religiosity using a novel measurement approach, leveraging the within-year variation in Ramadan fasting duration across Turkish provinces as a natural experiment. Since the Islamic calendar shifts annually, the length of daily fasting differs across Turkish provinces based on latitude and season. The shifting Islamic calendar naturally varies fasting durations across provinces, allowing me to measure parental religiosity’s impact on education. Specifically, total fasting duration across provinces can vary by up to 30 hours in a year. Using Turkish census data, I examine the effects of fasting duration in the enrolment year on primary school completion outcomes for individuals born between 1924 and 1984.
Based on your research findings, do parents’ religiosity influence children’s educational outcomes?
My findings reveal that increased parental religiosity negatively impacts children’s educational attainment. Parental religiosity, measured through fasting duration during enrolment years, reduces primary school completion. The effects are stronger for girls than for boys, underscoring the greater implications of increased religiosity for women. My findings remain consistent even when I compare same-sex siblings.
In my study, I also aimed to understand whose beliefs among parents matter more in the enrolment decision. To examine this, I calculated how long the father and mother had been exposed to religious fasting before making the enrolment decision for their children. While both parents play a role, fathers’ religious beliefs have a greater influence on school enrolment decisions—a reflection of traditional family structures where fathers often have more decision-making power. Interestingly, mothers’ influence on enrolment weakens if the child is a boy, suggesting that fathers’ preferences dominate when it comes to sons’ schooling.
To better understand how religiosity affects children’s primary school outcomes, I digitised historical province-level education data, capturing school resources such as school size, teacher gender composition, and education quality (e.g., number of teachers or schools per school-aged child). My findings indicate that changes in fasting duration do not affect these school characteristics, meaning that educational infrastructure—requiring long-term state commitment—remains resilient to short-term religiosity shocks. Since Turkey is a secular country, at least in legislation, parents’ enrolment decisions are unlikely to be driven by school resources or quality. Additionally, I analysed grade advancement rates to determine whether religiosity influences student performance or dropout rates once a child is enrolled. The results suggest that once students enter the school system, parental influence is limited, reinforcing the idea that religiosity affects enrolment decisions rather than academic environment and success.
Could you share the main insights from your research on the consequences of parental religiosity on fertility and labour market participation for girls and boys?
My research shows that parental religiosity has lasting effects on both labour market participation and fertility, and these effects are particularly pronounced for women. Women whose parents experienced longer Ramadan fasting durations during their school enrolment year are less likely to participate in the labour force as adults. In contrast, men’s labour market participation remains largely unchanged. This suggests that increased religiosity reinforces traditional gender roles, where men continue as primary earners while women are more likely to assume domestic responsibilities.
I also find that cumulative exposure to parental religiosity further decreases female labour force participation, especially when mothers are more religious. However, the same pattern does not hold for fathers—there is no statistically significant link between fathers’ religiosity and daughters’ labour market participation.
When it comes to fertility, I observe that religiosity does not influence whether a woman becomes a mother, but it does affect family size. Women exposed to higher levels of parental religiosity during childhood are more likely to have larger families, particularly three or more children. This finding aligns with broader patterns observed in religious communities, where family structures tend to emphasise higher fertility rates.
Overall, these results highlight how parental religiosity continues to shape gender roles well into adulthood, influencing both economic participation and family life. While men’s employment patterns remain stable, women are more likely to leave the workforce and have larger families, reinforcing traditional norms that persist over generations.
What could the main policy implications of your research be, not only for Turkey but also more broadly?
A key takeaway from my study is that education policies must engage religious communities to address concerns about the values taught in schools. Many parents see formal education as conflicting with their religious beliefs, making community-driven discussions and inclusive curriculum design essential. However, policies must also challenge gender norms that limit girls’ educational opportunities. Parental education initiatives that highlight the long-term benefits of schooling and targeted scholarships for girls in religious households can help improve retention rates.
While integrating religious courses into school curricula may seem like a solution, it comes with trade-offs. Such courses often reinforce religious values, shaping attitudes toward education and gender roles in ways that persist across generations. The recent debate in Texas over Bible readings in public schools highlights the complexities of mixing religious instruction with state education. Schools play a crucial role in fostering shared values, and as societies become increasingly polarised, the question should be how to cultivate morality and global citizenship without undermining inclusivity, critical thinking, and academic neutrality.
Ultimately, my research highlights how parental religiosity reinforces traditional gender norms, increasing fertility rates while limiting women’s workforce participation. Since this phenomenon creates economic inefficiencies, encouraging broader discussions on gender roles within religious communities is essential for fostering greater equality in education and beyond.
Melike Kokkizil is a part-time Assistant Professor and a Max Weber Fellow affiliated to the EUI Department of Economics. Melike is an applied microeconomist with a keen interest in the subjects at the intersection of gender economics, cultural economics, and political economy. In her first year as a Max Weber Fellow, she deepened and expanded her research on parental religiosity, educational attainment, and gender equality, and worked on the digitization of historical data for her study. In April 2025, Melike will be teaching a course on the ‘Economics of Religion’ at the EUI Department of Economics.