Phenomenological investigation of social identity challenges of working women in different ethnic groups

Social identity has a special place in today's societies, especially in societies in transition from tradition to modernity. Women in these societies face many challenges in gaining and establishing this identity. There are more challenges when social identity is associated with elements of gender, employment and ethnicity. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the experience of working women in Ahvaz from the challenges of their social identity in four ethnic groups: Fars, Arab, Bakhtiari and Kurdish. The method of the present research is qualitative and descriptive phenomenology. The number of sample people in each ethnic group was 10 and a total of 40 people. The sampling method was purposeful and maximum variety. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data and clustering method was used to analyze the data. Participants' review and monitoring methods, researcher self-review in the process of data collection and analysis, and re-coding of interviews by two other researchers were used to assess the reliability and validity of the research. A total of 2 main categories and 18 sub-categories were obtained from data analysis. Barriers and facilitators to women's social identity were key categories in all four ethnicities. Findings indicated the effect of employment and ethnicity on women's social identity experience. Arab women considered their social identity in need of promotion and consolidation, Persian women defined their identity more than other ethnic groups, and Kurdish women and Bakhtiari expressed their identity completely influenced by the employment and coexistence of ethnic groups.