InstructionsMy report is about the future of work and focuses the .docx

Instructions
My report is about the future of work and focuses the role of a
woman. I have already done some work for this report. Down
below you will see the points we spoke about in the report and
why we chose this subject. More importantly, you will also see
the scenario we came up with and the framing questions we
created. You will need both the scenario and framing questions
and write a summary about it in 600 words. I need you to do
this section:
*Scenario plan: Working together the group is required to
construct a future scenario using the scenario template. The
completed scenario will be attached in the appendix. You will
need to insert in your report a summary of your future scenario
identifying the evidence/trends it is based upon, framing
questions and key elements around work that are relevant to
your analysis to the future of work (Approx 600 words). (The
template & framing questions should be in your
appendix.)Introduction
· The future of work will have an impact on women in terms of
employment and job positions in an organization.
· Corporations will be equally hiring men and women based on
their skills and knowledge.
· The wage gap between genders will decrease in the near
future.
· Women will become more independent leading the marriage
rates to drop.
· When it comes to politics, the role of a women in a less
developed country will change significantly as women are now
allowed to vote and become members of the parliament.
Rationale
· Theme: Gender and diversity
· Why?
Coming from an Arab country, we have noticed many changes
in the typical role of women all around the world. We noticed

that women are starting to change their habits and lifestyle.
Women are becoming highly educated, searching for
independence, and working more to enhance their career path.
Women are no longer categorized as the traditional
housewivesScenario: Everything Will Change“Post-Fordism”
Society and culture
-Feminized values
-Women and men equally valued
-Make, do, and mend culture
-Increasing diversity
Family life
-Parents work long hours little time for kids
-Schools and institutions take greater responsibility for children
-Men contribute equally for child rearing, housework and time
at work
Education
-Vocational
-Individual happiness linked to societal outcomes
The workplace
-Pay gap decrease between genders
-Equality between genders
-Even value of diversity
-Women greater presence in public, business life
-Responsible and ethical corporations
The environment
-No clean energy developed
-Wealthy nations survive while poor nations don’t do so well
Science and technology
-High surveillance of all citizens
-Innovation is highly valued
-Highly networked
-Development of new technology with few people to afford it
Politics
-Single party dominates
-Strong alliances between countries

-People vote according to policies that value social and
environmental outcomes
-Women politicians increase
-Governmental regulations change regarding expatriates
Economics
-Personalized products/services
-Much of country owned by rich overseas interests
-Great divide between rich and poor
-Countries that supply raw materials benefit
-Frequent scares of limited resources, terrorist attacks
Framing Questions:
1. Currently 92% of CEO’s are men. Will this rate lower in the
future?
2. Will the level of women’s education be matched with the
employment rate of women?
B r i n g i n g W o m e n ’ s V o i c e s i n t o t h e
D i a l o g u e o n T e c h n o l o g y P o l i c y
a n d G l o b a l i z a t i o n i n A s i a
SWA ST I M IT TER A ND SH EIL A R OW BO T HA M
University of Sussex, UK and Manchester, UK
Ab stra ct
This article documents an innovative research project
‘Monitoring the Impact of
Technological Changes in Women’s Employment in the Asian
Region’. Initiated in 1994
by the United Nations University Institute for New
Technologies (UNU/INTECH),
the project sought to democratise the dialogue around
technological changes and
globalization by bringing together NGOs active among women

workers, academic
researchers and policy makers. It was guided by the assumption
that those affected by
the impact of new technologies should play a major part in
making and implementing
policy. Women workers, for example, should be able to lay
claim to the knowledge
which circulates through international organizations, while
national and international
policy makers stand to gain by listening directly to groups such
as these who frequently
are excluded from the bene�ts of globalized technological
changes. Twenty-eight trade
union and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) worked
alongside experienced
researchers, covering eight countries and holding a series of
both country-based and
international workshops. The �rst research project to attempt
direct inter-communication
on such an extensive scale, ‘Monitoring the Impact of
Technological Changes in Women’s
Employment in the Asian Region’ shifted the debate on gender
and technology onto the
terrain of the actual problems and possibilities currently faced
by women workers rather
than adopting positions for or against technology. The
collaborative research process
highlights several priority areas of policy dialogue which have
been neglected and
indicate ways of organizing which could secure better
conditions of work. The evidence
uncovered and the concerns expressed raise fundamental
questions about whose interests
and values are shaping the emerging techno-economic paradigm.
K ey w o rd s

technological change, globalization, women workers, women’s
NGO’s, international
networking, the democratization of knowledge
International Feminist Journal of Politics, 2:3 Autumn 2000,
382–401
ISSN 1461-6742 print/ISSN 1468-4470 online © 2000 Taylor &
Francis Ltd
http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
I NT RO D U CT I O N
Discussion of ‘globalization’ has focused primarily on the
economic aspects
of information and communication technologies, which led to
the dramatic
transformation sometimes, called a third industrial revolution.
The nature of the
metamorphosis, which has occurred through an acceleration of
international
linkages in trade and finance and the digitalisation of
information – the
outcome of computer technologies – has been the subject of
vigorous debate
during the last decade. However the broad economic
consequences are palpable.
It has become more possible to decentralise and fragment
production and much
easier to operate manufacturing and services across national
boundaries so
that the processes of production no longer need to be locally
situated. Moreover
the various production processes can be spread among satellite
companies or

subcontracting units in other countries where wages are lower
and employment
legislation is not strictly imposed or monitored. The new
technologies facilitate
the management of dispersed units of production within or
across national
borders in a cost-effective way.
The globalization of investment and of �nance capital, has thus
speeded up
the phenomenon of outsourcing which lies at the heart of, and in
turn shapes
the current phase of globalization. Increasingly af�liates of the
transnational
corporations handle actual production while the large
transnational corpora-
tions limit their activities to controlling the retail outlets and
their marketing
image. This trend has been accompanied by management
practices such as ‘lean
management’ and ‘downsizing’. These encourage companies to
keep the size of
their core work force as small as possible, and to rely on
�exible, or ‘atypical’
workers in order to keep the �xed cost low and respond readily
to changing
demands.1
Much less attention however has been devoted to the
consequences for
the daily lives and consciousness of the human beings caught up
in the wide
scale social upheavals which have accompanied globalization.2
It is evident
that the move towards organizational flexibility does not
necessarily bode

well for the workforce, as the number of workers in the formal
sector dwindles
making it dif�cult for workers to engage in collective
bargaining or to negotiate
with the state for employment rights. The restructuring of work
organization
has had adverse effects on trade unions and also been
accompanied by a decline
in the forms of social protection provided through state welfare.
The numbers
of workers outside any social safety net or defensive
organization have been
swollen by �exible working practices, outsourcing, relocation
and structural
unemployment. 3
The economic transformation of the last decade – loosely
de�ned as global-
ization – is frequently presented as possible only in an
economic and political
context in which no restraint is placed on capital.4 However as
the economist
Gita Sen observes, ‘the imperative of “globalize or perish”‘
obscures ‘the negative
fall outs of unregulated capital’. (Sen in Gothoskar et al. 1998:
1–2). One result
of this tendency towards uncritical celebration has been that the
destructive
Swa s t i M i tt er a nd S he i la R owb ot ha m/Br i ngi ng
Wome n’ s V oi ces i nto D ia lo gue 383
social consequences that have accompanied technology-led
globalization have

been marginalized in policy-oriented discussions and research.5
T HE IM P A CT O N W O M EN
Internationally, it has been environmental and women’s groups,
which have
played a leading part in challenging the inevitability, ascribed
to a globalizing
process based on an uncritical faith in the bene�ts of
technological advance.6
Feminist researchers have also insisted, quite rightly, that
analyses of changes
in production and the growing inequality of wealth must include
a gender lens.7
The popular term ‘the feminization of poverty’, however, places
the emphasis
exclusively on gender and is misleading; it expresses only part
of the total
picture, which is also affected by class, ethnicity and race.8
Women workers are
certainly concentrated among the hidden millions working in
low paid sweated
work in the manufacture of garments, shoes and toys and in the
informal sector
as homeworkers or as vendors.9 However, there are
differentiated consequences
appearing among women in the workforce, not only in the North
but also in
the South.10 Cecilia Ng and Carol Yong’s comment in the
context of Malaysia
has a wider relevance.
Women are not being inevitably pushed into low-skill dead end
jobs as a result
of automation, as the argument that capital makes use of
existing patriarchal

relations has asserted. The trends are more diverse.
(Ng and Yong 1995: 201)
While low level operations are being feminized, an educated
minority are slowly
gaining access to ‘middle level professional and management
positions’. (Ng
and Yong in Mitter and Rowbotham 1995: 201). These are the
groups that
tend to be cited by the optimists who presume that technological
change is
inherently emancipatory. However, only a minority of women
are able to utilize
educational advantage in this way and even the new factory jobs
are accessible
mainly to the young. So, just as those firms or countries able to
introduce
new technology accelerate faster, a comparable disparity opens
up within the
work force, between men and women but also among women
themselves. Rather
than opting for an uncritical optimism or adopting a sweeping
pessimism,
The UNU/INTECH project set out to chart the differentiated
impact of new
technologies.
The project also registered the wider implications of economic
and social
innovations and recognized the dynamic character of their
impact. The intro-
duction of advanced technology does not only affect those who
actually work
with it, but alters the work and livelihoods of many more whom
it passes by.

