The transformation of the female labor market

IN PREVIOUS CHAPTERS, we covered the social, political, and economic context of prerevolutionary and postrevolutionary Iran. In this chapter we will focus on census data and quantitative analysis of this transformation. Much of the previously published work on female employment argues that because of the process of Islamization, women's employment declined in the aftermath of the 1979 Revolution (V. Moghadam 1988, 1995a; F. Moghadam 1994; Moghissi 1996; Afshar 1997; Alizadeh and Harper 2003; Behdad and Nomani 2006). Some academics have argued that Islamization may have in fact facilitated education, mobilization, and participation in public life for women who came from low-income families or religious backgrounds (Paidar 1995; Kian 1997; Hoodfar 1999; Poya 1999; Mehran 2003). Meanwhile, many factors other than Islamization-for example, demographic change, formation of new institutions, and internal and external shocks-have also been at work in complex and dynamic ways, influencing labor market conditions and interacting with the Islamization process. We make an effort in this chapter to sort out these issues to the extent that the census data permit.