Social Change and Change in Intentions of Iranian Youth Regarding Education, Marriage, and Careers

Abstract

Effects of large-scale socio-political movements and policy changes on individual attitudes and behaviours have been the focus of attention of social scientists and policy-makers in different countries. For example, concerns have been expressed regarding the effects of the so-called "fundamentalist" Islamic movements on attitudes and behaviours in relation to marriage, family structure, and the roles/rights of women. The Islamic Revolution of 1978 in Iran is usually assumed to have affected such beliefs and behaviours. To test the accuracy of such an assumption, three data sets collected in the same geographical location in 1982, 1984, and 1986 were compared within sex and SES groups. The intentions and aspirations of high school seniors regarding education, marriage, and careers were closer to conservative/traditional expectations in the 1982 sample than in the 1984 and 1986 samples. It is concluded that, even if there was an increase in traditionalism shortly after the Revolution, traditional tendencies have not returned to extreme levels within the few years surveyed, at least among the urban educated youth under study. Alarm regarding a "return to fundamentalism" in relation to marriage, family, and women's roles/ri&ts might be less warranted than is commonly assumed.Les effets de mouvements socio-politiques de grande envergure et de changements de politique sur les attitudes et les comportements individuels ont Ct C le centre d'attention des chercheurs en sciences sociales et des ligislateurs dans differents pays. Par exemple, des preoccupations ont ete exprimees par rapport aux effets des soi-disants mouvements Islamiques "fondamentalistes" sur les attitudes et les comportements en rapport avec le marriage, la structure familiale, et les rdes/droits de la femme. On assume generalement que la Revolution Islamique de 1978 en Iran a affect6 ces croyances et ces comporte-We would like to express our appreciation to Sharon Feldman and Akbar Aghajanian for their comments on an earlier draft of the manuscript. This research was

How The Future Orientation of Traditional Israeli Palestinian Girls Links Beliefs about Women's Roles and Academic Achievement

“…At the core of the beliefs about women's roles (also referred to as attitudes toward women's roles, McHugh & Frieze, 1997) has been the tension between women's traditional roles as wives and mothers and the pursuit of equal opportunities for education and occupational pursuit (Buhrke, 1988; Spence & Hahn, 1997). Thus, across different cultural settings and age groups, women have expressed more liberal beliefs than men, particularly endorsing women's rights for equality of opportunities (e.g., McHugh & Frieze, 1997; Tashakkori & Thompson, 1991). In this analysis, we focus on beliefs about women's roles from two perspectives: fathers' beliefs about women's roles as specifically applying to girls' education and early marriage as perceived by their daughters, and girls' self‐reported beliefs focusing on traditional versus liberal women's roles.…”