Their conditions worsen disproportionately, with the result that
social exclusion
is becoming a global phenomena. Moreover, the consequences
for workers of
economic restructuring and deindustrialization are changing
very fast. Thus
the ‘included’ of one decade can �nd themselves becoming the
excluded of
384 Int e r na ti ona l Fe mini s t Jo ur na l o f Po li ti c s
the next. For instance in Hong Kong, women who were recently
swept into
manufacturing industry, are now being made redundant at a
faster rate than
the men. In a study sponsored by the Hong Kong Federation of
Women,
Withering Away of the Hong Kong Dream, Stephen W.K. Chiu
and Ching Kwan
Lee have documented ‘the human consequences’ (Chiu and Lee,
1997: 4)
adapting Richard Sennett and Jonathan Cobb’s phrase ‘the
hidden injuries of
class’11 to this new context. They note that in the long term the
social conse-
quences of ignoring women’s voices ‘ . . . will be enormous and
non-recoverable
in the future’. (Chiu and Lee 1997: 43) Grassroots researchers
are reporting
comparable cases of workers caught within the maelstrom of
‘globalization’ in
many parts of the world, yet their �ndings are largely absent
from debates on
economic policy.12

O P ENI NG A D I A L O G U E
In order to redress this lacuna, the United Nations University
Institute for
New Technologies’ project ‘Monitoring the Impact of
Technological Changes in
Women’s Employment in the Asian Region’, reached out to
groups of women who
were already engaged in action around women’s employment in
Bangladesh,
China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Sri
Lanka and Vietnam.
From 1994 the project, which was funded by UNIFEM and by
the Netherlands
government and co-ordinated by Swasti Mitter in collaboration
with a group of
researchers, held both country-based workshops and a series of
international
workshops.
Rather than simply sending professional researchers to study the
impact of
globalization and technological changes, the UNU /INTECH
project tried to
build upon and enhance the existing skills of the many
voluntary organizations
which are in close contact with working women. The scholars
involved in
the research process had themselves experience of activism and
the project
aimed to develop a dialogue in which a wider range of women’s
voices could
be heard than those which customarily reach international
development forums
or national policy bodies. The action research groups which

participated ranged
from the Self Employed Women’s Association in India, which
organizes 200
thousand workers in the informal sector, to HUMANIKA, an
Indonesian educa-
tional and consciousness raising group, to the Korean Women’s
Association
for Democracy and Sisterhood which includes housewives and
clerical workers.
Also involved were groups such as the Vietnam Women’s Union
and the Women
Workers’ Committee of the All China Federation of Trade
Unions and the All
China Women’s Federation. In these transitional economies
independent NGOs
do not exist, however the older women’s and labour
organizations which were
formerly part of the Communist regimes are beginning to take
on new roles.
The obvious disparities among the participants meant taking on
board the
evident ambiguities and complexities in the category ‘voluntary
organizations’,
a term which actually spans very different structures.
As Cecilia Ng observes, this combination of diverse types of
groups and
organizations alongside professional researchers, meant that
‘Monitoring the
Impact of Technological Changes in Women’s Employment in
the Asian Region’,

‘ . . . was no ordinary academic research involving scholars
undertaking studies
in their respective �elds of expertise. (Ng 1996: 1).
A consistent feature was the connection between various kinds
of research
into technology and policy.
Each stage of the UNU /INTECH project was carefully planned.
The �rst task
was to provide a forum in which NGOs working closely with
women workers
in Asia could exchange their experiences. It was seen as vital to
give them an
opportunity to articulate their vision of how to counteract the
negative
consequences of technology-led globalization. (See Banerjee
and Mitter 1998)
The �rst international workshop was held in Kuala Lumpur in
1994 and enabled
the NGOs to share their knowledge of the needs of women in
relation to new
technologies and the effect of changing patterns of work such as
the growth
of sub-contracting and homeworking. The Kuala Lumpur
workshop created a
space in which demands could be formulated and aspirations
voiced in an
international context.
The second phase concentrated on bringing together policy
makers from
the Asian countries selected and aimed to create an environment
in which
government agencies could assess the limitations and
effectiveness of current

legislation in minimising the social threats of the open market
and globalization.
In 1995 UNU INTECH thus organized an international
workshop in New Delhi
which covered government policies on economic development
and labour
market conditions. The third, in Bangkok, in 1996 sought to
open up a dialogue
between NGOs and state policy makers; two very different
constituencies which
up until this time had tended to conduct discussions of
globalization quite
separately. The findings of these three workshops were
synthesised in New
Technologies and the Future of Women’s Work in Asia, (1994),
Industrial
Policies for the 21st Century: New Technology and Women’s
Work, New
Technologies (1995) and Bridging the Gap. Between the State
and Non-
Governmental Organisations (1996).
The lack of precedents for dialogue between NGOs and
government
bodies made preparation an extremely important priority for the
research
project. Only the trade unions were accustomed to meeting on
an international
basis with government policy makers; women in NGOs had
little experience
of such meetings. So, in order to provide them with negotiating
skills, a
series of country-based workshops complemented the
international workshops.
The country-based meetings aimed to prepare the ground for the
�nal workshop

in Bangkok in 1996. The structuring of the project thus involved
counter
balancing inequalities by putting resources into enhancing the
opportunity of
women NGOs to learn from one another and gain access to
international
research.
‘Monitoring the Impact of Technological Changes in Women’s
Employment
in the Asian Region’ took cognizance of how experience
gathered in women’s
grassroots groups and international networks could provide vital
insights for
policy making in both the national and international contexts.
The UNU/
INTECH project adapted, on a large scale, the participatory
approach undertaken
before in smaller pieces of research by women’s international
networks. Though
of course local groups could never have covered eight countries
and followed
up the studies in depth through research and workshops; nor
would they usually
have been able to bring NGOs face to face with national and
international policy
making bodies.
M O NI T O RI NG T EC HNO L O G IC A L C HA NG ES
Not only did ‘Monitoring the Impact of Technological Change

in Women’s
Employment in the Asian Region’ seek to extend and
democratise debates on
globalization, it also took a wide interpretation of technological
learning. The
long-term aim was to ensure that women shared equally in the
material bene�ts
of new technologies and in the social and political power these
involve.
An immediate problem was, however, that remarkably little
research exists
into the impact of new technology on women’s employment in
Bangladesh,
China, India, Indonesia, Korea, Malasia, Sri Lanka and
Vietnam. The UNU/
INTECH project was thus breaking new ground. The complex
picture which
emerged from its �ndings is encapsulated by Cecilia Ng,
The shift to more knowledge based production has not impacted
uniformly on
women nor on men. Some have gained while others have lost.
New jobs have been
created for women but others face vulnerable forms of
employment. Women have
found employment especially in the growing service sectors (eg
Vietnam and
Malaysia) and have even developed hi-tech homeworking as in
the case of Korean
professionals in the publishing industry. At the same time
thousands of Korean
women have been retrenched as a result of the automation and
down sizing in
the light industrial sector. Many of these are older women who
do not have the

