Woman in Development and Politics
Year:2010 | Volume:8 | Issue:3 (30)|Papers Count:11

The concept of gender gap entails much wider aspects than is commonly believed.Gender inequality in the world has caused many problems for countries in terms of having access to sustained development; reduction of economic growth as the result of gender inequality is an example. People in the third world countries suffer much more. In addition, one may be concerned about gender equity as a development goal in its own right (apart from its beneficial impact on other development goals).A variety of factors lead to gender inequality. Economic factors such as inequality in access to labor market, property ownership, income earning and control upon it, inequality in access to income and credit can be important factors. However, social factors are just as important, which can consequently give rise to many kinds of economic, social and legal inequalities. In many countries, discrimination against women is deeply rooted in social institutions, long-lasting codes of conduct, norms, and traditions. Informal and formal laws determine gender outcomes in education, health, political representation and labor markets. Cultural norms about gender roles are considered to be endogenous and can generate gender inequality and low development. Indeed, when gender gap is internalized, it leads to non egalitarian views about gender roles. Due to such beliefs, boys receive more education and thus the initial gender gap is reinforced. The World Bank refers to gender inequality traps as a major obstacle for economic development (WDR 2006). The present article allows for a better understanding of the persistence of such traps and the means to escape.Moreover, it highlights the negative relationship between gender inequality and development. The study illustrates that gender inequality traps are associated with low economic performance and that cultural norms play a vital role in the consistence of such traps. The main purpose of this article is to investigate the basic criteria of gender inequality as it discusses their structural problems. The main theoretical frameworks discussed in this paper include modernization – neoclassic, Bosrup attitude and Women in Development strategy.As this is a descriptive research it takes advantage of library sources and internet. The results of the study reveal that gender inequality in education hampers reducing the rate of fertility and child mortality.The research illustrates that different kinds of gender inequality can be observed across the world and particularly Iran. The main focus is however on social factors as the key factors that create gender gap in any society. The result shows that policies promoting equal access to education as well as anti-discriminatory policies would evade inequality trap. However, some poverty-evading policies could increase the probability of a non egalitarian situation. Finally, the present article provides testable findings on the relationship between gender inequality with social and economic development.

Over the recent years, technology as an asset in today's world has inflicted change regarding the traditional concept of the role of man and woman. ICT as a pioneer in bringing about changes in people's lives has witnessed technological innovations and synthesis of information and communication, thus leading to information and knowledge-oriented society that is free from any sexual preferences. Internet as an outstanding example of ICT has gained momentum in women's life. Accordingly women once deprived of a role in power relations can now enjoy such facilities in order to improve their job quality and status. This research is predominantly aimed at examining the role of internet in reducing traditional, social and cultural pressures in their career and family life at home. This study is based on qualitative research method and through interview it analyzes the impact of cyberspace on female professors of Tehran University.Women who enjoy internet facilities have experienced reduced pressure in their traditional roles as well as being able to overcome paradoxes of family life and career. The results indicate that application of internet can act as a managerial tool in reducing the paradoxes of family life and career of women while creating a balance between these two sides. Since internet provides an opportunity for women to connect with other female experts from around the globe, they are less organizationally dependant and thus have more time for greater independence in their career. Married female specialists who simultaneously play mother and spouse roles, face greater challenges when fulfilling their roles. Career and family life are not necessarily homogenous. Thus when an individual shoulders more than one responsibility, she will try to schedule and plan her activities. This naturally leads to improved planning skill and management techniques. In the face of all challenges and paradoxes, internet can serve as a management tool.Technology can be used to reduce women's problems when dealing with family affairs. It enables women to play two roles simultaneously and as a result creates a balance whereby success in one does not lead to failure in the other.In addition internet enables women to enjoy life greater and have more pleasure. Material requirements including that of gender roles could have a debilitating role and act as obstacle against female specialists' career development.However, as the research shows diverse applications of internet helped reshape these necessities while decreasing the pressure in women's career. Some examples of internet applications by expert women include checking their children's educational attainment on the school website, presentation of their papers through internet and etc. Thus the study proves that using internet will lead to reduced conflict between a woman's professional and gender roles so creating a balance to help them shoulder both responsibilities simultaneously.

