Talapkerova, Lola2023-06-022023-06-022023Talapkerova, L. (2023). Religious beliefs, employment choices and gender norms. School of Sciences and Humanitieshttp://nur.nu.edu.kz/handle/123456789/7176Religious values do not disappear in modern society: they adapt and continue to shape the consciousness of people worldwide. This paper studies how religious beliefs influence people’s economic decisions and their gender attitudes in a religiously diverse South Korean society. A literature review on the subject suggests that, in theory, Buddhism should display a less ”worldly” orientation and ambiguous gender roles. At the same time, Christianity is associated with higher materialism and a more strict gender division of labor. However, the historical context reveals that Confucian patriarchal values heavily influenced both Catholicism and Buddhism in South Korea, while Protestantism reflects a more materialistic and less gender-discriminating worldview. We work with the data from the Korean General Social Survey from 2003 up to 2021. Multinomial probabilistic model and instrumental variable approach were used to examine the correlation between Korea’s three main religious denominations: Protestantism, Catholicism and Buddhism and people’s employment choices, income levels and gender division within families. Our findings align with the assumption that religious people tend to work less and share more strict gender norms. Both male and female practitioners are less likely to work full-time than atheists, and men are more likely to work part-time. Women of all religions have lower probabilities of earning higher than average income levels. Our results also reflect the Confucian influence on South Korean Buddhism and Catholicism, which resulted in a more traditional worldview: women in Buddhist and Catholic families are less likely to work than married Protestants and non-religious women.enAttribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United StatesType of access: RestrictedReligious beliefsemployment choicesgender normsMaster's thesis