Affecting Factors on the Women's Increasing Participation in Higher Education: Case Study University of Mazandaran

In recent years the number of women interested in continuing their collegiate education has been increased. Nowadays as a result of this trend, over 60 percent of the university’s applicants are among the female. Therefore, this paper tries to investigate the causes of the female increasing participation in higher education. Female students from the University of Mazandaran were selected as the research sample and they were asked to answer to a closed-item questionnaire. The findings suggest that the most important causes affecting on the will of female to continue their studies are as follows:•Finding an appropriate job in the labour market;•Gaining higher income and economic benefits in the future;•Being impressed by globalization; •Competing for a better social position; and•Achieving to the educational equal opportunities.