This article investigates how cultural and material factors can explain disparities observed in different forms of gender inequality between and within nations. Using data from multiple sources, the author constructs a panel dataset that includes 150 country-year observations nested in 70 countries, covering 23 years from 1991 to 2013. Through estimating hybrid panel models, this article discovers that more secular countries have lower maternal mortality ratios, higher female labor force participation rates, greater shares of parliamentary seats held by women, higher rates of women with completed secondary education, and smaller shares of the total population who adhere to inequitable gender attitudes. Moreover, from a longitudinal perspective, secularization is the only predictor of declined maternal mortality ratios and increased female parliamentary representation within a country. Interactive models suggest that further secularization within high-income nations can increase maternal mortality ratios. Furthermore, secularization’s equalizing effect on parliamentary representation moderates as countries become more affluent.

本文调查了文化和物质因素如何解释在国家之间和国家内部不同形式的性别不平等中观察到的差异。作者利用多个来源的数据构建了一个面板数据集，该数据集包含嵌套在 70 个国家的 150 个国家年观测值，涵盖 1991 年至 2013 年的 23 年。 本文通过估计混合面板模型，发现更多世俗国家的孕产妇死亡率较低、更高的女性劳动力参与率、女性在议会中所占比例更大、完成中学教育的女性比例更高，以及坚持不公平性别态度的总人口比例更小。此外，从纵向来看，世俗化是一个国家内孕产妇死亡率下降和女性议会代表人数增加的唯一预测因素。互动模型表明，高收入国家的进一步世俗化会增加孕产妇死亡率。此外，随着国家变得更加富裕，世俗化对议会代表权的均等化影响会减弱。