Strategies for Iranian Women Empowerment in Reducing Gender Inequality Using Focus Group Discussion

Gender inequality can cause waste of human resources, reduce women's social participation, influence women's physical and mental health, cause domestic violence and delay the development of a country. Hence, strategies are required to identify and reduce gender inequality in a society. The purpose of this study was to explain strategies to reduce gender inequality.

This qualitative research was conducted as a group discussion in three groups (n=22), two with seven people and one with eight individuals, including lecturers in reproductive health (n=6), psychologists (n=2), sociologists (n=2), midwifes (n=3), postgraduate students with at least 5 years of experience in midwifery (n= 6) and master’s graduates in midwifery counseling (n=3) in 2021. The discussions were held in Tehran and Sari and the subjects discussed their views about strategies for empowerment of women in reducing gender inequality in Iranian society. The participants were selected using purposive sampling at different ages, education level, and economic and marital status until data saturation. Data analysis was carried out using conventional content analysis approach.

Strategies for reducing gender inequality were categorized into four main themes: reducing inequality in social, political, economic, and cultural domains.

In order to empower women and reduce gender inequality, it is possible to look at gender inequality from social, political, economic, and cultural dimensions and take action to reduce this problem through investigating these factors.