skills to enter the new technology multi-skilled jobs. There is
also a trend towards
production decentralisation, subcontracting and the development
of small scale
industry, where �exible work is the rule rather than the
exception . . .
(Ng 1996: 4)
There was evidence, which indicated that the access of women
to technology
has differed from that of men. Geraldine Reardon, a trade union
researcher who
summarised some of the findings of the project in a monograph
entitled,
Globalization, Technological Change and Women Workers in
Asia, notes a clear
‘technological cycle’. (Reardon 1998: 23). Men get the jobs
first and then
‘Women get jobs that utilise lower technology, are less
prestigious and are paid
less.’ (Reardon 1998: 23). Reporting on China, Zhou Meihe and
Guo Haiyan
from the Chinese Academy of Sciences give instances of this
gendered entry into
the new computer industry in China:
In the Shenzhen subsidiary of the Legend Group, 52 percent of
the 600 employees
are women. Only one-�fth of departmental managers are
women, and all middle-

level personnel, such as workshop directors and foremen are
men. On the other
hand, 100 percent of workers in the plug-in process are women,
and testing is done
mostly by women.
(Ng and Muroro Kua 1994: 66)
They also describe conditions in the private Special Economic
Zones (SEZs)
backed by foreign capital. Workers, many of whom are young
women, are
accommodated in less than two square metres by the entreprises
in Shenzhen.
The Chinese women work 10 to 12 hours a day without a day
off, and there are
frequent accidents at work. In Vietnam 68 percent of the
employees in the new
private sector are women. Hours vary from 4–5 when work is
slack to 13–14
hours. Zhou Meihe, Guo Haiyan along with Le Thi from the
Vietnamese Centre
for Family and Women’s Studies, demonstrate that other women
meanwhile,
in China and in Vietnam, in both factories and of�ces are being
laid off as a
result of the transition to a market economy and technological
change (Ng and
Muroro Kua 1994: 66).
Not only have millions of women been shifted into unknown
circumstances,
they are facing a whole set of unfamiliar problems. At the
workshop co-
ordinated by the Sri Lankan Muslim Women’s Research and
Action Forum in

Colombo in 1995, Rohini Hensman noted,
Some of the health hazards associated with these technologies,
such as chemical
hazards in electronic assembly and Repetitive Strain Injury for
those working at
computer terminals – are not envisaged or dealt with by existing
legislation.
(Hanifa 1996: 4)
Persatuan Sahabat Wanita Selangor, a group formed to help
organize women
workers in the Malaysian electronic factories in the Free Trade
Zones found
cancer, leukaemia and chronic respiratory disorders, (Ng and
Muroro Kua
1994: 38).From Korea, the Women’s Association for Democracy
and Sisterhood,
which organizes housewives and clerical workers, reported that
60.6 percent
of insurance workers complained of RSI symptoms. (Ng and
Muroro Kua 1994:
43) Among factory workers , according to the Korean Women
Workers’
Association,
Health problems cited include, pains in the shoulders, fingers
and wrists,
inflammation of ankles and knees, gastro-intestinal problems,
and bronchial
complaints.
(Ng and Muroro Kua 1994: 45)
The less tangible psychological implications of the effect of

modernisation on
life-patterns and women’s self-identity were also raised by the
research of the
NGOs and expressed in the country-based workshops. One of
these held in New
Delhi in 1995 was partly organized by Action India, a
community group which
works with women and the young locally. Members of its
Women’s Programme,
Sumitra, Gouri Choudhury and Tara Negi, with help from
researchers, Amrita
Chhachhi and Kawalijit Singh, produced a report, ‘Left Behind
in a Changing
World’. The study is based on the experiences of a community
of handloom
weavers in the Aligarh and Bulandsher Districts in Uttar
Pradesh, Northern
India, where traditionally, in family-based units; it was women
who did the
spinning while men were in charge of weaving. The women
spinners are known
as ‘charkawalees’, which means ‘women who operate the
‘charka’ or spinning
wheel. The study describes how the handloom workers have
been overwhelmed
by competition from the power loom industry. Unable to
develop new designs
and products and under increasing pressure because of economic
liberalisation
since 1992, they have been handicapped by the increased cost of
cotton yarn.

Despite the government’s reserved quota system, the result of
the export of
raw cotton was to be a dramatic rise in the price of the yarn (the
cost rose by
300 percent between 1985 and 1995). Marginalized by the mill
owners’ control
of hank yarn and blocked from access to new technology
through their lack of
education and resources, the lives of the weavers and their
families have been
devastated.
The Action India study documented the profound sense of
uselessness and
despair which this had created among the handloom weavers;
their demoral-
ization was accompanied by problems of drink and gambling
among the men,
while the women suffered both from domestic violence and the
nagging
anxieties of poverty.
When asked what they thought about the future, the majority of
the women
said that there was no time to think. Their marginalization
excluded them from
any sense of a future. ‘What is left to think about ourselves?’
(Action India
1995: 38) asks Kela at the age of 40. A minority refused this
annihilation of their
humanity, but the cost of struggling for comprehension was a
painful realization
of being abandoned people. Reflection brought no solutions.
Shakuntala, a
woman of 33, stated, ‘I think a great deal, but what’s the
point?’(Action India

1995: 38). Another Sona Devi, at 50, kept ‘thinking what have
we achieved, the
children are educated, but to what end? Even after studying they
continue to
be wage workers on other peoples’ power looms.’(Action India,
1995: 39). The
implications of economic restructuring upon the identities and
aspirations of
the human beings who find themselves left behind have received
even less
attention than quanti�able facts such as the extent and
conditions of women’s
employment.
Gouri Choudhury, in a retrospective summary for the
international- level
workshop in 1996, explained that it had been Sumitra’s question
‘What is the
future of our children?’ (Choudhury 1996: 11) which had
initiated the research.
Through investigation and discussion over a two year period,
Sumitra, a charkhawalee turned social activist . . . reached the
following conclu-
sion. “Weavers have always endeavoured to improve their tools.
That is to increase
their production to earn more money, with less labour and time.
But the new
technologies developed by scientists and engineers are beyond
the reach of

weavers”.
(Choudhury 1996: 11)
Gouri Choudhury concluded that it was indeed the inequality
and elitism in the
‘ . . . structure of technological development’. (Choudhury
1996: 11) which
allowed whole communities to be dispensable.
At the country-based workshop organized by UNU /INTECH
and Action India
in New Delhi in 1995, Chandni Joshi from UNIFEM stressed the
need for research
to be a two-way process:
We have a saying in Nepal: To make a perfect rice cake, we
need a strong �ame
from below and heat from the top to make it rise.
(Gothoskar 1996: 2)
Activist researchers – Sujata Gothoskar, from the Workers’
Solidarity Centre,
Mumbai, and Rohini Hensman, who has written on women’s
employment and
trade unions and Gouri Choudhury of Action India – edited the
report of the
workshop, and they observe that Chandni Joshi’s metaphor
captures,
. . . the essential connection between the macro plans on the one
hand and the
every day ground reality on the other: between those who make
the policies and
those whose lives are affected by them or remain untouched.

(Gothoskar 1996: 2)
This approach to research was especially fitting for a project,
which was
essentially about the control over knowledge.
A P P R OA C HE S T O T ECH NO L OG Y
The series of workshops held in the course of the project
grappled with contra-
dictory assumptions about technology. On the one hand many
people in poor
countries regard technology as a panacea, while on the other
some radical
groups and ecofeminists profoundly suspect it.13 Sujata
Gothoskar engaged
with these con�icting views in the New Delhi country-based
workshop in 1995,
arguing that technology should not be seen as a mechanically
determining
factor, but a force created and used in speci�c social contexts.
She was critical
of those who assumed that ‘by itself’ (Gothoskar 1996: 6)
technology would
address poverty, malnutrition, employment and discrimination.
But she also
rejected the assumption that it had therefore nothing positive to
offer. If the
optimists dismissed inequality, the pessimists in their turn
disregarded the
suffering which came from the malnutrition, over-work and ill-
health caused
by lack of access to the right kind of technology. The key issue
was the type of
technology and who controlled how it was introduced.

