Woman in Development and Politics
Year:2010 | Volume:8 | Issue:2 (29)|Papers Count:12

The survival of any society's political foundation hinges on the social values and beliefs of their ordinary citizens. Investigating into individuals’ political attitudes and values is a decisive step to grasp the nature and functions of a political system.Unprecedented promotion of women's political awareness, their participation in political domain and difference between women's and men's political attitudes have been some important political phenomena during the second half of the past century which designated numerous debates in the framework of gender gap in political attitudes. According to researchers' findings, since 1980s developed countries have been keeping aloof of traditional conservatism and approaching to liberal parties, while across the developing countries women have been remaining in the conservatory position.This study is a survey research conducted on Isfahan citizens during 2005 comparing women and men's liberal political attitudes. The Sample size consists of 382 residents who were selected on the basis of a quota sampling design by sex, age group and the urban region. Two subscales were used to measure the main constructs of the research. Using a second-order confirmatory factor model, non-conservative approach as the final construct was specified. In this research, descriptive perspectives were utilized which often believe that women have been more liberal than men during the recent years, and on the other hand, explanatory theories of differences between women and men were used which can be classified into two categories: The first one insists on structure and conditional factors which lead to different experiences of women and men. Some of the scientists and researchers such as McAllister and Lisa Hill can be categorized into this group. The second one emphasized on socio-psychological differences of women and men which reflect different socialization process of two sexes during childhood. The researchers and scientists such as Matt Whitehead and Alice Eagly can be categorized into this group.Based on the first perspectives, the relationship between political attitudes and job and educational status were examined. The statistical inferences indicated that during recent years, women like men are approached to non-conservative political orientations including liberal elements and democratic attitudes. In other words, there is a convergence between women's and men's political attitudes. We can not claim that women are more liberal than men (in the studied population) but according to significant difference of women's non-conservative scores by job and educational status, it can be confirmed that the entrance of women in labour market and changes of other social roles have influenced their political insights and behaviors. This result supports the conditional viewpoint. It should be noted that the more accurate judgment about changes of women's political attitudes in Iran need more extensive and deeper research.

Education is an investment to improve working ability and social activities of people. In the Iranian educational system, training of human resources (men or women) is done via theoretical and Technical - Vocational fields of study in the high schools. In fact the students’ future education and employment is ascertained by choosing the desired field of study at the end of first year of high school. In the other word, students’ higher education aspirations are directed by the fields of study at high school. They may opt for theoretical studies in which case they can continue such studies at University or they may choose a vocational study which prepares them for a technical job in future.The aim of this study is to investigate the gender structure of students in the high schools in the theoretical and Technical - Vocational fields and its effect on acceptance of male and female students in the universities.The theoretical framework under which this study is carried out is in accordance with human resources management theories. Descriptive methods are used for statistical evaluation.The results of this study show that although the male students' proportion was higher in the first grade of high school in all studied years, registration rate of girls for pre-university grade was more than that of boys. Our findings also show that although presence of girls has increased in the Technical - Vocational fields in the third development plan, boys have enjoyed greater opportunities and facilities for continuing education in these fields. Higher number of Technical-Vocational schools and higher diversity in the offered Technical-Vocational fields for boys are just some of these mentioned opportunities.Greater access and presence of boys in the Technical - Vocational fields and so lower access and presence of girls in these Technical - Vocational fields and their presence in the theoretical fields as a result, is a cause for gender gaps in the proportion of females over the males in pre-university education and higher acceptance of girls in the universities.

Nowadays taking women and their role in society into consideration is unavoidable and one of the biggest developments during the past 100 years is the increase in women's participation in economic & social affairs. In this way, it is important to consider the relationship between women’s participation in labor's Market as an important and affective factor in economic growth and fertility rates as an effective factor in population growth.The extent of women's participation in different affairs is the most important factor in the economic growth and development of a country.But in many developing countries especially in Middle East and North Africa women' role in economic and social activities is rather low.Statistics reveal that women's participation in labor force in these regions during 2004 is 27.1%, however for the OECD group countries this figure is 44.2% while the world average is equal to 40%. The figures illustrate the weakness in this group of countries in contrast to other regions and world's average.On the other hand, fertility rates in this region are very high in contrast with 20 other regions.Accordingly in 2004, in North Africa, Middle East the figure was 3 while in OECD countries it was equal to 1.6 with the world average mounting to 2.6.This paper evaluates the cause and effect relationship between fertility rate and women's role in labor force for Middle East and North African countries during 2004-1980. The study aims to find out whether there’s a relationship between fertility rate and women role in labor force. And provided there’s a relationship, does an increase in participation role have a decreasing effect on the fertility rate? Or on the contrary does a decreased fertility rate affect increased participation role?Hsiao causality test is used for research analysis, which is an improved granger causality test.Research results show that during the time interval and in the case study regions, the fertility rate changes affect women's role in labor force and so fertility rate is a cause of changes in women's role in labor force.Considering the results, we can identify the changes in women's roles that affect fertility rate.Accordingly, an increase in fertility rate can lead to a decrease in women’s labor force and consequently a decrease in their participation at work.Similarly, an increase in women’s employment and participation in economic affairs will lead to a decrease in the fertility rate.Bearing in mind the importance of the role of women as active population in a society, the research suggests that the studied countries should pave the way for an increase in women’s participation in various economic and social affairs and at the same time provide health services and facilities including education for fertility and birth control.

