Valuing Work, Valuing Family: British Muslim Women and the Labour Market

Tuesday, 25 November 2008 18:54

A new study produced by the Young Foundation and the London Development Agency and written by Zamila Bunglawala, looks at British Muslim women and the labour market.

The study finds that 51% of second generation British Muslim women are inactive in the labour market compared to 17% of second generation Hindu women and that 13% of Muslim women are unemployed compared to 4% of Hindu and Sikh and 3% of white women.

The low levels of participation in employment and ways to remedy this are the basis of the study.

The study finds that British Muslim women face distinct barriers to finding work and that 43% of those that are currently inactive have faced some level of discrimination in their job search because of their religion.

Direct and indirect religious discrimination are very real problems faced by Muslim women and among recommendations made in the report is the need for employers to work with equality bodies to produce guidance on respecting faith in the workplace, to create open forums for employees to comfortably discuss religious matters, and to take a harder line on cases involving discrimination on grounds of religion.

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