Renana Jhabvala, from the Self Employed Women’s Association
(SEWA),
Ahmedabad, an organization which has repeatedly challenged
myths that
illiterate poor women could not be trusted with modern tools,
money or decision
making, also spoke at the 1995 New Delhi workshop. She listed
several examples,
which illustrated the signi�cant improvements which basic
technologies could
make if the users had control over them. SEWA had helped poor
landless rural
women to get land, but they had been allowed access only to
sparse, barren
ground. By contacting the local agricultural university a
seasonal rotation of
crops, fodder and fruit trees had been worked out which enabled
the women to
farm. Nursery technology and water technology had made the
women’s lives
much easier. Another instance was SEWA’s Health Workers’
Cooperative which
made low cost allopathic medicines available to poor
communities and drew
on a combination of allopathic, ayurvedic and homeopathic
health knowledge.
While it was important to build on women’s existing
knowledge, Renana
Jhabvala also argued that women workers needed access to
technology, to
resources, and to markets (Gothoskar 1996: 7). The women

SEWA organises
are excluded from the wide range of learning activities which
contribute to
developing technological capabilities. These involve the
capacity to choose
appropriate technologies, the effective use of them and the
marketing skills
necessary to sell goods. SEWA’s approach is that modernity
does have bene�cial
consequences for women, but only if people are placed at the
centre of how
modernity is conceived and implemented.
In the report produced by UNU/INTECH, New Technologies
and the Future
of Women’s Work in Asia (1994), Shirin Akhter from the
National Workers’
Federation (JSJB), a trade union in Bangladesh, suggested how
trade unions
could not only monitor and challenge health and safety, but
could make
demands for training and re-training schemes a priority for
workers displaced
through technology. In Bangladesh automation had affected
many women
workers because they lacked ‘access to the acquisition of skills
and technological
knowledge’ (Ng 1994: 7). She added ‘ . . . efforts are needed to
ensure women
obtain gender-equal access to any gains from technology’ (Ng
1994: 8). Unions
could also ‘support women’s efforts to gain education, training
and skills’
(Ng 1994: 8). Shirin Akhter did not see technology as just being
the hardware
of machines, computers or equipment but as having a wider

meaning; the
‘knowledge, ideas, and skills that help the development and use
of an earlier
technology’ (Ng Choon Sim 1994: 7).
The implications of how knowledge is approached were taken
up by the
economist and historian Nirmala Banerjee, who has been
involved in the
women’s movement and supported many women workers and
NGOs struggles.
Her article with Swasti Mitter ‘Women Making a Meaningful
Choice: Tech-
nology and the New Economic Order’, re�ected on the �ndings
of the project
in India. While recognising that modernization often destroys
traditional life
styles of people without providing them with an access to the
newly emerging
opportunities, Banerjee and Mitter reject the idealization of
‘tradition’ which has
characterized some eco-feminist writing and certain strands
within the left and
postmodernism. They challenge an unquestioning acceptance of
traditional
knowledge theoretically and practically, showing how it is at
once ahistorical
and has often led to anti-progressive policies and measures,
which have been
particularly detrimental for women.

Banerjee and Mitter point out that when ‘tradition’ is
romanticized, workers
are taught to regard each step in the process – whether
ritualistic or actually
productive – as an equally essential one and no explanations are
provided why
it needs to be done. This creates a mind-set which venerates the
past and
distrusts change, a form of conservatism that has particular
implications for
women’s skills because they, much more than men, are
supposed to be the
keepers and not the questioners, of social values in the context
of the family.
The invocation of ‘tradition’ simply ignores how such an
approach to
knowledge makes it dif�cult to innovate or to question; it
discourages original
thought and the desire to go beyond the known. Moreover it
freezes ‘tradition’
rather than recognizing that culture is always in process
historically. For
example lore and ‘know-how’ can be partially forgotten over
the generations
making even the understandings based on the accumulated
experience of
practising particular crafts garbled and inappropriate (see
Banerjee and Mitter
1998).
BR ID G I NG T HE G A P
An unresolved tension in the project was how to build on
existing experiential

knowledge and engage with the new technologies which big
transnational
companies controlled and introduced. But this is after all one of
the great
dilemmas of ‘the third industrial revolution’ as the gap in
knowledge and power
continues to widen dramatically. The discussions held in the
course of the
UNU/INTECH project continually came back to this dif�cult
question. Given that
the proposition of returning to ‘tradition’ was of dubious
benefit for many
women, who had been subordinated in the past, and was anyway
no longer
practicable because of the surrounding changes brought by
industrialization and
the global penetration of capital, what alternative democratic
strategies could
be developed for a more human-centred transition? In the
country-based
workshop, ‘Making Women’s Voices Heard’ in New Delhi in
1995 for instance
the participants debated how research and policies could
identify ‘ . . . the
existing skills of women which could be the basis for starting
programmes of
employment generation’(Gothoskar 1996: 3). Gouri Choudhury
gave a concrete
example – instead of teaching handloom weavers to operate the
new looms
non-weavers were being brought in and trained, thus a chance
was being missed
to use women’s tacit skills for alternative employment.
(Gothoskar 1996: 3) A
comparable case in Vietnam revealed how policies for social
restructuring

required resources, either from �rms or from private industry.
Pham Thi Bon’s
research revealed how education and training, coupled with
child care, literacy
programmes at the workplace, and �exible vocational training,
could ease the
dislocation experienced by women workers who were being laid
off when new
technology was introduced. (Bon 1996: 24) Investment in
training alone could
not be the answer, for it could focus on an elite alone.
L O CA L A N D GL O B A L
Despite the differences in the countries studied the need for the
state to take
responsibility for forms of social restructuring and welfare kept
surfacing. This
raised the political question of how current state policies might
be changed and
how the daunting task of democratising policy making at the
national and
international level could be approached. A UN project could not
engage with
particular states’ politics, but it could seek to help build and
strengthen a bridge
between state structures and NGOs.
The UNU/INTECH project was really calling attention to a
process, which
has been developing in an ad hoc way among some of the

NGOs. For instance,
the Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) in India
presents an interesting
model of a women workers’ organization prepared to negotiate
with the power-
ful at the level of the state and international agencies, while
persistently
returning to the women at the grass roots’ de�nitions of their
own interests and
needs. SEWA, which combines mobilisation as a union with
developmental
projects and welfare services has played an important role in
quite consciously
moving between the micro and the macro.14
‘Monitoring the Impact of Technological Changes on Women’s
Employment
in the Asian Region’, thus had some footsteps to follow.
Nonetheless making
connections between representative and participatory forms of
democracy is a
complex and dif�cult process.15 ‘Bridging the gap’ between
the NGOs and the
states proved to be rather more complex than making a good
rice cake. In
the words of Cecilia Ng, ‘One of the stumbling blocks was that
these two groups,
for the most part, seldom met to discuss, nor did many see eye
to eye with each
other (Gothoskar 1996: 11).
Chandni Joshi, speaking on behalf of UNIFEM, at the country-
based work-
shop in Delhi in 1995, was more optimistic about the impact of
women’s NGOs
upon international bodies such as the UN. She referred to the

UN meetings
in Cairo, Copenhagen and Beijing in raising the visibility of
women. There were
also changes in approach, for example UNDP’s shift to an
assessment of eco-
nomic growth in qualitative rather than purely quantitative
terms by including
the Gender Development Index (GDI) and the Gender
Empowerment Matrix
(GEM) (Gothoskar 1996: 2).
Like training, however, research cannot be effective in a
vacuum: some
means of getting it adopted in practice is required. By bringing
activists and
policy makers together in common forums internationally
(Mitter and Ng 1995),
the project revealed that, far from there being no longer scope
for particular
national states or for organizations working at the grassroots,
there is actually
even greater urgency for both kinds of social intervention.
NEW F O RM S O F O RG A NI Z I NG
The UNU/INTECH project’s participatory approach raised an
interesting set of
issues about both NGOs and trade unions – the organizations
which can act as
intermediary pressure groups between the grassroots and policy
making bodies

nationally and internationally. The rise of the NGOs had
coincided not only with
the rolling back of the state but with a sustained offensive
globally by employers
against trade unions.
In her synthesis of the project, Geraldine Reardon (1998) notes
that despite
the tendency of trade unions to neglect women’s speci�c
interests and the fact
that many women work in non unionised Free Trade Zones or
the informal
sector, the weakening of trade unions has still left many women
workers without
vital defences. It is not simply the economic impact of
casualized employment,
job insecurity or unemployment, which have restricted trade
unions in the Asian
region. Many employees have been forced to work in
circumstances of fear and
physical intimidation because unions have either been banned
or, conversely
integrated by the state and used to carry out policies which
serve the interests
of the international companies rather than those of union
members (Reardon
1998: 21–22).
Problems exist too in the internal structures, practices and
attitudes of
both the NGOs and the unions themselves. The term ‘NGO’ is
very vague and
covers organizations and groups which are very different. Some
are large demo-
cratically run structures, while others are tiny research groups,
self help centres

