Gender Analysis of Social Security Policies in Post- Revolutionary Iran

  Due to the fact that gender is important as the most basic pillar of individuals’ identities in all social relations, it is helpful to identify current deficiencies in policymaking.

The method used is qualitative content analysis in the gender analysis approach. To this end, the documents and approvals of the main women policies and social security policies became qualitative content analysis.

The results show that there are various discourses in social security policies in Iran but the dominant discourse in women related policies is the subordinate citizenship (male breadwinner/female homemaker model). This model, while strengthening the supportive approach of the social security system and increasing its costs, is not commensurate with the demands and developments of society. Although the policymaker has considered The Universal Breadwinner Model in the main laws, it contains a small proportion of women’s participation. The policymaker has considered The Caregiver Parity Model in two current decades, but have had some problems in implementation. The Universal Caregiver Model has remained at the recommendation level and few policies such as paternity leave has been considered since five years ago by the policymaker, but this policy, has been aimed more at encouraging child-rearing. Despite the similarity-based approach of specific social security laws, macro gender policies have had a greater impact on social security policies.

Formulation of policies based on the context and developments of society and consensus in the gender approach governing the policy-making environment, can resolve the existing contradictions in social security policy-making.