Nowadays, cities are faced with modern phenomena such as air pollution, traffic, risky driving and accidents brought up by modernism trends. Among these new phenomena, risky driving and accident are related to the human life and so should be considered in the context of human life. Driving behaviors are not distinct from other behaviors and in fact they are connected with other aspects of life which make up what we call lifestyle.Lifestyle is a choice of different practices within a structural situation. Healthy behaviors like other forms of social behavior are affected by agency and structure. Agency is the actor’s abilities to choose their behaviors whereas structure refers to the regularities in social interaction, symbolic social interaction, and access to resources that may constrain or empower choices. According to Cockerham, the structural situation such as age, gender, marital status and socio-economic status can limit choices of actors.The research sample consists of 450 young adults residing in Tehran and using factor analysis 8 factors underlying dimensions of lifestyle are identified. These dimensions include risky driving, car addiction, elegance- pleasure, cultural consumption, interest in social affair and physical activities, religious activity and alcohol consumption.The main hypothesis in this article focused on gender differences. Accordingly gender can limit the agency’s choices. Gender differences in driving behavior can differentiate women in the driving field. The findings showed that the mean of accident rate for women is lower than for men. Women drink less than men, they have higher cultural consumption and more interest in religious activities. In addition, our findings showed that women have healthier lifestyle than men.

The present article investigates and compares the situation of poor women exclusion based on variations and components of exclusion. The primary research question is whether social exclusion status among women of different groups, specially the employed/ unemployed and native/immigrant women, vary? Have the women been able to join intergroup networks through working outside home and receive support from such groups? Are poverty and social exclusion similar phenomena and occur together in the life of poor women?In order to collect data quantitative (survey) and qualitative (interview) methods were used. The main aspects of social exclusion, including exclusion from support networks, social relations, social participation, are measured. The statistical sample includes 169 women (who are under coverage of Komite- ye-Emdad, Malard villages, Shahriar). Taking advantage of inferential test, the difference in exclusion rate between groups is investigated in terms of employment (the employed –the unemployed) and residence (native-immigrant). The qualitative method is used to arrive at a profound understanding of women’s life experience in relation to some components of exclusion. A sample consisting of 51 women were determined purposefully based on various specifications, and interviewed.The results of social exclusion status among the two groups of native and immigrant women indicate that native poor women enjoy the strongest bonding support network in terms of supportiveness and, in other words, they experience the least exclusion in comparison with the immigrate women. Also, native poor women are more active in informal social activities than immigrant women.The results of the research indicate that participation of some women in labour market contributes to making intergroup ties and profiting from their sources. By virtue of the fact, the employed women enjoy the strongest and the most heterogeneous intergroup support network than those who are unemployed. Further, the economic activities of such women have provided more extensive supportive scope and more supportive sources.In other words, intergroup support networks for women are not often networks for getting ahead, but they are networks for getting by. Furthermore, the changing status of woman's employment in labour market and their problems in social relationships eliminate the possibility of accessing intergroup support networks.Moreover, findings of this research verify that social exclusion and poverty are not similar phenomena and don't occur necessarily together. These findings illustrate that although these women are poor according to Komite-ye-Emdad's indicators, but they are not excluded in all comparable dimensions and in the same degree.

