Higher Education, Lower Employment; Women Marginalized in Iran's Economy

The Open Data Base of Iran is an innovation project aimed at collecting data related to Iran in one place and presenting it in easily accessible formats. Radio Farda, in collaboration with this entity, publishes a series of articles. Early in 2017, a young woman criticized the lack of economic opportunities for educated women in Iran in a passionate speech. In this public address, she posed tough questions to Ayatollah Khamenei: "Today we see that graduates have no hope of finding jobs... There is no proper support for them. These individuals either enter non-specialized job markets or remain unemployed altogether... The accumulation of unemployed specialists leads to the loss of productive forces and the formation of cancerous tumors in our society." Following this, Ayatollah Khamenei explicitly addressed this issue in his speech; although he may not have shown as much empathy as the young questioner hoped. Instead, he stated that it is not the government's job to intervene to support greater participation of women in the job market: "How can we create jobs for 5 million students? Is that even possible... Is it necessary for every graduate to become a government employee? They should go and work in the free market." However, the issue is not that simple—especially for young women graduates. According to World Bank estimates, the level of economic participation of women in Iran is very low. This participation rate has faced a continuous decline since the beginning of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's presidency and remained virtually stagnant during Rouhani's first term. Despite Rouhani's government's slogans about repairing the gender gap (including his speech on International Women's Day in 2014, where he called for tangible progress in Iran towards gender equality), little progress has been made in increasing women's economic participation. Rouhani stated in his Women's Day speech on April 20, 2014: "Women must enjoy equal opportunities, equal support, and equal social rights... According to Islamic criteria, we do not consider men as the first gender and women as the second weak gender." So why have Iranian women been unable to progress like they did in the 1970s and 1980s? What has changed during this time that has led to very few women entering the job market? In this article, we will attempt to identify the main barriers to greater economic participation of women. Some of these barriers arise from inequality in access to education, while others relate to geographical and developmental inequalities. Others stem from the fact that job protection standards in Iran are below standard. Women and girls from all age groups and economic classes face challenges in finding jobs and advancing to higher levels in their fields. In this article, we will demonstrate the existing structural inequalities using official data and propose actions that can help empower Iranian women economically and socially. Women from marginalized social groups. Over the past three decades, Iran has undoubtedly been one of the leading countries in the region in expanding women's access to education at all levels. Since the mid-1990s, girls' participation at the primary and secondary levels has practically matched that of boys. According to a UNESCO report, Iran's Gender Parity Index (GPI) for primary school enrollment increased from 0.90 in the 1989-1990 school year to 0.96 in the 1999-2000 school year, and during the same period, this index for secondary schools rose from 0.73 to 0.92. These advancements were not accidental and were rooted in post-revolution laws. The comprehensive educational system program of the Islamic Republic of Iran dated 1988 explicitly emphasizes that the Ministry of Education must eliminate any discrimination against girls, especially in rural areas and among nomads, and adds that girls should be prioritized in the distribution of resources and the opening of opportunities. The 2003 UNESCO report refers to a series of measures taken during Mohammad Khatami's government to support gender equality in education. One example mentioned was: "The most tangible action by the Ministry of Education to reduce gender discrimination in schools was the revision of images in some textbooks in the 2002-2003 school year; with the aim of depicting more girls in roles traditionally considered 'masculine,' especially in technical-vocational fields." Although Iran deserves praise for the significant progress it has made towards increasing gender equality across the country, it should not be overlooked that there are still areas where girls are deprived of secondary education; either to help their families with agricultural work or other sectors, or to marry before graduation. Data published by the Statistical Center of Iran (SCI) indicates that the dropout rate between primary and secondary levels is particularly high in economically marginalized areas of Iran. In these areas, the overall economic participation rate is low. The Statistical Center of Iran has recorded information regarding the gender distribution of the student population in Iran at primary and secondary levels. In provinces where girls rarely drop out at a young age, a small difference is expected between the percentage of students at primary and secondary levels. In provinces where girls drop out of school early, we would expect a smaller percentage of girls to graduate from high school compared to primary school. We examined the gender distribution data for primary and secondary classes for the 2016-2017 school year. Although the available data is not complete, it provides a general insight into the dropout rates in each province. Dropout rates refer to the difference between the percentage of graduates at primary and secondary levels. At the national level, there is a significant difference in dropout rates among girls. Among the provinces, the highest dropout rate by a large margin belongs to Sistan and Baluchestan (4.85%), followed by West Azerbaijan (2.53%), Kurdistan (2.42%), Zanjan (1.96%), and North Khorasan (1.58%). Provinces where the percentage of female students graduating from secondary school has increased, meaning that the percentage of girls graduating from secondary school has been higher than that of boys, include Kerman (0.45%), Isfahan (0.43%), Qom (0.37%), Gilan (0.31%), and Yazd (0.19%). The dropout rates for boys are significantly lower. In none of the provinces was the percentage of boys graduating from secondary school significantly lower than that of girls. What