The third millennium has witnessed an outstanding development of technology and industry which has consequently led to increasing job specialization on one hand and growth of job stress on the other hand. Research has found out that stress has direct effect on human beings in terms of psychological, physical, and familial activities.“The professional staff in human service institutions is often required to spend considerable time in intense involvement with other people. Frequently, the staff-client interaction is centered on the client's current problems (psychological, social, and/or physical) and is therefore charged with feelings of anger, embarrassment, fear or despair. With people under such circumstances, the chronic stress can be emotionally draining and poses the risk of ' burnout' (Maslash and Jakson, p, 981. P.101). A number of jobs are very sensitive due to the specific responsibilities and duties that the person in charge is undertaking. Surgery and specialties like obstetrics and gynecology are among those professions. In Iran, regarding this field of study, the majority of specialists are female. This research was prompted by issues regarding career tensions and the family responsibilities of female specialists at home. "Burnout" is a psychological term for the experience of long-term exhaustion and diminished interest.Research indicates general practitioners have the highest proportion of burnout cases. However, burnout is not a recognized disorder. The well-studied measurement of burnout in the literature is the Maslach Burnout Inventory.Maslach and her colleague Jackson first identified the construct "burnout" in the 1970s, and developed a measure that weighs the effects of emotional exhaustion and reduced sense of personal accomplishment. The goal of this research is to study the relationship between Job Burnout and Couple Burnout among female physicians. The study is a quantitative research and it makes use of Maslash and Jackson questionnaire which have been pretested and tested since 1981.The study uses SPSS software for analyzing the research questions.The statistical population consists of female obstetricians and gynecologists employed at the hospitals in Tehran.200 female physicians working at the hospitals in Tehran are randomly selected. Two questionnaires are used in this study, one is Maslash and Jackson, Job Burnout Questionnaire (1981) and the other is Panize Couple Burnout (1996). Job Burnout Questionnaire comprises of 22 questions and evaluates emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and loss of personal accomplishment within the framework of professional activities. Marriage Burnout Questionnaire includes 21 questions that covered the three subjects of emotional exhaustion, mental fatigue, and physical tiredness. Data analysis is based on descriptive and presumption statistics. The findings of this research demonstrate that female physicians are suffering from extreme tension and job burnout. The outcome of this study has revealed that there is an inherent relationship between job burnout and couple burnout. Consequently, the results of this research express the point that female physicians go through high tension and Job Burnout. As a result, when Couple Burnout is higher then Job Burnout becomes higher too.

Accountants often think that their profession, just like other professions, not only recruits the most able as members, but by doing so, also seeks to truly reflect society in terms of gender, nationality, religion and even race (keef and Roush, 1997). For this reason, studies exploring gender differences in expectations and performance in accounting examinations and professional work are of vital importance to this field of study and its educators. These studies are more important when we consider statistics of the number of people enrolling in the field of accounting. According to last reports of science ministry, accounting courses are more populous than any another course in Iran. In such circumstances men no longer dominate accounting positions. Statistics indicate that women are beginning to take over the field. Over the past decade, there has been a rising surge in the admission of females into the field of accounting at colleges and universities. Thus researchers have been inspired to examine possible existing difference between men and women in terms of academic and professional performance.Since a similarity between Iran and other developing countries can be traced, this paper aims to describe the relationship between demographic variables (gender) and the educational performance of accounting students enrolled in introductory accounting III. In other words we attempt to determine gender differences in academic performance of students.The research controls academic ability at the start of course because academic performance and ability, particularly in an inter-gender context, naturally brings with it theories of intelligence and their consequential implications. There is controversy in the education literature as to the actual structure of academic ability and performance. One school of thought puts forward models that are based solely on a number of independent specific abilities. Advocates of this view define ability as a collection of 150 functions for processing different kinds of information in different ways.Another school of thought supports the presence of a major common factor of general academic ability. Spearman (1904), as advocates of this view, suggests a strong common factor (G) that is often called “general intelligence”. This research uses general intelligence as common factor among educational performance of students. Also, and as previously mentioned, academic ability is a control variable at the start of course. This control variable effectively puts all students on an equal footing. In fact, controlling for differences in initial ability and considering implications of previously mentioned theory, permits an estimate of how performance in the course is uniquely associated with gender characteristics. The research analyzes scores of some 80 students who were studying introductory accounting at management faculty of Tehran University. The teacher and curriculum resources remain the same. ANCOVA is used to analyze the statistics. The findings illustrate that girl's educational performance is NOT significantly different from boy's educational performance. The results, however, show that accounting has the potential and capability to be more attractive for women in future.

