With the exception of the Westernized and secularized upper and middle classes, Iranian society before the Revolution practiced public segregation of the sexes

Female Participation in the Workforce

On the eve of the 1979 Revolution, only about 14 percent of women aged 10 years and older participated in the paid labor

force. Three patterns of work existed among women. Among the upper classes, women worked either as professionals or volunteers. Whereas secular middle-class women aspired to follow this model, traditional middle-class women worked outside the home only from dire necessity. Lower-class women frequently worked outside the home, especially in major cities, because their incomes were needed to support their households.

Women were active participants in the revolution that toppled the shah. Some activists were professional women of the secular middle class, among whom political antagonists to the regime had long been recruited. Like their male counterparts, such women had nationalist aspirations and denounced the shah’s regime as a U.S. puppet. Some women also participated in guerrilla groups such as the Fedayan-e Khalq (People’s Warriors) and the Mojahedin-e Khalq (People’s Fighters). More significant, however, were the large numbers of lower-class women in the cities who participated in street demonstrations during the latter half of 1978 and early 1979. They responded to Khomeini’s call for all Muslims to demonstrate opposition to the tyranny of the shah.

Following the Revolution, the new republican government called for the participation of women in an “Islamic society,” because such a society would not be “morally corrupt” like the deposed monarchy. Observance of hejab would assure respect for women. Hejab eventually was defined as clothing that concealed the shape of a woman’s figure, such as loose outer garments, and covered her hair and skin, leaving only her face and hands exposed. The requirement to observe hejab in public was controversial among the minority of secularized women who never had worn a chador. However, for the majority of women who always had worn the chador, hejab served to legitimate their presence in the public sphere, especially in work outside the home. Nevertheless, because so many professional women with jobs emigrated from Iran between 1979 and 1981 and because the postrevolutionary government compelled families to send underage girls to school rather than to work, the number of women in the paid labor force declined form 14 percent in 1976 to 9 percent in 1986; it rose gradually to 11 percent by 1996.

In the early 2000s, women made up 16 percent of the urban labor force and 14 percent of the rural labor force. The government was a major employer of women, especially the ministries of education and health. Moreover, the variety of jobs available for women expanded in the private sector, including positions for women as bus and taxi drivers. The increasing numbers of employed women prompted interest in work-related discrimination against women. Several women deputies in the Majlis, for example, sponsored legislation that required employers to give women workers the same pay and fringe benefits received by their male counterparts. The monthly magazine Zanan regularly published articles dealing with issues of concern to working women. The magazine’s periodic sample surveys documented positive developments in urban areas, such as declining fertility, the rise in the age of first marriage for women, and steadily increasing numbers of women entering college. However, the surveys also showed that few qualified women were promoted to managerial positions in either the public or private sector. In the late 1990s, women’s rights groups began launching campaigns to sensitize the public to issues such as unequal pay, the lack of paid maternity leave, inadequate job-site nurseries and childcare facilities, and limited access for women employees to training programs. All these activities contributed to a heightened public awareness about the status of working women. Government responses included the establishment of women’s affairs divisions in several government ministries and in the president’s office, as well as financial support for women’s studies centers in the public colleges and universities.