or community projects.’NGOs’ can be basically self-appointed,
which raises
problems about their relation to the communities they claim to
represent. While
some are rooted and embedded in local neighbourhoods, others
might survive
simply because they are adept at doing funding applications.
NGOs thus can
replicate in microcosm problems which have become evident in
efforts to create
participatory structures to transpose needs into policy at the
level of national
states. An unexpected spin off from the UNU/INTECH project
was a rethinking
of the future role of NGOs.
Unions are likely to be much older organizations than the
NGOs. Well
established and formally structured, they tend to have a built-in
conservatism
and resist the �exibility, which has characterized the NGOs.
The 1990s saw
growing pressure for trade unions not only to take up issues of
women’s equality
at work but also to change their organizing strategies. However,
even in
countries such as India, which has strong traditions of
democracy and a history
of independent trade unions, it has been a tremendous problem
to get organiza-
tions, which have been formed, in one historical context to
adapt to new
circumstances. Geraldine Reardon argues that the
UNU/INTECH research reveals
the need for unions to be ‘ . . . pro-active rather than re-active
in matters of

technological change’ (Reardon 1998: 23). There was a need for
unions to ask
how technology was going to be used, by whom and how it
would affect other
workers (Reardon 1998: 23).
Sujata Gothoskar provided a practical example of women
workers taking a
pro-active initiative in defence of their jobs at the 1995
country-led workshop
in New Delhi. Women in a pharmaceutical �rm in India
commissioned research
on the impact of new technology upon their work and then used
the �ndings
to develop demands, which they presented to their trade union
committee,
management and the state (Gothoskar 1996: 22). She argued that
basic
information such as this could be relevant to women workers.
On the basis of
her own experience as a committed researcher she believed that
obstacles often
arose in the manner in which knowledge was transmitted and
sometimes the
questions asked by researchers were not appropriate ones. The
other side of
the coin was that it became clear in the course of the
UNU/INTECH project
that if wider connections were to be made, there was a need for
some training
at the grassroots in how to utilize information which was

removed from direct
experience.
The NGOs who contributed to ‘Monitoring the Impact of
Technological
Changes in Women’s Employment in the Asian Region’ had all
gained experi-
ence of this kind of transmission and training and thus
constituted a valuable
resource of action based knowledge in themselves.
Geraldine Reardon argues convincingly in her monograph for a
comple-
mentary relationship between NGOs and trade unions.
‘Women’s NGOs usually
see women as whole beings, not just workers’ (Reardon 1998:
28). Because they
have worked on issues such as women’s health or domestic
violence they can
bring experience and knowledge to social needs which the trade
unions could
take up. NGOs can provide services in terms of legal aid,
training and retraining,
and can undertake research, which can help workers to develop
strategies.
(Reardon 1998: 27). Because they are in touch with people in
differing parts of
the economy they can also bring together groups such as rank
and �le workers,
trade union leaders and activists in the informal sector or
community groups.
For example UBINIG, an NGO in Bangladesh, does this by
operating through a
Trade Union Development Education Centre (Sramabikash
Kendra) (Reardon
1998: 28). The capacity of NGOs to contribute to the

development of alternative
strategies is enhanced by their capacity to bring knowledge of
developments in
a speci�c sector of industry or in other sectors. Geraldine
Reardon shows how
this can both involve and encourage workers who feel isolated, ‘
. . . to examine
their own situation in a more objective light and lead to a
greater understanding
of their situation and their rights to learn how to articulate their
employment
needs’ (Reardon 1998: 29).
However NGOs themselves are still often isolated, under-
resourced and cut
off from vital sources of knowledge both nationally and
internationally. (Mitter
and Ng 1996: 34). So Geraldine Reardon suggests that while the
NGOs have the
advantage of grassroots engagement and �exibility, their fragile
networks could
be greatly strengthened in association with international bodies,
sympathetic
states and with the international structures of the trade union
movement. An
example of such an alliance working in practice is the ILO’s
Convention and
Recommendation on Homework in 1996 which has agreed on
the social regu-
lation of homeworkers’ conditions.16

Despite the continuing resistance to change within many trade
unions
there are a few interesting signs of radical shifts in outlook.
Examples include
a pro-active response to technology, a wider de�nition of health
and safety
to include working environments and stress, as well as linking
with activists
in the informal sector, with consumer campaigns and
community groups.
Women’s groups in many countries have played an important
part in pushing
for a ‘new’ unionism, more evangelical in style and prepared to
include social
issues (Brecher and Costello 1990; Panitch and Swartz 1993;
Gindin 1995;
Tesselaar and Ooostveen 1997; David 1996; Milkman 2000). In
fact these forms
of unionism are not entirely new, but a rediscovery of earlier
forms of trades
unionism which had been forgotten during the post-war era.17
They are,
however, responding to a completely changed context – the
startling and
unknown repercussions of global technological transformation,
which have
taken the ground from under the feet of all the groups concerned
to develop
more human centred forms of economic restructuring. It is
evident that rethink-
ing, reorientation and renewal are required in the established
organizations and
institutions, in combination with an expansion of the capacity
and scope of the
under-resourced groups at the grass roots.

CO NC L US I O N
‘Monitoring the Impact of Technological Changes in Women’s
Employment
in the Asian Region’ has made considerable headway in
collecting data on
the impact of globalization and technological change on women
in Asia, in
developing and connecting the knowledge stored in grassroots
organizations
while trying to bridge the gap between them and policy makers.
It has shifted
the debate about women’s employment and technology onto an
examination
of actual trends rather than a reiteration of ideological stances
and brought
a much wider range and greater depth of thinking to the
question of democra-
tising economic transformation. The UNU/INTECH project also
served as a
demonstration in practice of the right of economically excluded
groups to
a share in the resources controlled by international research
institutions, which
are usually directed towards those who possess assets in terms
of formal
academic knowledge, political power or wealth. It did, however,
trigger off some
early warning signs about the rapidity of change, the
vulnerability of many
groups of women workers and the dif�cult process of creating
new kinds of
institutions, which can assert and defend their needs.
Though necessarily only a beginning, it demonstrates that
international

institutions can respond to the claims of the excluded and
become more
accountable. There are signs of a new awareness at the
grassroots about what
is at stake. In Gouri Choudury’s words, the claim for the right
to knowledge seeks
‘ . . . to make the process of development a transparent and
democratic process
by saying that people who are being “developed” have a right to
know “what”
this development is about and “how” they are being developed’
(Choudhury
1996: 18). One aspect of this right to knowledge involves wider
social access
to information technologies. Another is the connected resolve to
democratise
the uneven and unequal manner in which economic policies are
developed.
Sumitra, Gouri Choudhury and Tara Negi testify to the
transformative impact
of engaging in such a dialogue in the UNU/INTECH New Delhi
workshop,’
Standing at the crossroads to modernization and marginalization
this workshop
opened doors to new thinking (Action India 1995: 1). It is to be
hoped that
many feet will tread through the door that has been opened.
This article is based on ‘Monitoring the Impact of
Technological Changes on Women’s
Employment in the Asian Region’, a UNU/INTECH research

project funded by UNIFEM
and the Dutch Ministry of Development Cooperation. The
project was co-ordinated by
Swasti Mitter, in collaboration with Cecilia Ng Choon Sim and
in its initial stages, also
with Rohini Hensman. Sheila Rowbotham has worked for
several years with Swasti
Mitter on the concept of democratisation of knowledge and
power, which has been the
basis of the research underlying this project. The authors are
grateful to the collaborative
work done by all those who participated in the project and for
help in editing this article
to Jane Williams and Geraldine Reardon.
No t e s
1 See for example Bhagwati (1998), Hirst and Thompson
(1996), Krugman (1997),
Panitch (1994) and Radice (1999).
2 For examples which look at the social implications see George
(1992), Rowbotham
and Mitter (1994), Brecher and Costello (1994), Kofman and
Youngs (1996),
Marchand and Runyan (2000).
3 See UNCTAD (1994)
4 See for a critique Giddens (1997), Bhagwati, (1998).
5 Opposing perspectives can be found in Cooley (1987), Mitter
and Rowbotham
(1995) and Kothari (1997).
6 See for example Shiva (1988), Merchant (1992). For a critique
of some of the

implications of eco-feminism see Mitter (1994) and Mitter and
Rowbotham (1995).
7 See for example Ng (1987) and Chhachhi and Pitten, (1996).
8 On the need to take an inclusive perspective in the context of
the US see Amott
(1993).
9 See for example Hale (1996), Boris and Prugl (1996) Ross
(1997).
10 This point is made in relation to software programming in
Brazil by Gaio in Mitter
and Rowbotham (1995: 226).
11 The term was the title of the book by Richard Sennett and
Jonathan Cobb, (1972)
The Hidden Injuries of Class New York, Knopf.
12 On resistance to working conditions in Vietnam see also
Green�eld (1998).
13 There is a vast literature but see Kirkup and Keller (1992)
and Mitter and
Rowbotham (1995).
14 On SEWA ses Renana Jhabvala in Rowbotham and Mitter
(1994) and Carr et al.
(1996).
15. Breines (1982) looks at participatory democracy in the
American New Left.

