Analysis of the demographic, social and economic situation of female-headed households in Iran

• Published in: Faṣlnāmah-i zan va jāmiʹah (Online) Vol. 12; no. 47; pp. 1 - 18
• Main Authors: davoud shahpari sani, rasoul sadeghi, javad hadadi, raziyeh khajenexad, mohammadreza hosseini, hossien mahmoudian
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Persian
• Published: Islamic Azad University (Marvdasht Branch) 01-10-2021
• Subjects: female-headed households; household; iran; population; population change
• ISSN: 2008-8566; 2783-3194
• DOI: 10.30495/jzvj.2021.25575.3320

The leading article aims to examine the demographic, social, and economic situation of female-headed households in Iran with a descriptive-analytical approach and using raw data of two percent of the 2016 census. The results showed that the proportion of these women in the country has increased by 4.3 percent in the last two decades. Sistan and Baluchestan and Kurdistan provinces have the highest and lowest percentages of female-headed households, respectively. This increase has also been for single-parent households. The highest percentage of this household was in South Khorasan province and the lowest in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad provinces. More than 27 percent of female-headed households have no literate family members. 86% of women were unemployed and 14% were employed, which is a large gap between the two families. Analyzes showed that the gender of the head of the household was significantly related to age, marital status, literacy status, level of education, and activity status of the head of the household. In terms of age structure, female-headed households are older than their male counterparts, and in terms of marital status, most men have a spouse and most female-headed households are unmarried. Also, illiteracy, education, and employment rates are higher among female-headed households than their male counterparts. The implicit concept is that female-headed households are not in a better position than male-headed households in terms of the indicators examined.