A Study of the Women's Rights Components in Iran's High School Social Sciences Textbooks

This research aimed at studying the recognition of women’s rights in the content of social sciences courses in Iran’s high schools. A descriptive method was used to identify women’s rights components and content analysis was used to study and analyze the content of social sciences courses in Iran’s high schools. The corpus of the study includedthe content of social sciences courses including textbooks (Social Studies 1، Sociology 1 & 2). Research instruments comprised content analysis، image analysis and objectives analysis lists developed taking into account theoretical frameworks. The validity of the instrument was evaluated by experts. Its Cronbach’s alpha was also assessed to be 0. 82. A use was also made of Chi-square to analyze data. The unit of analysis was sentences contained in textbook content، objectives content، as well as images. Content analyses of the objectives and textbooks suggested that women’s rights were heeded by 3. 43 percent and 0. 86 percent respectively. Cognitive component was maximally attended but the affective and performance components were neglected. Furthermore، it was revealed that the components such as empowering environment for women، women ownership rights of husbands’ properties، and marriage satisfaction were completely ignored. Concerning images، it was indicated that in 25 percent of the entire images women’s rights components were observed.