MacIntosh and Wainwright (1987) describe the GLC experience
in which the
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the role of NGOs see
Carr, Chen, Jhabvala (1996) and in relation to Latin America,
Alvarez, Dagnino
and Escobar (1998).
17. See for example Milkman (ed.) (1985) and Schrom Dye
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International Labour Review, Vol. 150 (2011), No. 3–4
Copyright © The author 2011
Journal compilation © International Labour Organization 2011
Gender and reconciliation of work and family in Iran
Narjes MEHDIZADEH*
Abstract. The problem of work–family balance has not yet been
articulated in devel-
oping countries as it has been in the developed countries,
though work–family ten-
sions are growing in developing countries as well. Against this
background, the
author examines the distribution of female employment in Iran
and considers its pos-
sible determinants – with female labour force participation a
mere 12.5 per cent in
2006. Drawing on a survey of 800 highly educated mothers, she
highlights the crucial
need for better childcare facilities to improve women’s work–

family balance and
labour force participation, arguing for a policy approach
combining formal/in-
formal childcare with working time regulation.
he vocabulary of work–life balance, family-friendly policies
and work–T family balance has seldom been used in the Islamic
Republic of Iran – or
elsewhere in the Middle East (Mehdizadeh, 2010). Yet work–
family tensions
are also apparent in developing countries, and they look set to
grow. As Cover-
man (1989) has argued, there needs to be a serious examination
of policy
options in these countries as role conflict is more likely to
occur in situations
where no mechanism exists to help individuals fulfil their
different roles.
Indeed, women’s low labour force participation in the Middle
East is all too easy
to dismiss as culturally induced without considering the effect
of the lack of pol-
icies that support a sound work– life balance.
In order to assess the extent to which that effect contributes to
the low
level of employment among mothers, this paper examines the
experiences and
attitudes toward work and care of a sample of Iranian women
with post-second-
ary education, i.e. the most likely to enter the labour market.
With reference to
* School of Law and Social Sciences, Glasgow Caledonian
University, email: [email protected]
mail.com. The author wishes to thank the Institute of Labour

and Social Security of Iran for financial
support of this research project and Emeritus Professor Gill
Scott for her valuable comments.
Responsibility for opinions expressed in signed articles rests
solely with their authors, and
publication does not constitute an endorsement by the ILO.
406 International Labour Review
the strategies developed in Europe, it then considers the policies
that would
need to be introduced in Iran to reconcile work and family and
to ensure the
realization of women’s potential as reflected in their rising
educational attain-
ment. It is not easy to replicate policies that have worked
elsewhere, but discus-
sion of the reasons for change and the impact of change in some
developed
countries could be a valuable source for policy development in
Iran.
Barriers to women’s employment and neglect of work–family
reconciliation strategies
Although female labour force participation in the Middle East
and North Africa
(MENA) is rising faster than in some other developing
countries, labour force
statistics show that women’s employment rates in the region are
the lowest in
the world (Shafik, 2001; IBRD/World Bank, 2007). Indeed, the
increase in their
participation is mostly concentrated in the urban informal

sector, as a result of
the migration of less educated and younger women from rural
areas.1 Mean-
while, women’s formal employment is heavily concentrated in
lower-level
white-collar jobs, and they are under-represented in managerial
and profes-
sional occupations2 despite the increase in numbers of educated
women. In fact,
occupational segregation is more extreme in the MENA than in
other regions
(Doumato and Posusney, 2003). As shown in figure 1, the
gender gap in eco-
nomic activity rates is particularly wide in Iran.
Several scholars have put forward theories on the determinants
of women’s
employment rates in the Middle East (e.g. Momsen, 2004;
Haghighat, 2005; Kar-
shenas and Moghadam, 2006). Predominant are the cultural
theorists: Youssef
(1974), for example, has argued that female employment rates
are largely
dependent on the interaction between women’s particular
response to their
labour market position and the employment opportunities
actually available to
them, both of which are closely related to each society’s
cultural definition of the
type of work considered appropriate for women. She concludes
that female par-
ticipation rates in Middle Eastern countries may therefore have
little to do either
with the level of economic development or with the structure of
demand in the
labour market.

Cultural explanations, however, are not the only ones. Studies
of women’s
employment in European societies have highlighted the
significance of welfare
1 Iran’s informal sector includes wage workers in private
enterprises employing fewer than
ten workers, various types of unpaid family labour and
workshops that hire wage labour for carpet
weaving and other handicrafts or simple commodity production,
e.g. dried herbs, pickles, jam, blan-
kets, etc. (Rostami Povey, 2005, p. 6).
2 Albeit not in large numbers, women can be found in
professional occupations and decision-
making positions in Iran. For example, the number of female
candidates for parliament increased
from 66 in 1980 to 585 in 2008. The number of women elected
to urban and rural Islamic councils has
also increased, from 1,375 in 1998 to 1,491 in 2006.
Furthermore, there have been two women in the
Ministerial Cabinet for many years and, in 2009, a woman was
appointed Minister of Health and four
others as presidential advisers. In addition, the number of
women’s NGOs, which have an influence
on policy, increased from 55 in 1996 to 980 in 2007.
Gender and reconciliation of work and family in Iran 407

and work–family policies in this respect (see, for example,
Gornick, Meyers and
Ross, 1997; Tomlinson, 2006). So before Iran’s low rates of
female employment
are attributed solely to attitudes, one also needs to consider the
country’s neglect
of such welfare provisions. Yet, in post-revolutionary Iran,
there has been con-
siderable political commitment to the promotion of women’s
rights, albeit within
the confines of Islamic doctrine. Partly as a result of this,
Iranian women have
shown remarkable attainment both in university entrance
examinations and in
their academic performance in various fields (Mehdizadeh and
Scott, 2008).
Many scholars believe that the underlying policy changes of
recent decades dem-
onstrate the potential of policy for transforming the role of
women in Iran’s
labour market as well (Bahramitash and Kazemipour, 2006;
Taleb and Goodarzi,
2004; Mehdizadeh, 2010). But while women’s mass
participation in education –
accounting for 58.6 per cent of university admissions in 2006 –
has resulted in
some changes in the relationship between education/training and
employment
(Shanahan, Mortimer and Kruger, 2002), their educational
achievement is not
matched by a similar improvement in labour market outcomes:
the female labour
force participation rate in 2006 was only 12.5 per cent
(Statistical Centre of Iran,
2007).

