The Preferred Social Roles of Women in the Onset of the Second Pahlavi Reign; A Sociological Exploration in the Zaban-e Zanan Monthly Journal

Due to a lack of historical resources in the field of women and gender, women’s journalistic texts are invaluable sources which mirror women’s general conditions, situations, concerns, and demands in different time periods in Iran’s contemporary history. In order to investigate their social positions, the obligatory and necessary expectations due to their roles and also their role characteristics – as sociological categories in women’s journalistic texts during the era of modernization in Iran – the present study has examined the well-known and well-established monthly journal of Zaban-e Zanan in the period of the years 1942-1946, coincident with the onset of the second Pahlavi reign. Although the data of a few variables has been collected through a quantitative method, the main method of the study has been qualitative content analysis. The results show that although the writers of the journal had modernist orientations, the social status of women was only defined in the private sphere. The roles of motherhood, wifehood and maidenhood were each accompanied by obligatory expectations and role characteristics which were emphasized by the journal, and motherhood and wifehood were the preferred main roles for women. Furthermore, having these three-dimensional roles during that period, women were required by the sociopolitical conditions of the country to meet expectations such as receiving education and learning skills in line with patriotism and in order to raise men who were worthy and who would protect their homeland.