Married Women's Perceptions of Social Meanings of Being Employed: The Functions and Consequences

Recent increasing changes in socio-cultural desire abilities in Iran have modified women's roles in the society and have led them to seek for independency in different aspects. They consider employment as a chance for attaining advantages that are not accessible at home. This research aims to understand how married women in Mashhad city perceive employment. To do this, 25 semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with both employed and house worker married women. The interview scripts were all analyzed using grounded theory method. The findings showed that employment is part of women identity out of the family environment and is significant in promoting their capabilities. This phenomenon is called "employment as an identifiable and empowerment" and it is the central idea in our grounded theory. Most participants were interested to work out of house and they have different reasons for this. But at the same time they face many problems. However being employed take some advantages of women but its positive outcome for them makes them stay at work.