Woman in Development and Politics
Year:2007 | Volume:5 | Issue:1|Papers Count:9

The ongoing women's poverty and gender discrimination, owing to various cultural and historical constraints on their socio-economic status and advancement, has raised different approaches in the literature, namely women's empowerment. Within a conceptual framework of poverty and empowerment this paper intends to probe into different facets of the empowerment of women-headed households, as one of the most important groups subjected highly to poverty risk, in the city of Tehran.The study reveals that women's individual features (characteristics) have a significant effect on their poverty. In addition, women's poverty has multiple dimensions: economic, social and psychological, so, they should be taken into account in any gender and poverty analysis. According to the findings, in spite of some measures and efforts by different poverty-alleviating organizations in the framework of assistance schemes or projects, yet women's empowerment needs a long way to be realized. The reason for this, the paper argues, lies in characteristics of the approach (es) dominating these efforts, their low level quantity as well as women's poor capability. The paper concludes that in order to eliminate or alleviate women's poverty and gender inequality, and change women's socio-economic status, a structural development is necessary.

To explain the differences between the familial roles in men and women, this article has tried to analyze the perception of employed individuals, both men and women, towards their familial duties, their performance, as well as the possible gap between perceived and performed roles.The study is based on a survey. The sample population of the research constitutes employed married men and women residing in Tehran. The sample is selected from research centers of state university and industrial centers in the city of Tehran. The research shows that: a) the division of labor in housework is based on gender roles, b) the attitude of men and women about their duties and their roles in the family differs consequently, c) The gap between perceived and performed roles is greater for women than for men.It is also possible to conclude from the research that men are in charge of decision making and the financial matters in the family while it is expected for women to stay at home to take care of children; but as the children grow up the role of men with regards to children is increased.

In most of the cultures the issue of femininity has not been paid attention adequately. It is while the young girls’ perception of femininity and the way that they adopt and perform the related values is an important issue. In this research a purposeful random sample has been selected and 35 girls aged 14 to 18 were included in the study. The result of research shows that the femininity in the young girls is depended on the acceptance of roles and norms which are assumed suitable for their social position and their age circumstances. Besides the study shows that the perception of young girls about the values related to femininity and gender roles is influenced by stereotypes and conventional perception which exists in the society. The study also reveals that although the young girls are concerned about the social activities but they stick to the gender stereotypes as well.

On one hand having undergone many remarkable structural and value changes and on the other hand considering the disorganized and uncoordinated social condition of the subsystems, marriage is conceived as one of the prominent social problems. So, this paper seeks to explore the attitudes of unmarried youth towards marriage and its problematic nature.The results demonstrate that the youth's tendency towards marriage in lower age has decreased and almost 90 percent of youth believe that male marriage depend on having a job and financial possibilities. Also, more than half of the youth maintain that the best age for marriage would be after university graduation and gaining economic autonomy which, in turn, show the value changes and transformation.Regarding the problematic nature of marriage, youth believe that many factors may affect marriage so as it to be considered a social problem among which the unemployment (lack of permanent job) is the most important factor.To solve this problem and as a strategy for reducing the pathological impacts stemming from the current problematic nature of marriage in Iran, the temporary marriage strategy has been suggested. In this respect, the findings show that the temporary marriage strategy is not socially accepted among the youth and is perceived in opposition to their value orientation.

The present study seeks to describe the acceptance rate of gender-related stereotypes (GRS) by young males and females. It also analyses the impact of socio-familial factors on acceptance rate. The study was conducted through a survey method. 425 young males and females (out of 10944) who were under training in the Vocational Training Centers in the Mazandaran province were selected randomly by means of multi stage random sampling method and completed a self-administered questionnaire. Gender-related stereotypes were considered as dependent variable and socio-familial factors as independent variables.The findings of the study showed that there were significant gender differences in the acceptance rate of GRS. However, instrumental traits such as; being active, full of energy, independent, aggression, management,  being strong, and powerful have been attributed to men, whereas such expressive traits as emotional, being sensitive, attractive, peaceful, anxious, disturbed, dependent, forbearing and patient have been ascribed to women. Furthermore, there were significant associations between the acceptance rate of GRS with gender, place of residence, level of education, family income, and severity of parents. Finally, the multivariate regression analysis of data revealed that the acceptance rate of GRS was under influence of marital status, socio-economic status of family, traditional gender-related attitude, and traditional job-related attitude.

This article is concerned with women's representation in a Television Advertisement. The main question posed here is the manner of representing a female's image so that her cultural reproduction leads to "symbolic annihilation" in the society.A great part of representations in the advertisements depict women as stock cultural roles.In this article, we studied an advertisement which unlike other commercials represented women in new roles, and at the same time; in this form of representation we were encountered with a troubled woman.Thus, a subject (concept) of "Iranian modern woman" is constructed which corresponds, fully, to the "Iranian traditional woman" subject conditions.As a result, in spite of superficial transformations in women's life, the womanhood is still, accordingly, defined as "otherness of manhood".

This article explores the primitive ideas supporting the equality between men and women in Arab Society after the movement. The scientific advances in the West during the nineteenth century as well as their impact on the Arab world combined with the social conditions of Arab countries and their backwardness contributed to the increasing social demands of women. The impact of this new wave was primarily observed amongst the Arab intellectuals particularly the poets. While such ideas were being reflected in the literature, the opposing views based on tradition objected to the penetration of these ideas in the Islamic world.One of the poets who introduced new ideas about Muslim women to Iraq society is Jamil Sedqi Zahavi. This article is trying to reveal the challenges facing his thoughts. 

This article investigates women's status in the Nobel Prize Foundation between the periods 1901 to 2006 as well as twenty Academies of Sciences in twenty countries. The data obtained from the Foundation and also the questionnaires used reveal that female elite scientists constituted a small portion of the elite societies so that during 1901 to 2006 almost four percent of the Nobel Laureates and on average about 10 percent of permanent members of 20 Academies of sciences were women. Despite many theoretical and empirical investigations on the status of female elite scientists in the elite societies, this research has tried to illustrate lack of women's presence in Academies of twenty countries. The present work contains the following results as well: it illustrates the existing and available theoretical studies and suggests a multi-level model for social explanation into the status of women in science.