Abstract

It is argued that radical social reform is needed. Social customs and cultural perceptions must be changed in order for womens status in Iran to be improved. Change must be apparent in religion culture law and education. The educational system reinforces the stereotype of womens role as serving and sacrificing. Information in school textbooks and in mass media programming must reflect a more positive picture of womens role in the family in the job market and in social life. Three types of women as social actors are identified as having distinct social and cultural identities and class backgrounds. There are traditional Islamists modern Islamists and modern secularists. Traditional Islamists are usually middle class and believe the is the sole legitimate source of law the guiding principle of womens status. Most women professionals trained before the Islamic revolution are modernist secularists. Modernist Islamists are middle class highly educated and active in the job market. These women have a modern reading of the sharia and aim to facilitate womens access to the public sphere. This paper examines the occupational determinants of womens status. The role of modernists whether Islamic or secularist is traced from the period after the Islamic revolution and after 1986 through the period of reconstruction. Throughout both periods women in Iran experienced income disparities and inequalities in job privileges. After the revolution the sharia was implemented and gender inequality was institutionalized. Many professional women who were accused of holding Western values were forced out of the labor market. The state ideology on women was perpetuated in television programming and in the cinema. The rate of unemployment of urban women increased from 11% in 1976 to 30% in 1986. The high unemployment occurred despite womens higher educational status. By 1986 there was a shortage of professionals and an end to the purge of women professionals. Women were more active in the public sector after 1986 and the result was many positive effects in public and private spheres.

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