World Congress for Middle Eastern Studies

Barcelona, July 19th – 24th 2010

· NOT_DEFINED institution: Bu Ali Sina University

· NOT_DEFINED organizer: Ali Mohammad Ghodsi

· NOT_DEFINED language: English

· NOT_DEFINED description: Women and men had been defined by instrumental and expressive components in Iranian cultural structure that had been governing historically on their lives. These two instrumental and expressive components determined kinds and areas of women and men social lives. Social life of women, on the basis of their expressive components, defined by caring and maintaining of family and its members. During some developments in the last decades in Iran and accompanying to process of modernization, there was a necessity for activation of women in economy. This necessity, at first, confronted two structural barriers by the mid twenty century. These two structural barriers include cultural and social structures respectively. Cultural structure and following it social structure prohibited women to participate in economic activities outside their homes. With starting the process of modernization in Iran there was a need for presence of women in area of economy. This need caused cultural structure to adapt itself and social structure with new situation. In the process of this adaptation, therefore, cultural structure did some modifications in values, traditions, thoughts and believes which created the possibility of women's economic activities in economic areas. The accomplished changes in the last decades in Iran show that modifications in cultural structure and then social structure have provided opportunities for women in economic areas. Changing of cultural attitudes to women and specially a vast increase in women educations and their high rates of entrance to universities and colleges are some important factors -as the effects of cultural and social structures- which caused suitable conditions for economic empowerment of women in society of Iran. This study for explaining cultural and social structures uses the findings of sociological and anthropological data, and for participating of women in economy -as an indicator of their empowerment in economy- uses secondary data and formal census.