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Undercounting Women's Work in Iran

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Fatemeh Etemad Moghadam
Fatemeh Etemad Moghadam*
Affiliation:
At Hofstra University in New York
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Abstract

This paper explores the possibility of a considerable undercounting of women's labor force participation in the official surveys in Iran. According to the official data, the proportion of females in the total active labor force was about 15.5 percent in 2006. Furthermore, according to the official data the share of female in total active labor in agriculture was about 10 percent in 1996. An examination of a large body of field research on the subject, however, suggests a much higher participation rate, about 40 percent of total agricultural labor. This paper will examine these studies and explore the reasons behind the underestimations. Pointing at the growing visibility of urban women in public space, the increasing share of skilled and educated women, rising cost of living, and the need for both male and female incomes to support an urban family, some observers have suggested that the official data underestimate urban female labor participation, as well. Informal urban labor, however, has not been adequately studied. Anecdotal information, however, suggests the existence of a significant female informal economy in both traditional and modern industries. In 2001, I undertook a micro study of 350 working age women in the affluent northern part of Tehran and found that a large number of educated upper and middle class women were active in the informal market. This finding was in sharp contrast to the studies in other developing countries in which informal participants are generally poor and unskilled and are unable to join the modern formal economy. This paper will also explore the reasons for undercounting of urban female labor.

Type
Articles
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 42 , Issue 1: Special Issue On Gender and Sexuality , February 2009 , pp. 81 - 95
Copyright
Copyright © The International Society for Iranian Studies 2009

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Footnotes

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Sixth Biennial Conference of the International Society for Iranian Studies at SOAS, London, 2006. The conference paper was entitled “Iran's Missing Working Women.”

References

1 Roksana Bahramitash and Hadi Esfahani, eds., Political Economy of Iranian Women's Employment: In Between (de)Globalization and Islamism (forthcoming); Moghadam, Fatemeh E., “Winners and Losers: Women and Labor-Force Participation in the Islamic Republic of Iran,” in Earnings Inequality, Unemployment, and Poverty in the Middle East and North Africa, ed. by Dibeh, G. and Shaheen, W. (Westport, CT, 2000)Google Scholar; Moghadam, Fatemeh E., “Iran's New Islamic Home Economics: and Exploratory Attempt to Conceptualize Women's Work in the Islamic Republic,” in Research in Middle East economics. Vol. 4 The Economics of Women and Work in the Middle East and North Africa, ed. by Cinar, E. Mine (New York, 2001), 339–360CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Valentine, Moghadam, “Women, Work, and Ideology in the Islamic Republic of Iran,” International Journal of Middle East Studies, 20 (1988): 221–243Google Scholar; Valentine, Moghadam, “Women's Employment Issues in the Islamic Republic of Iran: Problems and Prospects in the 1990s,” Iranian Studies, 28, nos. 3–4 (1995): 175–202Google Scholar.

2 Nomani, Farhad and Behdad, Sohrab, Class and Labor in Iran: Did the Revolution Matter? (Syracuse, NY, 2006), 126–134Google Scholar.

3 Salehi-Isfahani, Djavad, “Labor Force Participation of Women in Iran: 1987–2001,” Unpublished World Bank Report, Gender and Development in the Middle East and North Africa: Women in Public Sphere (Washington, DC, 2004)Google Scholar.

4 There exists considerable controversy concerning the theoretical origin and definition of informal economy (see below). Here I will define it as synonymous with unmeasured and unaccounted in official statistics.

5 Arab-Mazar-Yazdi, Ali, “Eqtesade siah dar Iran” (Black Economy in Iran), Majjaleh Barnameh va Budjeh, nos. 62–63 (1380/2001): 3–60Google Scholar; Khalatbari, Firuzeh, “Eqtesade zirzamini” (The Underground Economy), Majalleh Ronaq, 1, no. 1 (1369/1990): 5–11; 1, no. 2: 11–18Google Scholar.

6 Carr, Merilyn, Mainstraming Informal employment and Gender in Poverty Reduction: A handbook for Policy-Makers and Other Stakeholders (Ottawa, 2005)Google Scholar.

7 Beneria, Laurdes, “Accounting for Women's Work: The Progress of Two Decades,” in Women, Gender, and Development Reader, ed. by Visvanathan, Nalinin Duggan, Lynn Larie Nisonoff and Nan Wiegersma (London, 1997), 112–118Google Scholar.

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9 Roksana Bahramitash, “Veiled Economy: Gender and the Informal Sector,” in Political Economy of Iranian Women's Employment, ed. by Bahramitash and Esfahani.

