Gender Differences in Priorities of Ethical

The research studies considering differences between men and women, in west differ from its similar ones in countries with longer cultural background such as Iran. The main objective in Europe and America is to find and use sex differences for promotion of the country’s political, cultural, and economic System –considering their claim for gender equality.On the other hand, in Iran, gender differences is used for justifying perceived inequality in political, cultural, and economic subjects, -holding moral belief in establishing gender justice in the society.With a review of research studies in areas concerning gender differences and their effects on ethics in the west, it was shown that most studies are in one of four eatagories namely, “moral development”, “ethical values”, “ethical sensitivity”, and “ethical behavior”.A research study was conducted in Tehran by the Women Studies Faculty in Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies, (IHCS) to evaluate and compare the ethical needs of men and women and show the difference in their choices. Besides evaluating men and women’s ethical priorities, in this study, the social background for emerging the needs have also been considered. The study used interview and questionnaire to ask 2800 men and women distributed in Tehran about their priorities (sample population). The study confirms the hypotheses that women mostly choose “needs” related to ethical and moral subjects while men’s choices are mainly physical. Social factors such as employment have direct effect on the choices, and the satisfaction mode. Sex differences in need’s selection and priorities for the optimized benefit from the diversities, should be considered in country’s national programs and the macro social projects particularly the ones related to women.