Study of Power Structure In Family and Its Effect on Women's Reflexive Identity (Case Study: Female Students of Allameh TabatabaI University)

Nowadays in Iranian's society, the problem of identity hold specific importance and complexity and several arguments have presented about it. But these arguments have more obvious aspects about women's identity. From one side, structural and cultural changes which occurred increased opportunities in education and employment for women, causing new forms of identification. On the other side, the existence of gender stereotypes, faced women with many challenges in this area. Identity is a complex process influenced by many factors among which family structure is the most important one. Therefore, in this study, we have discussed the effect of family structure on women's reflexive identity. In the theoretical part, perspectives of Giddens on identity and reflexivity, his feminist critics and also Castell's perspectives of patriarchy are used. The present study is a survey. Data is collected through questionnaires.384 female university students of Allameh TabatabaI University were selected out of 1,600 through proportional quota sampling. Results indicate that the respondent show strong resistance against gender stereotypes and body management is also very important for them. The highest rate of "decision making" pattern and "division of housework" pattern was among the respondents of the patriarchal family. In addition, research results evidence a significant correlation between "power structures in family” and "rate of women's reflexive identity"; So that the rate of women's reflexive identity in families with patriarchal decision-making pattern is more than other women. In" division of housework” dimension, the high rate of women's reflexive identity belongs to women whose decision-making pattern in their family is participatory.