Countries around the world are finding rural tourism as an alternative to sustainable development. This line of thinking requires a more diversified economy, enhanced human resource criteria, reduced rural migration, enhanced efficiency in human resources, job creation, cultural interaction, and environmental conservation. In addition, farm families are seeking more diversified form of production in order to survive the competitive world in agriculture. Environmental stress, reduced government support, climate change, and higher living expenses coupled with demand for better life quality are the motivational factors influencing farm families’ desire for multi-functional agriculture. Undoubtedly, women are the key players in rural development. However, their role is not as effective as their male counterparts. This is more visible in traditional society where women are more marginalized and excluded in rural development interventions. This gender differentiation has caused rural women to be excluded in many rural development interventions.This study aims to investigate the perception of local villagers of different gender groups in terms of acceptance of tourists in their village. Moreover, the present study determines the level of participation among local villages (men and women) in tourism activities and how this level of participation differs across gender. Finally, the present study focuses on motivation of local people in engaging in tourism activities and how this motivation has changed their social role. For the mentioned purposes, the study uses a mixed method design (a survey method and a case study) which includes structured questionnaire and semi-structured interview. In the qualitative part of the study, 19 people are interviewed using semi-structure format. In the quantitative part, 134 men and women residing in Oraman village located in Sarvabad town of Kurdistan province respond to the questionnaire. Results reveal that men and women hold different perceptions in terms of having tourists in their communities; motivation towards participating in tourism activities, and changing social role of women in the development of rural tourism.Moreover, an indigenous structure in rural tourism seems to be emerging as an entrepreneurial tourism. The result of this study has implications for Travel and Tourism Organization. First of all, tourist attraction can be made easier with rural women playing a major role. Their non-economic intentions as compared to men make them a valuable resource in attracting more tourists in their area. Men on the other hand, can be given state-support in setting up a business venture. This would in turn motivate local villagers in seeking more entrepreneurial ventures.

Sexual harassment against women is a very prevalent issue today and it could challenge the safety of working women in workplace. The vulnerability of women to sexual harassment can affect the quality of their life. For this reason it has gained considerable attention among the sociologists and criminologists over the last two decades. There is a kind of dominant approach which falsely tries to put blame on victims of sexual harassment rather than on offenders. It is whilst the wider context of sexual harassment reveals that the levels of sexual harassment that women experience every day, which, given the relative powerlessness of women, makes them more unequal victims and therefore vulnerable. So, it is very important to recognize the fact that much of the actual impact of crime on women is trivialized and hence concealed. This paper draws an original data collected from in depth interview with 30 working women aged 22 to 32 in Tehran. The intention of this paper is to present a perspective on debates surrounding women’s experience of sexual harassment in workplace. This article tries to raise key sociological issues such as inequality and demoralization abuse of power. Narratives provided by women included in this study are used throughout the paper as means of drawing the attention to the point that sexual harassment is not something that happens out of the context but is situated in the social details of individuals’ circumstances, social status of women, the system of male domination and the life style. In the other words the wider context of sexual harassment involves patriarchal, social, philosophical and political system in which women are subsumed lower than men.The authors of this paper organized their interview around a major theoretical and empirical divide in studies of sexual harassment between approaches that see harassment as a by-product of social exclusion and power relations. The research reveals that the unbalanced power relations between victim and criminal, domination of male attitudes, the lack of control in private sector and victim blaming are the most important factors which can explain sexual harassment against women. The finding of research also indicates that women are likely to become disillusioned because of their treatment, abuse, and sexual harassment by men. It is not possible to generalize the obtained data to a wider population since there is a limitation regarding the sort and the size of sample included in this study. However, it is constructive to mention that in the case study approach, if the study is well structured and carried out, and makes no claims which cannot be justified, it may well be relatable in a way that will enable members of similar groups to recognize problems and, possibly, to see ways of solving similar problems in their own group.