Recent developments in leadership theories and styles have shifted interest from classic styles to transformational leadership style. This new style has become a popular model of leadership in most organizations especially, in educational organizations. Transformation occurs when one or more persons engage with others in such a way that leaders and followers raise one another to higher levels of motivations and morality. Bass (1985) mentioned that transformational leaders motivate followers to performance beyond expectations and he also suggested that there were four different components of transformational leadership including Intellectual Stimulation, Individualized Consideration, Inspirational Motivation, and Idealized Influence.Transformational leadership has been widely linked to positive individual and organizational consequences, typically, with higher trust in leader and organizational citizenship behavior of employees. Although a number of studies have investigated gender differences in leadership style but empirical evidence surrounding the gender differences in transformational leadership is relatively scarce. It has, however, been suggested that female leaders may be more transformational than males. Despite evidences which emphasis on female advantages, research about differences of male and female principals in transformational leadership and teacher related consequences have yielded contradictory findings. Therefore the question remains as whether women and men are equally likely to be transformational leaders or does one’s sex have a slight advantage? The purpose of this study is to examine gender differences in transformational leadership components of male and female principals and their effect on teacher trust in principal and organizational citizenship behavior. A sample including 200 female teachers and 36 female principals of girls' primary school and 200 male teachers and 41 male principals of boys' primary school of Tehran city were selected and data were collected through 3 questionnaires. Teachers answered the transformational leadership and teacher trust in principal questionnaire while the principals answered the organizational citizenship behavior questionnaire. Factorial analysis of variance was used to assess the gender differences in components of transformational leadership and path analysis was used to examine impact of components on teacher trust in principal and organizational citizenship behavior.Analysis of results indicated that mean of components in female principals was significantly higher than male principals. Results of path analysis showed that the impact of components of transformational leadership of female principals on trust in principal and organizational citizenship behavior is higher than that of male principals.Therefore Female principals' advantage in transformational leadership may be due to the following reasons:Females are perceived as transformational more often than males.Females as a group are relations-oriented and other-oriented than males.Females may be more devoted to individual follower development than males.Females highlight responsibility and care but males highlight rights and justice.Females tend to be less self-serving authoritarians than males.Females are less conforming, more self-confident, and more likely to take risks.Positive qualities such as sensitivity, nurturance, emotional expressiveness and individualized consideration are more associated with the feminine stereotype.Results of the study have positive implications for the women’s future in school administration position and also indicate that transformational leadership requires a gender balance rather than the traditional leadership stereotype of masculinity.

Women's tendency toward higher education has led to increasing demand for professional jobs. Thus women's employment is an undeniable reality of Iranian society in the upcoming years. Evidently, this process will have great effects on different social levels. Although, the consequences of women's employment have been studied by some researchers, there are few studies concerning impacts of employment on women's quality of life.This article examines the effects of employment on the “quality of life” among female employees by addressing the two following questions:- Does the employment including objective aspects of job, have any effect on women's quality of life? - Does the subjective aspect of job including job satisfaction have any effect on women’s quality of life? For this purpose 234 women working in the Minister of Agriculture were selected through proportionate stratified sampling and were interviewed accordingly.Among different objective aspects of job including years of working, type of employment, income, job position, job flexibility and homogeneity it was found that only “job flexibility” and “homogeneity between job and skills” had significant correlation with the quality of life. In fact the respondents holding a higher quality job enjoy a higher quality of life.Also, the findings showed that the mean of the total index of the respondents' quality of life equaled 1.9 out of a range of 1-3. There was also a significant relationship between job satisfaction and quality of life. The total index of “job satisfaction” explained 29% of the variance of the quality of life of employed women. In spite of some negative viewpoints regarding women's employment, the findings indicate that a positive job position and satisfaction improves women's life condition.Among contextual variables, “marital status” had a significant relationship with the quality of life, namely, the quality of life among married employees was lower than single ones.Finally, it can be concluded that empowerment of employed women is a necessity process through which they could make a better balance between family and job roles and improve their quality of life.

World fertility has declined dramatically during the past fifty years. Although fertility in developed countries decreased to very low levels until 1970 and mid 1980, but Asian countries experienced different fertility trends during the last 50 years. Today, different regions are experiencing different fertility levels in Asia. Despite diversity in fertility levels, tremendous fertility decline has been experienced during the last three decades.Regarding ethnical, cultural and religious diversity of Asian countries and the fact that different countries have experienced modernization and socio-economic development unequally, it is necessary to study fertility levels and role of women as human capital.This study is a secondary analysis. Statistical population consists of 24 East, South East, and South Central Asian countries. The data are taken from United Nations population Division, Asia Research Institute (ARI) and International Institute for Applied System Analysis (IIASA).The aim of this paper is to study the fertility levels and trends of these countries during 1970-2010, their convergence with world fertility, timing and intensity of fertility reduction, and finally changes in Women’s Human Capital (WHC) and its role in fertility convergence controlling the effect of contraception.This study covers two different periods of time. The research focused on the years 1970-2010 in order to explain levels, trends and fertility convergence in studied countries. Similarly the research focused on the years 1970 and 2007 to shed light on the role of women’s human capital on fertility changes. Variables includes women’s human capital index (WHCI) and modern contraception prevalence rate. The study utilized of factor analysis for constructing the index of women’s human capital.Results show that more than 70 percent of countries were in natural fertility situation in the first half of 1970s. After 1970, the difference between countries fertility levels and world fertility has narrowed gradually, so that from 1990, in more than 85 percent of countries fertility rates reduced to the rates lower than the world fertility levels. Pakistan, Laos, Tajikistan, and Philippine are the only countries with higher fertility levels comparing to the world in 2005-2010, and the value of their index of convergence is negative.According to this study, there are apparent differences among countries in women’s Human Capital in 1970 and 2010. Results of the correlation analysis show that the intensity of the correlation between WHC and fertility in 2007 is more than the corresponding value in 1970. In fact, despite the differences in Women’s Human Capital levels, countries had a homogenous fertility rate in 2007. Findings support the results of the previous research about the convergence of fertility in different socio-economic contexts.