If Iran is to gain from women’s clearly established capacity to
take advan-
tage of higher education in a way that benefits the economy and
women them-
selves, there is a need to explore some of the reasons why this
has not happened
– and particularly why this paradox is most keenly experienced
by educated
mothers (Mehdizadeh and Scott, 2011). The argument of this
paper is that the
key factors underlying to the paradox of high numbers of female
graduates com-
bined with a low rate of female graduate employment lie not so
much in trad-
itional patriarchal attitudes or Islamization (Bahramitash and
Salehi Esfahani,
2009; Mehdizadeh, 2010) as in the weakness of state support for
women’s
employment and a lack of childcare and work-related
welfare/support policies
to meet working mothers’ need and preference for the
reconciliation of work
and care (Mehdizadeh, 2010; Mehdizadeh and Scott, 2011).
According to the ILO, one of the key linkages that need to be
made to
improve the gender balance in the labour market is that between
the care econ-
omy and paid work: “The care economy includes most of
women’s unpaid work
as well as the public and private provision of social services.
Women are ham-
pered in finding paid jobs because of their family
responsibilities” (ILO, 2005,
p. 42). Thus, it can be argued that a better understanding of
women’s experi-

ences and stronger work-related welfare/support policies would
be key to a
smoother transformation of women’s role in the labour market
of Iran (Mehdi-
zadeh, 2010; Mehdizadeh and Scott, 2008 and 2011).
Distribution of women’s employment in Iran
According to Iran’s most recent census, in 2006, 36.6 per cent
of employed women
worked in the services sector, 31.8 per cent in manufacturing
and 31.6 per cent in
agriculture; 59.7 per cent of them were in the private sector and
37.3 per cent
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in the public sector. However, women are distributed across
fewer occupational
categories than men, such as agriculture and weaving (mostly
carpets) in villages,
and education, health and social work in cities. This also
applies to educated
women: the statistics for 2004 show that 65 per cent of
employed women with
higher education were working in the educational sector, 14.6
per cent in the
health and social work sector, and only 20.4 per cent in other
sectors, while
28.8 per cent of men with a higher education background were
working in the
educational sector, 6.1 per cent in the health and social work
sector, and
the remaining 65 per cent – i.e. the majority – worked in other
sectors. These
statistics show that the education and health sectors have
offered the greatest
attraction for women with higher education. Table 1 breaks

down female
employment by educational level in the main occupational
categories, according
to the census of 2006.
In 1996, 42.8 per cent of male legislators, high-ranking public
servants and
managers had a higher education, while the proportion was 60.1
per cent among
their female counterparts. The proportions had increased to 46.3
and 79 per cent,
respectively, by 2003. Women’s access to high-level managerial
jobs is thus more
restricted than it is for men, and typically subject to higher
qualifications than
men’s. The proportion of female university teaching staff in
Iran is 20 per cent,
considerably less than in other MENA countries, such as
Algeria (41 per cent),
Tunisia (40 per cent), Turkey (38 per cent), and Bahrain (36 per
cent) (Mogh-
adam, 2009). Since women’s under-representation in certain
occupations could
be due to conflict between work and family responsibilities,
particularly child-
care, this issue will be explored in the following section.
Mothers’ employment experiences in Iran
This section is based on a survey I conducted in 2005 among
educated mothers
with school-age children in the city of Shiraz. With a population
of 1.7 million,
Shiraz is the major commercial and industrial centre of southern
Iran and hosts
one of the largest universities of the region.

The survey inquired into the experiences and attitudes of 800
mothers with
post-secondary education and was combined with interviews of
a sub-sample.3
Just under half of the respondents were working at the time of
the survey; one-
third reported they would like to be working, and one-fifth
reported they were
not working and did not wish to. The proportion of employed
women in the sur-
vey is above the national average, but the sample was selected
to include as many
working mothers as possible, and only women with a post-
secondary education.4
Of those who were working, more than three-quarters were
employed in the
public sector, predominantly in education and health care; 8 per
cent were self-
employed, and only 4 per cent were working in the private
sector.
3 The survey results and interview reports are available from
the author on request.
4 In the autumn of 2005, the unemployment rate among female
graduates was about 24 per
cent, as against 10.9 per cent among male graduates. About 35.5
per cent of unemployed women had
higher education qualifications, while the proportion among
men was only 13.9 per cent.
Analysis of the mothers’ experience of work showed up a

number of inter-
esting features. In particular, 51 per cent felt that the most
important role of
women was to be carers/home makers. Of those in employment:
• 65 per cent were working full time, although 49 per cent
would have pre-
ferred to be working part time;
• 63 per cent were satisfied with the type of job they were
doing;
• 65 per cent were in teaching, with a further 13 per cent in
other public sec-
tor jobs;
• 54 per cent gave financial independence as their reason for
working;
• 61 per cent felt their husbands approved of them working, but
24 per cent
felt their husbands did not approve;
• 31 per cent felt it was very difficult to combine work with
motherhood.
Lack of childcare centres, particularly for school-age children,
clearly cre-
ated tension for mothers, often causing them either not to work
or to leave their
job. Only 8 per cent said there was no difficulty making
childcare arrangements
to cover periods when they were working and children were not
in school; 33 per
cent reported severe difficulty in making such arrangements.
Overall, 89 per cent
indicated that after-school care facilities were very necessary,
with the majority
of non-working mothers reporting that the non-availability of

childcare had
influenced their decision not to work. Indeed, “difficulty with
childcare arrange-
ments” was the major reason why some mothers were not
working: some 35.5 per
cent of the respondents who were not working at the time of the
survey felt that
this was the case, while a further 17.8 per cent of respondents
reported that “re-
striction by husband” was the main problem. Moreover, the
main reason for the
husband’s disapproval – expressed by most of the mothers in
this category – was
“paying less attention to children and husband”. A mother’s
satisfaction with her
job depended on her being sure that her children were well
treated, and if they
felt that their children would feel neglected, their motivation for
work was
reduced. Only 16.5 per cent of the respondents who were not in
employment
believed that “shortage of job opportunities” was the reason for
them not work-
ing. Analysis of the data also showed that mothers who spent
more time with
their children were more satisfied.5
Many of the respondents – educated mothers – reported that
they had not
actually attempted to find a job because they felt that they had
no hope of find-
ing suitable employment that would fit in with their family
responsibilities.
When men are busy, women should compensate for that.
Because my husband is

working in several cities, I have to do everything to do with the
home. This is the
reason that a woman like me cannot work. (Interview reports,
non-working mother
No. 14.)
5 This strongly concurs with the findings of Van Drenth, Knijn
and Lewis, who compared
single parents’ motives for taking up a job instead of relying on
welfare in the United Kingdom and
the Netherlands: “better-educated Dutch mothers prefer to stay
at home at least part of the week
with young children” (1999, p. 624); also, in both countries,
some women were committed to full-time
jobs and others to part-time jobs, although it is very difficult to
say how much this is a consequence
of choice, as Hakim (1996) believes, or a constraint.
While 47.1 per cent of the employed respondents indicated that
they had
not thought about leaving their job, the majority of them (52.9
per cent) said
they had. Of those in the latter group, 45.5 per cent said this
was because of
childcare, 19.3 per cent felt tired of work, and 15.9 per cent
indicated that
“domestic affairs” were the reason. Furthermore, hours of work
and career
prospects were clearly affected by childcare responsibility:
I prefer to work in an education authority because of their hours
of work and holi-

days. I was working in the Ministry of Health; I had to work
during summer
holidays too. I also had to work until 2.30 pm every day. … for
the sake of my
children I changed my work to the education authority.
(Interview reports, work-
ing mother No. 3.)
I guess I can resign. At the beginning of this year, I tried to
organize my working
hours with my child’s school schedule, but it ended up in an
argument. (Interview
reports, working mother No. 11.)
It is excellent: the Government provides an opportunity for
women to work part
time or to do shift work with the same hours as my children’s
school hours, so my
work shift changes with my children’s. (Interview reports,
working mother No. 5.)
A key issue highlighted in these comments is of course the
difficulty of
combining childcare and work, but it is not the sole issue. The
women in the
sample were highly committed to family life: almost all of these
educated
mothers indicated that they would choose family over work.
Beyond their
expressed commitment, however, the point is that the burden of
childcare and
family responsibilities appears to fall exclusively on women,
thus affecting their
availability for employment. For example, in a survey on
working women’s
problems conducted by the Tehran Media Centre in 1999, 60 per

cent of the
respondents approved of women working outside the home and
22 per cent
expressed conditional approval. The dominant opinion of those
in the latter
group was that women could work outside the home “as long as
no harm is
done to the home and life and husband and child”. However, 98
per cent of
respondents mentioned family responsibilities as the main
obstacle to women’s
employment, and 68 per cent of the married working women
were of the
opinion that their work outside the home had affected “their
duties” inside
the home.
In a study designed to evaluate women’s household work and
related atti-
tudes among 400 non-working women in Tehran, Jazani (2004)
found that
although looking after children, shopping and responsibility for
children’s edu-
cation were considered as women’s household work, activities
such as collect-
ing children from school and looking after the elderly were not
considered part
of women’s domestic role. Jazani’s investigation also found that
the majority of
women choose a housekeeping role because of social and
cultural constraints
and their responsibility for looking after small children. In
addition, the major-
ity of women in her study believed that household affairs were
unquestionably
the responsibility of women and that, for the sake of the

