Muslims are Men, Christians are People

Quick: Imagine a Muslim person. What gender were they? If you imagined a man, you are not alone. All people are a combination of many different social identities based on categories such as religion, gender, race, or age. Some identities pop into mind more readily, often based on how common certain traits are in the population. For example, in North America, people are on average more likely to be White than any other identity, more likely to be able-bodied than in a wheelchair, and so on. Other identities are easier to imagine because they are more privileged in North American society. For example, male gender, heterosexual orientation, and younger adulthood are generally privileged over other identities. When certain identities are not mentioned, the mind will often fill in the blanks with more privileged identities. For example, when thinking about gay men, you may first think of a White, cisgendered, younger adult gay man. You may be less likely to think of an 80-year-old Black transman.

This combination of identities is called intersectionality, referring to the way that different identities intersect with each other. The intersection of identities can change the way we think about a group.  For example, when you think of women as a general category, you may have different thoughts about women based on their other identities. Do you mean young White women or older Black women? You likely have different stereotypes about these two groups. My colleagues and I were curious about how stereotypes might be shaped by the combined gender and religion of a person.

Research done on stereotypes in the United States generally finds that Christians are thought of having certain traits: kind, charitable, conservative, judgmental, and closed-minded. Muslims are often described with different traits: religious, prayerful, strict, and terroristic. There is little research on this topic, however, and very little looks at whether these religious stereotypes might be different for male and female members of the faith. Are stereotypes of Christians the same as stereotypes of Christian men and Christian women? And how might stereotypes of Muslims differ from stereotypes of Muslim men and Muslim women?

We set out to answer these questions from the ground up. Across several studies, we invited non-Muslim American participants to think about how gender and religion intersect. We had a roughly equal number of men and women take part, with about three-quarters identifying as White, and roughly half identifying as Christian. In one study, these participants were asked to simply tell us what traits they thought of when imagining different groups. They listed traits for three of eight possible groups: Christians, Muslims, Christian men, Christian women, Muslim men, Muslim women, men, or women. We counted how many times a particular trait was used to describe that group and whether there were any differences in religious and gender stereotypes.

Not surprisingly, there were unique stereotypes of gendered religious identities. For example, Muslim women were described as oppressed, mistreated, and quiet, although these were not stereotypes given to Muslims in general or women in general. Christian women were described as submissive, self-righteous, and pure—traits not found in general Christian or women stereotypes.

We also looked at stereotypes of groups whose identities were at the intersection of their gender and religious identities. General Muslim stereotypes shared 80% of traits with Muslim men but only 20% with Muslim women. In comparison, Christian stereotypes shared 60% of traits with Christian men and 50% with Christian women stereotypes. This suggests that when (non-Muslim) American people think of Muslims, they are mostly imagining a male rather than a female member. When people think of Christians, however, they are imagining men and women equally.

In another study, participants chose which pairs of overlapping circles best reflected how they thought about the similarity between an intersectional identity (for example Muslim men) and each of its larger, general categories (Muslims, men). Muslims as a general category were thought to overlap more strongly with a male concept than a female concept, but Christians were thought to overlap equally with male and female concepts. Using yet a different approach, we asked participants (again recruiting non-Muslim American men and women) to move a slider on the computer screen representing a religious identity (Muslim or Christian) toward either a male or female endpoint. They moved the Muslim slider closer to the male end of the scale, whereas they left the Christian slider pretty much in the middle. In sum, Americans have a very male-dominated stereotype of Muslims but a more gender-neutral stereotype of Christians.

What is the Real-Life Significance of This?

Muslim women may be the victim of "intersectional invisibility"—they may be overlooked because they are not the prototype of their faith or their gender. When talking about Muslims, non-Muslim/White Americans may be imagining Muslim men unless specifically directed to consider Muslim women. It's not that people don't have clear stereotypes and beliefs about Muslim women, it's rather that they won't think of them unless reminded to. This becomes problematic as the world becomes increasingly diverse and integrated, where those with many marginalized identities may have their unique identities dismissed or forgotten.

For Further Reading

Crenshaw, K. (1991). Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, identity politics, and violence
against women of color. Stanford Law Review, 43, 1241-1299. https://www.jstor.org/stable/1229039

Erentzen, C., Bergstrom, V.N., Zeng, N., & Chasteen, A. (2022). The gendered nature of Muslim and Christian religious stereotypes in the United States. Group Processes and Intergroup Relations. https://doi.org/10.1177/13684302221138036

Purdie-Vaughns, V., & Eibach, R.P. (2008). Intersectional invisibility: The distinctive advantages and disadvantages of multiple subordinate-group identities. Sex Roles, 59, 377-391. DOI: 10.1007/s11199-008-9424-4

Caroline Erentzen is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Toronto Metropolitan University. She studies how social identity intersects with the law and other systems to shape experiences of prejudice and victimization.