The concept of gender entails cultural and social differences of men and women and is usually considered as a social and cultural construct. Religiosity also is a construct which includes religious commitments. Both gender and religiosity are important sociological concepts which have received enormous attention from the sociologists. Undoubtedly, the development and spread of feminism as a pro-women movement as well as religious movements are essential elements of studying the relationship between these two constructs. The present research aims to study the relationship between gender and the level and dimensions of religiosity of an individual. The research method utilized in this study is survey which is applied, cross-sectional and comparative. The population consists of 7995 students from Yazd University including 4850 females and 3145 male students. The sample size is based on cocrun's formula whereby 116 female students and 106 male students are selected to be compared for the level and extent of their religiosity. Data is gathered through questionnaire. The researcher makes use of Gluck and Stark model to measure the level of individuals' religiosity. According to this model, religiosity includes five areas or dimensions: ideological, ritualistic, experimental, intellectual and consequential. However, in practice, the intellectual aspect was omitted while other dimensions remained. The results illustrates that while the level of faithfulness is high among both males and females, girls' tendency towards religion is higher than that of boys. Other than ritual dimension, in all other domains of religiosity the difference between boys and girls are statistically meaningful. The findings reveal that the level and scores of religiosity in terms of consequential, ideological, and emotional or experimental aspect is higher in female students than the male students of Yazd University. The present results are compatible and in line with research findings of Serajzadeh and Pouryoosefi. In the study conducted by Serajzadeh (the measurement of religious attitudes & behaviors of Tehran juveniles), the ideological dimension received the highest score as compared to all other aspects of religiosity. In a similar study carried out by Pouryoosefi, the level and extent of religiosity was high in girls.Overall, girls outranked boys in terms of religiosity. However, this research does not confirm the study conducted by Taleban in which boys scored higher than girls in different aspects of religiosity.

The appearance of body, which is considered as people’s physical capital, is influenced by cultural position of individuals. People have different attitude towards their body and appearance depending on their cultural capital. In addition, in today’s world visible characteristics and features of individuals are ever more important than they used to be in the past. Thus, as appropriate and desired appearance is gaining importance in different social groups, particularly youngsters, this study investigates the relationship between cultural capital and appearance management among the youth. In order to investigate this relationship, the theory of Anthony Giddens and Pierre Bourdieu are used. Data collection is conducted through a questionnaire. The sample population consists of youngsters between 15 to 25 years old residing in Babolsar city. Through proportional multi-step cluster stratified sampling and Cochran formula 380 cases are chosen as the statistical sample of the study. The results of descriptive findings show that nowadays young people control their weight in order to look physically attractive and young in front of others, thus more youngsters are inclined to join a bodybuilding and fitness club. Based on gender analysis, a greater number of girls resort to dieting to keep their bodies fit (40 percent) while higher number of boys choose sports clubs (58/15 percent). The findings show that among the many criteria, hair and face makeup along with using perfume are more important than other items of appearance management. Age and native language had no significant relationship with body management. In addition, there is a positive and significant relationship between cultural capital and appearance management. In general, the results of descriptive statistics show that girls and boys use a variety of mechanisms for appearance management to a degree that these mechanisms put their health at risk. As modernisms, culture of media, commercialization, fashion and beauty industry, have put great importance on attractive bodies, a situation referred to as Physical Culture which is prevalent among boys and girls.

