Women in Iran’s economy: How do they contribute to producing goods and services? (a study based on Iran's NTA and NTTA report for 2018)

Majid Koosheshi, Associate Professor of Demography and leader of Iran's NTA team, University of Tehran
Gretchen Donehower, University of California, Berkeley
Reza Reyhan, University of Tehran
Mehdi Khalili, PhD student

In a demographic regime with high life expectancy and low fertility like Iran, it is expected that women spend more time on paid work and economic participation. This is exactly what has never happened, although the literacy rate and the proportion of women with higher education have increased dramatically during half a century in Iran. Do Iranian women, who have a low labour force participation rate, play any important role in the economy? The purpose of this research is to describe the presence and participation of Iranian women in market and non-market activities. Using the results of Iran's NTA project, which based on data from Iran’s HEIS and TUS, and NTA methodology, this article will try to find an answer to this question. The results generally indicate that Iran's economy is completely gendered. According to the results of this research, approximately 93 percent of Iran’s labor income in 2018 is produced by men while women have held 81 percent of services produced by unpaid work. In contrast, women contribute to produce only 7% of labour income and men's share of unpaid services is less than 19%.

Keywords: Economic Demography

See extended abstract.