10 Four major theoretical approaches and definitions of informal economy may be found in the following sources: Feige, Edgar L., “Defining and Estimating Underground and Informal Economies: The New Institutional Economics Approach,” World Development, 8, no. 7 (1990): 989–1002Google Scholar; ILO, Decent Work and the Informal Economy (Geneva, 2002)Google Scholar; Hart, Keith, “Informal Economy,” in The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, ed. by Eatwell, John Milgate, Myrray and Newman, Peter Vol. 2 (New York, 1998), 845–846Google Scholar; Keith Hart's report, “Employment, Income, and Inequality: A Strategy for Increasing Productive Employment in Kenya,” International Labor Organization, Geneva 1972Google Scholar; Portes, A. Castells, M. and Benton, L. A. eds., The Informal Economy: Studies in Advanced and Less Developed Countries (Baltimore, 1989)Google Scholar.

11 Beneria, “Accounting for Women's Work,” 112.

12 Todaro, Michael P., Economic Development in the Third World, 4th ed. (New York, 1989), 268Google Scholar.

13 Todaro, Economic Development in the Third World.

14 These studies are largely published in scholarly journals such as Eqtesâde Keshavarzi va Tose'eh, Faslnâmeh Pazhuheshe Zanân, Nâmeh Oloume Ejtemâi and others.

15 Markaze Âmâre Iran (Iran Statistical Center), Sâlnâmeh Âmârye Keshvar 1350 (Statistical Yearbook) (Tehran, 1971), 59; (1993), 73; (2004), 99Google Scholar.

16 In Gilân female work accounts for 76 percent of the labor input for rice and 80 percent for tea, in Mâzandaran 50 percent for rice and in Gorgân 40 percent for cotton and 90 percent for summer crops. Women provide labor input for fruits, animal husbandry, dairy products, and preservation and processing activities. Lower contributions are reported for wheat and barley. Sarhaddy, Farideh Moti', Nahid Zat, Azar Nik Far, Marzyyeh Khojasteh and Saremi, Zahra, “Naqshe Ejtemâ'ii-Eqtesadye Zanan dar Rustâye Âhandân (Lâhijân)” (Socio-Economic Role of Women in Village of Âhandân (in Lâhijân)), Eqtesâde Keshâvârzi va Tose'eh: Vizheh Nâqshe Zanân dar Keshâvarzi, 3 (Spring 1374/1995): 217–238Google Scholar.

17 Research shows that in Yazd one-half and in West Azarbâyjân one-quarter of active females earn direct cash income. Some studies estimate the average contribution of the combined family labor and cash earnings to be about 30 percent of the rural household income (Heydari, Gholâm Rezâ and Nemâ, Fahimeh Jahân, “Tavânâiyhâye Zanân dar Bakhshe Keshâvarzi-Rusâiy” (Women's Capabilities in the Agricultural-Rural Sector), Faslnâmeh Pazhuheshe Zanân, 1, no. 6 (Summer 1382/2003): 129–164Google Scholar.

18 Talab, Shadi, “Did-gâhe Mardâne Roustâii Nesbat be Kare Zanân” (Rural Male's Perception of Women's Work), Nâmeh Oloume Ejtemâi, no. 8 (Winter 1375/1996): 81–89Google Scholar.

19 A study of 30 villages in Isfahan indicates that 80 percent of male heads of household consider agriculture and animal husbandry their primary occupation. Of these only in two cases were the wives reported as active labor. One woman was a teacher and the other a health worker. In other words women are considered active only when they work outside the family farm and earn a salary. Of those males who were interviewed, 54 percent did not even consider their wives as unpaid family workers. Only 46 percent said that their wives work but without pay. The study, however, demonstrates that in 81 percent of the family farms women were active labor outside the immediate household labor (Talab, “Did-gâhe Mardâne Roustâii Nesbat be Kare Zanân”).

20 A study in 42 villages in Yazd indicates that women play an important active and complementary labor role either in agricultural labor or handicrafts. Roughly 60 percent of women in farming households that owned land were involved in activities such as agriculture, animal husbandry and carpet weaving. Within the landless households, about 76 percent of the women had carpet weaving and about 30 percent performed activities related to agriculture and animal husbandry. Thus at least 76 percent of women in landless, and 60 percent in farming households were active labor. But curiously enough these women generally reported home-making as their occupation (67 percent). That is to say they do not consider themselves active labor (Heydari and Jahan Nema, “Tavânâiyhâye Zanân dar Bakhshe Keshâvarzi-Rusâiy”).

