The Type of Men’s Belief in Women’s Employment: A Qualitative Study in Yazd City

Women’s employment is one of the most important social and cultural issues that still faces obstacles and challenges. One of the most important components in this regard is the attitude of men towards women’s employment. The aim of the present study is to analyze men’s perception and attitudes towards women’s employment. The study was conducted in 2019 in Yazd and the study method is Grounded Theory (GT) of Strauss and Corbin. Based on data saturation criteria and research ethics, 21 men entered the study using Purposeful and theoretical sampling and semi-structured interviews. Data analysis was performed by open, axial and selective coding. which finally led to the extraction of 38 concepts, 7 main categories and 1 core category. The main categories of the research include: causal factors (traditional socialization, unequal gender structures), contextual factors (facilitating platforms for employment acceptance, appropriateness and feminization of the environment and working conditions), intervening factors (value redefinition of women’s jobs), strategies (action compatible and incompatible with the acceptance of women’s employment) and consequences (opportunities and threats of accepting women’s employment). The study found that despite widespread social change, most participants accepted women’s jobs with its social concerns. This acceptance, which was explored in the present study as the conditional belief, is most concerned with the social and cultural contexts on the one hand, and the nature of the job and the context in which women work. Therefore, conditional belief defines women in certain job areas, which, while paying attention to the cultural components of society, does not overshadow the main roles of women in the family. Social and cultural policies are proposed in order to distribute and expand women’s jobs related to social and cultural contexts on the one hand and to preserve the integrity of the family on the other.