International Journal of Educational Development 25 (2005) 481–492 Women’s schooling and religious affiliation in Malawi at the end of the twentieth century Henry V. Doctor University of the Western Cape, Department of Statistics, Private Bag X 17, Bellville 7535, South Africa Abstract This paper examines the association between religious affiliation and women’s schooling in Malawi. Using data from the nationally representative 2000 Demographic and Health Survey, results show that there are substantial differences in the acquisition of schooling by religious affiliation. More nonreligious and Muslim women reported that they had never been to school compared with women from Church of Central African Presbyterian and Catholic denominations. Further, our findings suggest that a woman’s schooling is strongly influenced by her urban childhood residence and an increase in age at first marriage. These findings are related to the association of Christian groups with Western societies and religions that emphasize evangelization and recourse to schooling. Recommendations for further direction in research are discussed. r 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Comparative education; Religion; Malawi; Sub-Saharan Africa 1. Introduction The relationship between religious involvement and human behavior has been extensively studied mostly in developed countries. Recently, and mostly in developed countries such as the United States, there has been growing interest among re- searchers in studies dealing with religion and its association with a number of social and demogra- phic processes such as fertility, marriage, and edu- cational attainment (Simons, 1980; Lesthaeghe, 1983; Jeffrey and Jeffrey, 1997; Brewster et al., 1998; Mosher et al., 1992; Obermeyer, 1992). In sub-Saharan Africa, this interest has been moti- vated in part by the availability of data and the resurgence of charismatic churches during the 1990s. Little is known about the extent to which religion influences schooling of women in less developed countries (LDCs) and in Malawi in particular. In most parts of sub-Saharan Africa, where women’s schooling lags behind than that of men, not much has been written about the connection between religion and women’s school- ing. The only studies that are available deal with gender differences in primary schooling of youth ARTICLE IN PRESS www.elsevier.com/locate/ijedudev 0738-0593/$ - see front matter r 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ijedudev.2005.01.001 E-mail address: hdoctor@uwc.ac.za.