Missionary Legacies of Gender Equality: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract What is the long-term influence of Christian missions in colonial Africa on gender equality? Combining novel data on the locations and gender composition of European-run missions with contemporary social surveys on c. one million respondents in 28 African countries, we find that missionary presence is associated with greater present-day (i) educational gender equality, and (ii) women’s household autonomy, but (iii) no decrease in gender disparities in labor market participation. Contrary to previous studies, these long-term effects are not driven by Protestant-Catholic differences or a greater presence of Western female Protestant missionaries, whose early influence on African girls’ education dissipated after the colonial era. We argue that policies promoting universal education, along with the continued feminization of the teaching profession, disrupted the gender-specific legacy of colonial Africa’s early centers of female education.