World Health Organization (WHO) considers familial violence as a universal phenomenon; even the most developed countries suffer from it and thus domestic violence against women is associated with negative social and mental consequences. According to the literature, level of education and perceived social support are associated with violence against women. Therefore, this research aims to study the violence against women in relation to social support and socialization. It investigates predicting factors of violence against women among women, who refer to court. The study has a control group to compare their data with that of case study. The sample data are drawn from women residing in Tehran. Good's resource theory (1971) -one of the theories related to domestic violence- states that family is similar to any social system or unit as it is a power based system. Therefore, the women who have economic, working and educational power and social support are less exposed to the violence from their husbands. Gender socialization and role tendencies theory state that the roles of men and women are in favor of women being abused. Socialization accompanied with observing and experiencing domestic violence, result in using violence in the family. Traditional gender role attitudes associated with the female as subordinate to male power can place them at higher risk for being abused by their spouse (Firestone, Harris and Vega, 2003). The sample study consists of 184 harassed women who referred to Family Court and affiliated institutions as well as 228 women with the same age and length of marriage who have not referred to above mentioned institutions and constitute the control group. The research makes use of Violence assessment Questionnaire in order to assess physical, mental, sexual and economic violence separately. This questionnaire includes 32 items which is based on likert scale (this questionnaire was developed based on Hj-Yahia, 1999 and Khosravi & Khaghani, 2005). Gender Role Socialization Questionnaire that assesses the type of socialization is also used in the study.It involves 12 items which is based on likert scale (This questionnaire was developed based on Gender role socialization theory). Another instrument is Social Support Questionnaire to assess real and perceived social support which includes 4 items based on likert scale (this questionnaire was based on khosravi and khaghani' work, 2005). The results show that the women who referred to court have lower level of education and occupation than the control group. Women who referred to court obtained higher score in physical, mental, sexual and economic violence than the control group. Control group has more social support, occupational and educational resources than women who referred to the court. Control group are less socially passive than the group who referred to the court. Furthermore the results of regression analysis indicate that socialization, social support and social capital significantly predict the amount of violence against women.

Focusing on 'gender socialization theory' (Richardson 1977, Evans and Davis 2000, Taylor 2003), this article examines the representation of gender issues in school textbooks. Generally speaking, gender socialization is a long and continuing process and associated with a number of main factors and institutions such as family, peers, schools and mass media over an individual’s life-span. It, however, has been well documented that gender socialization is mainly formed in the childhood and school-ages (Gooden and Gooden 2001). This means that schools and textbooks, as the first agents and the most influential tools for formal education and transition of social expectations and cultural standards (Taylor 2003), play a key role in shaping and developing gender identity of children. The literature reviewed in this article emphasizes on three key points. First, the absence of ' gender fairness', as termed by Whiteley (1996), tends to be prevalent in many counties throughout the world. This also means that although gender bias is a more crucial issue in developing countries, it also applies to some extent to developed countries (e.g. Weitzman et al 1972, Blount 1990, Crabb and Bielawski 1994, Yaqubi 1376, Afshani et al.1388). Second, lack of gender fairness is not limited to school textbooks because it has also been observed in the educational materials of universities as well as high-level academic journals and text-books (e.g. Elder et al.1988, Watkins 1993, Sugar et al.2002).Third, despite the significant achievements towards ' gender fairness' in more recent years, various types of gender bias are still significantly portrayed in the school textbooks and other educational resources (e.g. Kortenhaus and Demarest 1993, Evans and Davis 2000, Anderson and Hamilton 2005). Using content analysis method, this study focuses on Iranian primary school textbooks (from Year 1 to Year 5) in the educational year 2009-2010. Generally speaking, the results illustrate that both names and pictures of males are markedly more prevalent than those of females. Such gender bias has also been observed in the prevalence of key words related to males and females (such as man and woman, boy and girl), patterns and characteristics of work outside and inside the home, the composition of family size in terms of the gender of children, and sport activities. More importantly, the results illustrate the fact that such gender biases are often associated significantly with the schooling grade: the higher the grade, the greater the bias. This study has also found some substantial differences regarding the representation of gender roles by the title of the textbooks. In sum, the results of this study provide empirical evidence to support ' the male-first phenomenon' (Lee and Collins 2008) and ' gender bias' (Sugar et al.2002, Sunderland et al.2001), rather than ' gender fairness' (Whiteley 1996). These gender patterns portrayed in school textbooks tend to be incompatible with Iranian women's substantial achievements in human capital (particularly, high level of university education and high aspiration for market employment) and demographic changes (especially, marriage delay and low fertility) in recent years.