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Iranian Women's Participation in the Academic World

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Farhad Khosrokhavar  and
Mohammad Amin Ghaneirad
Farhad Khosrokhavar
Affiliation:
National Research Institute of Science Policy (NRISP), Iran École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris
Mohammad Amin Ghaneirad
Affiliation:
NRISP, Iran
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Abstract

This article intends to give a comprehensive picture of women's participation in the scientific field in Iran in the last four decades, among students and members of academia. One major fact is that despite the legal and cultural impediments the proportion of young women in the universities has risen above 50 percent. Another is that this increase has occurred much more at the undergraduate level than at the graduate and post-graduate levels. In the academic world, women are still far outnumbered by men, particularly at the higher levels of the hierarchy. We intend to show how the discrepancies are structured between the undergraduate and the graduate levels on the one hand, and between the lower and higher levels of academic hierarchy on the other, and propose an interpretation of these two major tendencies.

Type
Research Article
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 43 , Issue 2 , April 2010 , pp. 223 - 238
Copyright
Copyright © The International Society for Iranian Studies 2010

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References

1 See Gaeeni, Fatemeh, Arzyabiye vaz'iyate zanan dar amuzeshe ali teye dah saleye akhir 1372–73 ta 1381–82 [Analysis of Women's Situation in Higher Education in Iran during the Last Ten Years, from 1993–94 to 2003–04] (Tehran, 1385.2006)Google Scholar, Shoyraye Farhangi Ejtema'eye zanan, ravabet omumi.

2 This can be extended to other fields, in particular in the employment market where women with qualifications equal to men have an inferior position. See Hossein Mohammadian, “Mahiyat na motejanes behbude moqe'iyate zanan dar Iran” [The Heterogeneous Situation in the Improvement of Women's Position in Iran], Pajuheshe Zanan, third year, no. 2 (Tehran 1384/2005).

3 See Abolhassan Vafa'i and colleagues, “Jaygahe zanan dar tose'eye olume mohandesi dar Iran” [The Place of Women in the Development of the Engineering Sciences in Iran], Faslnameye amuzeshe mohandesiye iran [Journal of the Teaching of Engineering in Iran], no. 28 (Tehran, 1384/2005), pp. 11–26.Google Scholar

4 See Gozareshe tahavvole vaz'iyate zanan teyye sal haye 1376–1383 [Report on the Evolution of Women's Situation in the Years 1997–2004], Office of the Presidency of the Islamic Republic of Iran, The Center for the Participation of Women (Tehran, 1384/2005).

5 For the achievements of the scientific community in Iran: within the academic institutions see Khosrokhavar, Farhad and Amin Ghaneirad, Mohammad, “Institutional Problems of the Emerging Scientific Community in Iran,” Science, Technology and Society (Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore, 2007), pp. 171–200Google Scholar, and “Negahi be avamele farhangi-e afzayesh-e vorod-e dokhtaran beh daneshgah-ha” [An Analysis of the Causes of the Increase in the Number of Girls in the Universities], Pajuheshe Zanan, no. 4 (Tehran, 1385/2006), pp. 115–138.Google Scholar

6 Mozaffarian, Mehrnush, Bar resiye mizane Mosharekate tolid konandegan maqalat elmi Iran dar paygah sal tahsili 1384–1385 [Analysis of the Level of Participation of the Producers of Scientific Articles in Iran in the Years 1384–1385 (2005–2006)] (Tehran, 2006)Google Scholar (report).

7 Ghadimi, Akram and Manuchehri, Azita, Ravande hozur e zanan dar daneshgah ha va marakeze amurezhe aliye Iran [The Trend of Women's Presence in the Universities and the Centres for Higher Education in Iran] (Tehran, 1386/2007)Google Scholar, National Research Institute for Science Policy, Iran (report).

8 This may change through new actions launched by the new generation of women, like the campaign for one million signatures claiming the legal equality of men and women, which has gathered tens of thousands of signatures in Iran and in the Iranian diaspora.