21 A study shows that in 17 percent of the surveyed farms women had major managerial input. This share in farm sizes with less than two hectares, where men are more likely to migrate or work off-farm, was 44 percent and in farms of 5–10 hectares only 3 percent. Male family members generally deal with banks, institutes of higher education and training for use of mechanized inputs (Heydari and Jahan Nema, “Tavânâiyhâye Zanân dar Bakhshe Keshâvarzi-Rusâiy”).

22 Markaze-e Amar-e Iran (Iran Statistical Center), Salnameh Amarye Keshvar 1381 (Statistical Yearbook 2002) (Tehran, 2003): 58, 606Google Scholar.

23 In a study of Boir Ahmad, Erica Friedl notes that women missed working with other women in farms and were not satisfied with being dependant on husbands and confined to homes, but did not wish to go back to the hard farm labor (Friedl, Erika, “Rural Women's History: A Case Study from Boir Ahmad,” in Women in Iran from 1800 to the Islamic Republic, ed. by Beck, Lois and Nashat, Guity (Chicago, 2004), 218–239)Google Scholar. On field visits to Mâzandarân, where rice production is being mechanized, and in Yazd, I, too, noted that most young women had secondary level education and had no desire to work in the fields, produce traditional low-wage crafts, or be trained to use agricultural machinery. They were unwilling to perform hard labor and wished to have a personal business or work in an office.

24 Informal conversations with Firoozeh Khalatbari, Shahla Lahiji and Jaleh Shaditalab.

25 Bahramitash, “Veiled Economy.”

26 Fatemeh E. Moghadam, “Iran's Missing Working Women,” in Political Economy of Iranian Women's Employment, ed. by Bahramitash and Esfahani.

27 Mohsen Ranâni, “Sâkhtâre Eshteghâl dar Bakhshe ghire Rasmi va naqshe on dar jazbe Niruye Ensânye Motakhasses” (Structure of Employment in the Informal Sector and its Impact on attracting skilled labor force, unpublished report 2001); Moasseseh Pazhuhesh va Barnâmeh Rizye Amuzeshe Âli, Vezârate Olum, Tahqiqat va Fanâvari, (unpublished report, Institute of Research and Planning for Higher Education, Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Training, 2001).

28 In a sample survey of 1,400 women, Shadi Talab found that 12 percent of the employed were informal workers. In another study (2003) she found that 30 percent of the working women lacked any form of social insurance which implies that they were largely informal workers. (Talab, Jaleh Shadi, “Women in the Financial Market: The Case of Banking System,” unpublished ms, 2002Google Scholar; Talab, Jaleh Shadi, “Women's Social Security in Iran,” unpublished ms, 2003Google Scholar.

29 Moghadam, F., “The Political Economy of Female Employment in Post-revolutionary Iran,” in Women and Power in the Islamic Middle East, ed. by Slymovics, Susan and Joseph, Suad (Philadelphia and New York, 2000), 191–2003Google Scholar.

30 Mohseny, Maryam, “Vaz'yyate Kârgarâne Zan dar Iran” (The Conditions of Blue Collar Women Workers in Iran), Jense Dovvom (The Second Sex), 4 (1378/1999): 126–133Google Scholar.

31 Mohseny, “Vaz'yyate Kârgarâne Zan dar Iran.”

32 Mahimini, Khadijeh and Sâlehi, Shahlâ (Langarudi), “Shivan Sâlâry va ‘Sharhe Masâeb Râhe halle Behbude Zendegye Zanâne Kârgar” (“Cry-archy” and “Elaboration of Calamities” as a Way of Improving the Lives of Blue Collar Women Workers), Jense Dovvom, 2 (May–June 1378/1999): 76–85.Google Scholar

33 For a detailed presentation of the survey see Moghadam, “Iran's Missing Working Women.”

34 One set of questionnaires were filled by women active in a charity organization, one in a photo shop, and one in a travel agency. Please note that this was a very low-budget survey. The use of establishments, as opposed to a door to door household survey was very cost-efficient.

35 The total budget for the survey was $1,500.

36 Markaze Âmâre Iran (Iran Statistical Center), Sâlnâmeh Âmârye Keshvar 1378 (Statistical Yearbook 1999) (Tehran, 2000), 829Google Scholar.

37 Bahramitash “Veiled Economy.”

38 Nomani and Behdad, Class and Labor, 126–134; Salehi-Isfahani, “Labor Force Participation.”