Gender Analysis of Employment Policies in Post-Revolutionary Iran

 This paper aims to explore the dominant gender discourses in employment policies after Islamic Revolution of Iran using a gender analysis approach and qualitative content analysis method. The Result shows that, there are various propositions of competing gender discourses in employment policies that have witnessed changes in terms of time period, approving authority and occupation types. In other words, while categories that represent the intrinsic approach are dominate in various political discourses and documents, such as the priority of maternal and spousal roles for women, man head of household, harmful employment, primacy of private sphere, family centered approach, and different rights and duties, policy makers have reserved conditional employment for elite women. From the perspective of extrinsic approach, there are some categories such as: equal payment, skill centered approach, women empowerment and necessity of structural changes. In sum, based on McPhail’s model, one can explore extrinsic and intrinsic approaches in Iranian employment policies at the same time which shows that policy approaches and orientations are inconsistent. Keywords:</strong> Gender analysis, Employment, Women, Family, Gender Discourses