Discourse Analysis of Three Development Plans Based on an Approach of Family and Women

In designing developments plans, considering women and family issues is a required policy. Having a critical look at former development plans in Iran is one of the necessary pre-conditions for designing local models of developments. The present paper first reviews the literature of development and then, with an emphasis on the issue of family and women, analyzes the discourse of third, fourth and fifth developments plans. Hybrid discourse analyses are done with Laclau and Mouffe and Fairclough approaches. The third and fourth development plans are attributed to the reformist discourse and the fifth development plan is attributed to the conservative discourse. The emphasis of reformist discourse is on the signs of ‘reforms’, ‘political development’ and ‘civil society’. In contrast, the emphasis of conservative discourse is on other signs, including: ‘constitutional law’, ‘economic development’, ‘justice’, ‘moral and religious values’, and ‘independency’. In the domain of gender development, the reformist discourse adopts a mixture of empowering, gender and development approaches. However, the conservative discourse has a critical look at the main approaches in development theories and tries to define local theories of women and family issues with an approach of familism.