factors could explain the higher dropout rates for girls in multiple provinces? The first hypothesis seems to be that in rural areas, the percentage of girls dropping out of secondary school is higher than that of boys, which could be due to girls being encouraged to work and provide financial assistance to their families, or due to limitations arising from insufficient infrastructure in rural areas, or that they marry before graduation. While there is a direct relationship between rural living and high dropout rates, it cannot be said that provinces with higher urbanization offer better educational opportunities for young girls. Notably, Kerman (40.74% rural population), Gilan (37.40% rural population), and Mazandaran (44.59% rural population) all retained more girls than boys in school during the 2016-2017 school year. Although in provinces like Sistan and Baluchestan, North Khorasan, and Hamadan, which have significant rural populations, the dropout rate is high, this issue also prevails in provinces such as Khuzestan and Kermanshah, which have high urbanization rates. Urbanization or rural living alone cannot explain dropout rates. So what other factors might be involved? Let's look at household income averages. Of the ten provinces with the lowest annual income levels, only in one—Qom—do the number of female secondary school students exceed that of males. Here, too, there is a relatively direct relationship between low household income averages and high dropout rates for girls. From this data, it can be concluded that there is a real connection between economic development and the educational success of girls. To combat girls' dropout rates, it is essential for the Iranian government to take action against poverty in rural areas and ensure that the necessary infrastructure exists to provide social and economic support to marginalized social groups so that they can offer a high level of education to their daughters. Although girls in deprived areas do not have much luck in education, even women who manage to enter university face limitations in their choices due to some discriminatory policies implemented during Ahmadinejad's era. Let's take a look at the numbers. Students who stay at home. The education revolution brought education to the masses and opened the doors of Iran's university system to millions of young women. In 1988, women constituted 28.7% of Iran's student population. This figure rose to 52.4% in 2006, one year after Ahmadinejad took office. Since then, the situation has become more difficult. In 2015, women made up only 45.8% of university students, and these figures have been declining since 2011. So who is to blame for Iran's poor record in gender equality in secondary education and beyond? The roots of many of the biggest challenges can be traced back to Ahmadinejad's administration. In 2006, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government made changes to the quotas for medical, dental, and pharmaceutical fields that limited girls' choices even more. According to the government's decision, a 50% female and 50% male quota was set for many medical fields to increase the number of male students in these fields. This led to numerous protests that these hidden quotas were quietly applied in other fields as well. Between the 2006-2007 and 2007-2008 academic years, the ratio of women studying at universities plummeted from 52.4% to 42.9%, the highest drop in a single year. Despite expressing commitment to gender equality in higher education, Rouhani's government has so far been unable to nullify Ahmadinejad's changes due to conservative opposition. Ayatollah Khamenei stated in a speech in April 2014: "We must see what studies and courses are suitable for women and provide them. We should not force someone to study in certain fields just because they participated in the university entrance exam or achieved a specific score, which may not align with their feminine nature or lofty goals, or the jobs offered after studying in these fields may not suit their temperament." As long as artificial restrictions on the enrollment of girls and women remain in place, it is unlikely that female students will regain the dominant position they held in the higher education system at the end of Mohammad Khatami's administration. Although the enrollment rate of women in universities has decreased in recent years, a large number of female specialists graduate from universities every year. But where do they go, and why is their economic participation rate so low? The outlook is not very hopeful; women are still not being absorbed into the job market. As mentioned at the beginning of this article, the economic participation rate of Iranian women is much lower than that of men. According to estimates published by the International Labor Organization (ILO) and the World Bank, the ratio of women's economic participation to men's is only 22.2%. Iran ranks between Iraq (21.8%) and Afghanistan (22.8%) in this regard. Iran is significantly lagging behind other economies in the region. Turkey leads with 42.5%, while the economic participation rate of women in Lebanon is 33.6% and in Egypt is 30.1%. Nevertheless, Iran has one of the most educated female populations in the region. So what causes it to have a situation comparable to Iraq and Afghanistan? There is no simple and clear answer to this question. In May 2017, Human Rights Watch published a report titled "It's a Man's Club" that addressed discriminatory practices prevalent among employers in both the public and private sectors in Iran and discussed the inadequate support available for women under Iranian laws. This report recommended that the country's labor laws be fundamentally reformed to stop discriminatory hiring practices and that provisions of the laws that require permission from a husband for women to work or travel for work be abolished. Data published by the Statistical Center of Iran in the 2014 labor force survey confirms that outside urban centers in Iran, women are generally deprived of access to major economic opportunities, and a large majority of them are engaged in manual labor or handicrafts. These sectors employ 85.2% of registered working women in rural areas. In contrast, in urban areas, 43.1% of those employed in the "professional" services sector are women, and 11.5% of the urban handicraft workforce is made up of women. While the rate of women's entry into professional positions in urban areas is higher, considering that over 40% of recent university graduates are women, the low economic participation rate remains a significant issue.