Gender Social Relations and the Challenge of Women's Employment

Iran's government has tended to enforce gender social relations through both family and employment policies. Officially, women's employment is discouraged unless it is necessary for her family's survival, and the home is considered the best and the most suitable place for women. The state's discourse makes a sharp distinction between public and private spheres. Nonetheless, women's higher literacy rates and the increasing number of college educated women combined with high inflation, which has lowered both the purchasing power of middle and lower class households, and women's aspirations for financial independence and intellectual autonomy, have led them to seek paid employment. The most educated women target public administration or the private sector, while less educated women seek job opportunities in the informal sector of the economy. Decision-making authority within the family and the quest for gender equality in Iranian society are two of the outcomes of women's paid employment that is likely to alter gendered power relations.