WOMENS STUDIES
Year:2005 | Volume:3 | Issue:7|Papers Count:7

The phenomenon of globalization has variably influenced all societies within the last two decades. Iran is no exception to such a rule. The gradual penetration of globalization process has nearly touched on all aspects of the social life. This paper attempts to investigate the relationship between globalization and women's social identity in the city of Shirāz, the centre of Fars province, and the city of Estahbān, a largely traditional/religious city located also in the Fars province. Theoretically, the paper rests upon Water's ideas, which are actually considered to be a synthesis of Giddens and Robertson ways of thinking on the subject. The findings show that women in Shiraz are generally more influenced by globalization process and thus their identities have been altered as a result. Such a finding further points to the fact that Shirāzi women can be considered to be more profoundly oriented toward the ideas of modernity, therefore enjoying a somewhat more modem, secular and non-traditional identity as compared to women residing in Estahbān.

The present research takes the task of examining the gender roles differences (male/female) as portrayed and displayed in TV advertisements on the IRIB broadcasts. Based on studies conducted in developed and developing courtiers on the manner in which the gender roles are portrayed in TV ads, the research model embrace the following three broad dimensions: General characteristics of advertisements, Demographic characteristics, and Attitudinall behavioural characteristics. This is a descriptive research using content analysis. The population of the survey is all the TV ads on channels and of the IRIB broadcast on primetime. The ad was included in research if the major roles played were gender related. To gauge variance portrayal of gender roles variables in TV ads, the sample was randomly selected. Upon selection, each ad was considered as a research case and a questionnaire was filled according to the attributes of each ad. Then all questionnaires were coded. The results showed that the portrayal of gender roles in TV ads differed, and that the portrayals were mainly traditionally gender based.

Gender inequality is an acute problem of our society today affecting social order, development process, and even political stability. Under the universal effects brought about by industrialization and urban life, the prevalence of gender inequality results in widespread feeling by the women to be treated unjustly, particularly in relation to motivation and chances of social mobility among female students. The subject has been analyzed by different theories of justice (exchange and relative deprivation), stratification theories (Parsons, Davis, and Moore), and gender inequality theories (Chafetz's and Blumberg's). Chafetz's theory is used as the main theory to show the relationship between the feelings of gender inequality and social motivation as an independent variable. This is a survey research which uses questionnaire. The statistical society is comprised of all female students of University of Tehran in which 373 students were selected by the model (of Kukran). Simple and multi-variable regression method was used for the data analysis, and for determining the effects of the dependent variable on the independent one. The results show that 94.9% of the students in our sample have high and very high feelings of inequality, and that 98.9% have high and very high feeling of lack of motivation. Totally, 52% of the social motivation variety is illustrated by inequality feeling which has five dimensions, and according to their effects, such dimensions consist of 1) political inequality feeling,2) Legal inequality feeling, 3) Social inequality feeling, 4) Cultural inequality feeling, and 5) Economic inequality feeling.

Women's management has been able to make admirable contributions to the organization of different countries. Researchers are particularly interested in studying the contributions made by women in decision making and running managerial positions in developing countries. In broad terms, effects of gender empowerment in areas such as political, economic, managerial fields constitute the most important issues to study. Women possess considerable potential to contribute to the development of Iran. This is due to their sheer population size, increasing educational base, managerial skills, and the like. Nonetheless, women have encountered many problems in the course of development process. For instance, most government organizations of Irān tend to tilt toward appointing male managers. The rationale for such a tendency seems to be more gender oriented rather than being based on differential capacities/abilities of the appointees. Management theories cite many factors to be at work in this regard. This article aims to answer the question of: given the empowerment enjoyed by women, due to enhanced education and greater participation, in recent years, why is it that they have not yet been able to play an important role in the development process?

The Iranian women have always been aspiring to their ideal identity in order to change the real one. Yet, due to effects of gender differences, which result in discrimination, such a general aspiration could not be realized to enhance women's rights dramatically. The lack of self-esteem, on the one hand, and disconformities in beliefs, on the other, made the men shadow ever-present over the women. Considering men as dominant figure-heads of the households; that is husbands, prevented women from having a visible role in economic and industrial activities of the community, which resulted in women's isolation and their absence in the public sector, restricting their role to that of a mother or a wife. Long after the first protestations in favour of women's rights in the West, there is no sign of such acts in Iran. This might be attributed to the very late signs of initial economic and industrial modernization in Iran, the fact that impeded women's liberation as well. One may notice the embryonic signs of such a thought at the beginning of the Constitution Movement, as a result of the influences coming in the forms of news and information coming from Europe. The Pahlavi regime, gave women partial freedom in exchange of gaining control over them in almost every aspect of the social life. The Islamic Revolution offered an opportunity for educated women to participate in the public sphere without being used in the hands of the politicians. This was the impetus upon which women found, for the first time, their economic value in the history of the nation.

This study initially attempts to assess behaviour situation of adolescents who spent their leisure time in summer camps. It also aims to assess the effect of life-skill trainings on their behaviour. The questionnaire of Student Behaviour Disorder (SBD-Rutter scale) was used. The questionnaire's validity and reliability rated high at a previous investigation. The sample consisted of 86 girls. The students' behaviours were observed and assessed by their instructors. After pre-test stage they were trained some skills (like problem solving method, decision-making, critical and creative thinking, interpersonal communications, etc.) through undirected trainings such as role playing, brain storming, discussion,working in small groups. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics (means, standard deviation, percentage), paired sample test, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) as parametric tests, and chi squares as non-parametric test. Results showed that mean scores in the first stage was significantly less than the second stage. It means that life-skill instructions caused the behaviour disorder to modify. Also, there was significant difference between educational grades; higher grades had been associated with more behaviour problems than lower grades are fore trainings and after those lower grades changed better than the others. We can conclude that if these instructions are given to younger age-groups, they would affect their behaviour more effectively.