Women's Lived Experience of the Barriers and Challenges Faced when Playing Roles in the Country’s Public Policy-making

Women’s presence and the role they play in various political, economic, social, and cultural areas are necessary for comprehensive development. The role women play in the society and their approach to this role have always been one of the challenges and concerns of society, especially for women themselves. The purpose of this study is to analyze the women's lived experiences of the obstacles and challenges faced by those playing roles in public policy making in the country. This is a qualitative phenomenological study. Therefore, 33 working women in different occupational positions in Qom were sampled and interviewed through purposeful in-depth and semi-structured interviews. To examine the reliability of the study, two strategies of reviewing and re-reading and the ideas of experts outside the study were used. Data analysis led to 44 basic concepts and 12 core themes. The main themes consist of “gender stereotypes”, “masculine interpretations of women”, “legal/ civil challenges”, “limited-range jobs”, “men's taste”, “symbolic violence”, “intra and post appointment challenges”, “participation method” , “excessive political inefficiencies”, “institutional poverty traps”, “psychological coordinates” and “theoretical and empirical poverty”, which can eventually be classified into three textual (structural), meta textual (behavioral) and sub-textual (individual) categories.