Topics related to women, gender identity, its formation and alterations have become popular in socio-political and academic fields, thus leading to an enormous amount of progress in recent years.The rise of such issues is to a great extent a reflection of changes in the social life which has caused some predefined differences between identity and behavior styles of male and females.Over the past recent years developments and changes have taken place in the field of communication and cyberspace causing change in women’s social roles and awareness.Increasing women’s education and participation in the workplace can lead to reduced value of traditional role of women. This can bring up difficulties in coordinating the traditional and modern role of women causing contradiction in women’s identity.The aim of this article is to consider the effects of cyberspace on women’s identity in Iran. For this purpose, we are trying to answer the following question: to what extent the interaction in cyberspace has affected women’s identity?In order to answer the posed question it could be said that the interaction in cyberspace has caused the Iranian women to get distant from their traditional roles and identities.The data for the research was collected through a questionnaire. For the purpose of the research, we selected 200 girl students from university of Tehran.The theoretical framework used to explain women’s identity is based on Giddens and jenkins theory. These theories believe in age of globalization, spread of communication and information. Through such framework we can observe the kind of transformation from local identity to macro identity.The results of the research show that in spite of expansion of communication and information and the increased interaction of women in cyber space, transformation from local identity to macro identity in modern approach cannot be observed.Statistical analysis shows that there’s no significant relationship between independent variable (cyber space) and dependant variable (Iranian women identity). Interaction in cyber space has no significant impact on Iranian women’s cultural identity.

The research aims to identify needs, motivations and suitable occupations of working women in governmental sectors to improve their working motives. The research method is evaluation. The study focuses on the bio-psycho-social needs of Iranian working women in order to improve their motivation, as well as suitable or unsuitable occupations for Iranian women.The statistical sample consists of 762 employed women, selected randomly and 200 available clear-sighted persons. The research instruments are two researcher-made questionnaires. Intra-organizational questionnaire contains 35 items with 5 options that are based on the Likert scale. The questionnaire also includes an explanatory question and 7 statements with 4-6 options.Prior to the research a pilot study was conducted, and then 762 female governmental staff answered the questionnaire.External-organizational questionnaire consists of 20 items with 5 options based on Likert scale. This questionnaire also includes two explanatory questions. Similarly this questionnaire was primarily conducted on a pilot study. Following that 200 (half male and half female) experts completed the questionnaire.Results showed that, from the perspective of employed women bio-psycho-social needs such as financial needs, security feeling in their family, self actualization, social and occupational security, nondiscrimination, their roles reproduction should be considered in order to increase women’s participation motives. From the viewpoint of experts 7 job categories are completely suitable for women’s occupation, including educational, therapeutic, staff work, telephone answering (secretary), scientific, academic, investigative affairs, and servicing jobs. Accordingly 11 categories are fairly suitable, such as: financing and accounting, legislator, clientele, manufacturing, management, executive, military, technical and engineering, governorship, and presidency; and 6 ones such as jobs with frequent missions, judiciary , disciplinary, night shift, transportation affair, & specially suburban transport are inappropriate.95.92% of experts agree with the women’s occupation, because women have a potential in the country’s development.The other reasons included: governmental jobs provide more social prestige for women, government supports women more than men, governmental jobs prevent women's absurdity and uselessness, women are considered at the same level as men, governmental organizations are more secure for women, and governmental organizations fulfill women's individual and social needs. 4.08% of the experts-only men- were against women’s occupation, they justified their opposition by arguing that when women work their children are deprived of love and attention and even more women’s presence can bring up moral corruption at workplace.Finally the study concludes that by paying attention to women’s logical needs and demands, or the bio-psycho-social needs of women, and providing them with suitable occupations compatible with their natures, can increase their motivation and improve their working quality.