Title: Gender, education and terrorism

Authors: Jitka Malečková and Dragana Stanišić

Addresses: Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education – Economic Institute (CERGE-EI), P.O. Box 882, Politických vězňů 7, 111 21 Praha 1, Czech Republic ' Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education – Economic Institute (CERGE-EI), P.O. Box 882, Politických vězňů 7, 111 21 Praha 1, Czech Republic

Abstract: This paper examines the effect of gender and education on support for and the occurrence of international terrorism. We use the PEW 2007 Survey data on attitudes towards nine powers defined as 'target countries' and suicide terrorism in 16 Middle Eastern, African and Asian countries with predominantly Muslim populations ('source countries') and link it to the NCTC data on international terrorism originating from the source countries and directed against the nine target countries (China, Egypt, the European Union, India, Iran, Japan, Russia, Saudi Arabia and the USA). Analysing the demographic characteristics of the group of respondents relevant for the occurrence of terrorism we find that women with tertiary education who justify suicide bombing and have an unfavourable opinion towards the countries that are potential targets of international terrorism have a significant impact on the occurrence of terrorist acts. Our results challenge widespread views on the role of women and education in suppressing extremism and suggest that improving women's education is not sufficient to deter terrorism and should be accompanied by other steps.

Keywords: international terrorism; gender; education; public opinion; demographics; women; tertiary education; suicide bombing; terrorist acts.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEED.2014.059864

International Journal of Education Economics and Development, 2014 Vol.5 No.1, pp.40 - 65

Received: 16 Jan 2013
Accepted: 10 Sep 2013
Published online: 21 Jun 2014 *

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