WOMENS STUDIES
Year:2009 | Volume:7 | Issue:3 (20)|Papers Count:7

The role of women in environmental management is important because of their intrinsic characteristics and social position. Performing such a role requires sufficient awareness and knowledge. In this regard, in the minds of women who are living in urban centres, since they encounter industries and urbanization, pollution has come to receive a high priority in planning to improve urban environment. What this paper probes is to determine environmental training needs in order to enhance environmental awareness. A sample (263 persons) of household women living in the 12th district of the city of Tehran was randomly selected as respondents. Findings, however, showed that women were aware about the basic concepts of environmental management (e.g. waste management). The results, nonetheless, indicated that younger women had little awareness about environmental protection. Therefore, educational programs should be targeted toward them.

The relationship between gender and entrepreneurship is a vital one. Research shows that the rate of women entrepreneurship is lower as compared to that of men, and this remains true of most countries, Iran included. A question arises as whether gender variable has an effect on entrepreneurial personality characteristics of people. The present research is the effort to answer the above question. To gather information on entrepreneurial personality characteristics, standardized questionnaire in Iran has been used. Thus, information relating to entrepreneurial personality characteristics of 400 students of University of Semnan (Male and Female) has been surveyed and evaluated. These features and characteristics include: "risk taking propensity, " "internal locus of control, " "need for achievement, " “thinking fluency, " "pragmatism, " "ambiguity tolerance, " "imaginative, " and "challenging" traits. Data analysis, using descriptive statistics, indicated there was no difference between most entrepreneurial personality characteristics of students of University of Semnan. But exclusive data related to each feature indicated the existence of partial difference in two features of "need for achievement" and "ambiguity tolerance" among Semnan University students. Moreover, The Mann-Whitney U Test indicated that there is not any meaningful difference between entrepreneurial personality characteristics among students. Only two features of "pragmatism" and "maginative" traits became meaningful among male and female students. Following the theoretical basis of the subject undertaken, research method, hypotheses and findings are presented.

Women’s health plays a crucial role in maintaining both the health of the family and that of the society. In order to have healthy women we need to empower families and promote good spousal relationships. The aim of this study is to explore ways to develop the relationships between women’s health and family dynamics. Twenty two purposely selected females from Tehran aged between 20 to 50 years were evaluated through open semi-structured depth interviews. The interviews were recorded, transcribed and analyzed via the content analysis. Two main categories emerged: husbands and wives’ health, and household and women’s health. The promotion of good spousal relationships, appreciation of household health, and provision of appropriate social support are needed to have healthy women and therefore healthy families.

As a distinguished and well-known Iranian female director, Rakhshan Banī­ E’temad usually focuses on social issues. Aside from her first three films, all the remaining display the Iranian Women’s social status as the core issue. Since the present study aims at exploring traces of feminist theories in Banī­ E’temad’s works, at the beginning we present a brief explanation of three different feminist theories—the gender difference, gender inequalities, and gender oppression—and proceed trying to elucidate how generally feminism has come to appear in the cinema. Then, as a benchmark for investigating women’s life in the post-revolutionary Iran, Banī­ E’temad’s cinema is explored. Her films are divided into three periodical categories: the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s. Based on the above three feminist theories, our analysis suggests that the two latter ones—gender inequalities and gender oppression—are more emphatically employed in her films.

The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between emotional abuses such as verbal-critical abuse, neglect-withdrawal, dominance, isolation, and mental disorders in women of Esfahan. One hundred fifty one participated in this study. All participants were asked to complete the SCL-90­-R and the Emotion Spouse Abuse Scale (ESAS). Both descriptive and inferential statistics, including means, standard deviation, correlation coefficient, and regression analysis were used. The results showed that emotional abuses are significantly associated with somatisation, depression, interpersonal sensitivity, phobia, paranoid ideation, anxiety, aggression, obsessive-compulsive, and schizophrenia. Results of regression analysis showed that emotional abuse was a strong predictor of mental disorders among women. In other words, there is a significant relationship between emotional abuse and aspects of somatic response.

This research was administered with the aim of investigating the mediating-moderating role of women’s perceived discrimination (beliefs in a just world) in relation to attachment styles and depression. The statistical populations consisted of the total of unemployed women in low, medium and high districts of the city of Esfahan. Three hundred women were selected using cluster random sampling for answering the research instruments from the above three districts. Research questionnaires were: closed relationship (with 36 items for assessment of anxious and avoidant attachment), belief in a just world for women (perceived discrimination toward women with 8 items) and depression questionnaire (with 20 items). Data were analyzed using structural equation modelling (using LISREL software), moderated hierarchical regression analysis (using SPSS) and indirect effect test (using INDIRECT macro). The results of structure equation modelling showed that, on the basis of goodness of fit indexes, research data fit most highly with complete anxious attachment. In the other words, in relation between anxious attachments with depression, perceived discrimination plays the complete mediator role, but in relational model of avoidant attachment with depression, perceived discrimination plays the partial mediator role. The results of moderated hierarchical regression analysis and indirect effect analysis showed that there exists only a significant indirect effect between anxious attachment and depression through perceived discrimination toward women (belief in a just world for women).

The purpose of this descriptive correlation research is to determine participation level of rural women in extension programs and to specify the most important reasons for participation and non-participation. The population consisted of rural women in Sonqor-e Kolayayī Township. Using a multistage sampling, 327 women were interviewed. Results revealed that the level of participation of women was lower than average. The most important reasons for participation were: getting in touch with agricultural extension agents, to gain increased income, satisfaction from the past extension services, and interest to agricultural operations. Moreover, the most important reasons for non-participation were: gender discriminations, lack of permission to participate in collective activities, illiteracy, economic problems, and lack of awareness on treating women in extension programs. Based on regression analysis, educational level, age, and educational level of husbands were the most important factors influencing overall level of women participation in extension programs.