country’s economic
development, it was therefore important that women be paid
wages for work-
ing at home. However, they also reported that they enjoyed that
responsibility,
although the majority believed that employed women were
undervalued in their
society.
While previous studies such as Jazani’s (2004) have highlighted
the import-
ance of women’s responsibilities at home as an obstacle to their
employment,
none of them has paid much attention to the role of childcare
policies in Iran.
Reconciliation of work and family: Policy directions in Iran
Women’s growing labour force participation has been the main
driving force
behind the work–family reconciliation policies that have been
introduced across
the developed countries in the past few decades. Policy
packages vary across the
different countries, but seldom to the extent of the minimal
intervention found
in many developing countries where it is often assumed that
families should
make themselves available for childcare or be prepared to pay
for it on the mar-
ket. “Minimal intervention may be due to the assumption in
some developing

societies that family solidarity enables most workers to cope
with family respon-
sibilities” (Hein, 2005, p. 15). Such assumptions, however, are
becoming ques-
tionable – not to say unrealistic – as a result of social changes
such as migration,
urbanization, changes in household and family structures and
the lack of
resources to address work–family problems. As one interviewee
reported:
He [my child] has to be left alone at home when I am working.
… I have some
relatives in Shiraz, but they have their own problems as they are
also working
mothers. (Interview reports, working mother No. 1.)
Developing a policy response more appropriate to changing
conditions,
however, is not easy. Working time provisions and leave
entitlements, for
example, are two key areas of labour legislation which affect
the ability of
workers to reconcile family responsibilities and work, and they
have been lib-
eralized somewhat in Iran. Nevertheless, the effective
implementation of laws
and regulations is fraught with difficulties (Feldman, Masalha
and Nadam,
2001; Hein, 2005). Laws and regulations exist in principle but
are often not
implemented.
Under the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, a woman
can be an
employee, like a man, provided that her job is lawful and

humane, is accom-
plished with regard to Islamic rules, and is neither detrimental
to family duties,
nor a cause of controversy and disturbance within the family
(Iran, 1979).
Woman’s work and care reconciliation strategies are not ruled
out by this, even
if they are constrained. Iran’s welfare strategies have generally
been designed to
secure the right to receive care (e.g. state responsibility for
childcare, help with
childcare fees) and the right to time for care (e.g. leave
opportunities for part-
time work). For example, paragraph 107 of the Charter of
Women’s Rights and
Responsibilities in the Islamic Republic of Iran also emphasizes
the “right to
enjoy facilities, standards and rules proportionate to women’s
family (as a wife
and mother) responsibilities in their hiring, employment,
promotion and retire-
ment during the period of employment” (Supreme Council of
the Cultural Revo-
lution, 2004, p. 20).6
Accordingly, Parliament has enacted legislation to support
working mothers
in the areas of maternity leave, breastfeeding, job security and
part-time employ-
ment under the 1992 Labour Code.7 Yet, it was only at the end
of the third par-

liamentary term (1988–92) that the bill for childcare in
women’s workplaces
(largely public sector) was passed. However, while these rights
are clearly
observable in policy documents, they are seldom enjoyed in
practice. Besides,
they focus solely on mothers’ rights and responsibilities. The
right to paternity
leave, for example, is not in place for fathers to take care of
their children, despite
the rhetoric about sharing parental obligations. More generally,
there is no sign
of policies or regulations that encourage fathers to help women
take care of chil-
dren. As the survey found, whilst mothers preferred to look
after their children
themselves, the second option they usually chose was “asking
the husband to
look after their children” – a difficult solution in the absence of
clear and re-
sourced policies.
Yet parental leave could provide a mechanism for improving
welfare for
children, as could appropriate working time policies:
“responsibility lies on the
shoulders of governments whose policies regarding equal
opportunities for men
and women and the promotion of leave schemes can impact
upon organiza-
tional culture and public opinion” (Vandeweyer and Glorieux,
2008, p. 275).
However, research on developed countries suggests that
solutions such as part-
time work may not be appropriate for all working women
because they are not

a homogenous group (Cox and Cox, 1988; but see also
Sundström, 1991), or that
it will reinforce the traditional gender division of work until
such time as high
percentages of men begin to use this option (Hein, 2005).
Concluding remarks
Most national welfare systems feature three main care-policy
components,
namely: subsidized day care services, cash benefits for care, and
paid parental
leave. The question is whether such propositions are relevant to
Iran. The cen-
sus of 2006 showed that 42.3 per cent of economically active
women were
unmarried, and over half were married. In other words, the
majority of working
women have family responsibilities – either exclusive or central
responsibility
for the functions of the family, such as the socialization of
children, parenting,
6 Similar wording appears in paragraph 10 of the Principles of
Women’s Employment Policies
(see Women’s Socio-Cultural Council, 2005).
7 In particular, Article 78 of the Labour Code of the Islamic
Republic of Iran provides as fol-
lows: “In workplaces employing women workers, nursing
mothers shall be granted a half-hour break
every three hours to enable them to nurse their children until
they reach two years of age; such
breaks shall be regarded as part of their hours of work.
Furthermore, employers shall set up childcare
centres (such as day nurseries or kindergartens) according to the
number of children with due regard

to their age.”
domestic chores and family entertainment. Indeed, family
responsibilities are a
salient part of their lives regardless of education and economic
status – as con-
firmed by the survey underpinning this study – thus creating a
situation that
makes them very vulnerable as workers.
Yet, as women have come to contribute more to household
income, there
is some evidence of changing gender norms regarding their
participation in the
labour market. Although there is less evidence of changing
gender norms inside
the family, change is possible in this respect too. According to
the Civil Code of
Iran, “maintenance of children is both the right and the duty of
the parents”
(Article 1168) – so entitlement to paternal leave could easily be
justified.8 In
addition, paragraph 37 of the Charter of Women’s Rights and
Responsibilities
(in the section entitled “Girls’ rights and responsibilities in the
family”) empha-
sizes the “right to enjoy protection and participation of the
spouse in child
upbringing”. Therefore, since Iran’s laws and regulations are
held to be in con-
formity with Islamic doctrine and Sharia law, it seems that its
regulators could

amend the country’s labour law in such a way that it generally
promotes freer
choice. It is not, however, simply a question of law. Blossfeld
and Drobnic
(2001) argue that a father’s involvement in childcare tends to
increase as chil-
dren grow older and that it improves children’s well-being9 – a
valid consid-
eration in the context of Iran’s stated policy aim of improving
the quality of
children’s lives. Besides, flexible leave arrangements generally
encourage
female workers to remain in the labour force, while a statutory
entitlement to
parental leave can reduce the negative effect of maternity leave,
which often
adversely influences employers’ attitudes towards recruiting
women.
The survey findings reported in this paper suggest that to
achieve the
“ideal of care” which mothers want, it is necessary to introduce
the “ideal of
work” for mothers. On this point, policy-makers interviewed in
the course of the
survey suggested reduced hours of work with full pay and
benefits. However,
any such work–family policies in Iran will tend to focus on
women working in
the public sector, thereby excluding the 59.7 per cent of
working women who are
employed or self-employed in the private sector (according to
the 2006 census).
Many scholars believe that good-quality and affordable
childcare services

are still the most effective mechanism for supporting
mothers/parents in their
right to work (e.g. Lister, 2003; Lister et al., 2007; Ellingsaeter,
2006). This point
could usefully be taken into consideration by Iran’s policy-
makers, who need to
think about comprehensive and holistic approaches which
include both working
time regulation and childcare facilities. National childcare
policies in the welfare
system of Iran should indeed provide more social facilities
comprising both for-
mal and informal care arrangements in order to facilitate
reconciliation of work
and childcare.
8 For the full text of the Civil Code in English, see
http://www.alaviandassociates.com/docu
ments/civilcode.pdf.
9 See also Pailhé and Solaz (2008). In their study of Swedish
fathers, Sundström and Du-
vander (2002) also found that fathers tend to take more parental
leave if the mother is more
educated.
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