• DOI:10.1177/097152150701500110
• Corpus ID: 144486202

Gender and Employment in Iran

@article{Mollahosseini2008GenderAE,
  title={Gender and Employment in Iran},
  author={Ali Mollahosseini},
  journal={Indian Journal of Gender Studies},
  year={2008},
  volume={15},
  pages={159 - 162}
}

• A. Mollahosseini
• Published 1 January 2008
• Economics
• Indian Journal of Gender Studies

In 2001 women in Iran numbered 32.99 million out of a total population of 64.90, that is, over 50 per cent of the country’s population. With increase in the age at marriage and in educational levels, women’s workforce participation rate went from 9.1 per cent in 1996 to 14 per cent in 2004. Women’s share of general managerial positions is 5.32 per cent, but that in middle managerial positions is only 1.4 per cent. Job opportunities have not grown fast enough, and urban women’s unemployment doubled during the period 1996–2004 and was over 24.5 per cent (Sadeghi 2004). Managerial and political participation of women is negligible—a few years ago, the overall share of Congresswomen in the Islamic Republic of Iran was only 2 per cent (Nouri 1997). The country’s population, with an increase of 62 per cent, was projected to reach 97 million in 2021, and the rate of growth of youth more than the rate of growth of the total population. In addition, in recent years, young people’s outlook has changed from a traditional to a modern one, and this has increased their opportunity costs. On the one hand this has led to a decrease in the birth rate through population control; on the other had it has led to the increased presence of women in the job market, and thus to their financial independence. Increasingly, financial pressures as well as the growth of consumption in recent years have caused more women to look for jobs to help meet their families’ expenditure.