Motherhood Experience and Childbearing Challenges of Working Women: A Qualitative Study in Tehran

Introduction For over the past two decades, Iran has experienced a total fertility rate below the replacement level (Alimoradian et al., 2023) with the ideal number of children hovering around 2.5 (Razeghi Nasrabad & Abbasi-Shavazi, 2020). Concurrently, there has been a notable rise in women's involvement in higher education and the labor market within the social landscape of Iran. In this context, education and employment can be perceived as potential constraints that may at times conflict with the decision to start a family. This study aimed to delve into the challenges related to childbearing faced by working women.     Materials & Methods This study adopted a qualitative research approach, conducting in-depth interviews with 22 employed mothers in Tehran. The participants were selected through purposive sampling to ensure maximum diversity and interviews continued until theoretical saturation was achieved. The data were analyzed using thematic analysis.   Discussion of Results & Conclusion  The study's findings unveiled 4 primary themes and 10 sub-themes concerning the challenges faced by working women in relation to childbearing: challenges at work, child-rearing challenges, economic challenges, and children's education challenges. The theme of challenges at work encompassed 3 sub-themes: anti-maternal administrative structure, work-family conflict, and glass ceiling. The anti-maternal administrative structure pertained to the absence of supportive conditions for balancing work and childbearing despite the existence of protective laws in Iran, such as reduced working hours, maternity leave, and breastfeeding hours for women. However, the study's participants perceived these laws as inadequate and lacking reliable enforcement. Long working hours, bringing work home, dissatisfaction of spouses and children due to extended work hours, feelings of fatigue, low vitality, and unhappiness served as evidence of work-to-family conflict. The glass ceiling denoted gender discrimination in the workplace that impeded women from advancing to higher positions. Examples of the glass ceiling included wage disparities, lack of family benefits, denial of family share of supplementary insurance to women, discrimination in managerial roles or job promotions, and limited number of female managers, particularly mothers with young children. The participants encountered various economic challenges, such as high living costs, limited housing space, especially for families with two children, expensive private schooling and extracurricular activities, high housing rent and mortgage payments, prolonged installments for home purchases, inflation, and economic downturn. They viewed their employment as crucial for addressing these challenges, often expressing that without employment, they would face hardship and poverty. The theme of childrearing challenges encompassed 3 sub-themes: "child care concern," "breastfeeding and child nutrition issues", "child upbringing concern", and "environmental and social insecurity". The working women in this study had encountered difficulties in caring for their children, particularly those under 6 years old and those in primary school. Mothers with children under 6 years of age highlighted challenges related to arranging childcare, including the transition of kindergartens from workplaces to the private sector. Additionally, the participants reported various issues concerning breastfeeding and child nutrition, such as negotiating with administrators to use breastfeeding facilities, early cessation of breastfeeding, irregular and inadequate feeding, and increased consumption of fast food by their children due to the mothers' limited time and late arrival at home. The theme of challenges related to children's education comprised 2 sub-themes: "inefficiency of family support policy in the education system" and "weakness in educational content." All participants, including women without children, highlighted this challenge and discussed the issues and concerns of their relatives, friends, and colleagues. Mothers expressed concerns about the Ministry of Education's neglect of the limitations faced by working mothers, high cost of educational devices, such as tablets or phones for online classes, mismatch of school and work hours, school closures due to weather conditions, and lack of time to assist children with homework and lessons. A significant concern for mothers with elementary school children was incompatibility of work and school hours as work typically ended at 4:00 p.m. while public schools closed at 12:30. This situation led some families to enroll their children in private schools where they could stay until the end of the workday and be supervised by the school staff. Additionally, parents were worried about their prolonged absence from their children, the need to provide internet access and devices, such as tablets or mobile phones for online schooling (during the coronavirus epidemic or air pollution days), and potential exposure of children to inappropriate content through movies, books, and materials unsuitable for their age. Ultimately, the research findings revealed that the employed women had encountered a multitude of challenges across various facets of their lives, particularly following the birth of a child. Additionally, the results indicated that the administrative framework tended to disregard the maternal role of working women. Aligned with institutional theory (Scott 2014), the normative expectations and gender stereotypes within the cultural context of Iranian society allocated the primary responsibility for family provision and livelihood to men, while domestic work, childcare, and the care of other family members were predominantly assigned to women. These circumstances had led the women in this study to opt for having fewer children as a coping mechanism. Developing programs and policies to alleviate these conflicts and challenges represents an effective strategy for promoting increased childbearing among working women

Representation of a ‘positive experience’ of surrogacy in Yazd, Iran: A qualitative study

Background: The social and cultural challenges facing surrogate mothers have been explored in several studies. However, few studies have discussed the motivations of surrogate mothers, their expressions and interpretations of their lived experiences, and their feelings of personal and spiritual satisfaction. Objective: This study aims to present the positive experiences of surrogate mothers from a phenomenological perspective. Materials and Methods: Using a phenomenological approach, this study was conducted from September 2020 to January 2021 in the city of Yazd, Iran. Participant observation and semi-structured interviews were used to collect the data among 12 participants with at least 1 experience of surrogate motherhood. Results: Our findings showed that, despite having had harsh physical and socio-cultural experiences such as fear of social labeling and stigma, participants felt a kind of inner satisfaction and a positive view of their actions. A core theme found in the study was mothers’ satisfaction. The main categories included feminine self-sacrifice and positive rewards. Feminine self-sacrifice included 2 sub-categories: creating happiness and conveying motherly feelings, while positive rewards included good childbirth, family acceptance, and halal income. Conclusion: This study showed that surrogate mothers experience conflicting feelings of inner satisfaction and social stigma during surrogacy. Some of those interviewed were willing to go through surrogacy again, but they feared social labeling and stigma, being misunderstood by others who are not fully informed about surrogacy, and being subjected to family and social disapproval. Key words: Surrogate mothers, Emotions, Personal satisfaction, Infertility

Family life and developmental idealism in Yazd, Iran

Background: This paper is motivated by the theory that developmental idealism has been disseminated globally and has become an international force for family and demographic change. Developmental idealism is a set of cultural beliefs and values about development and how development relates to family and demographic behavior. It holds that modern societies are causal forces producing modern families, that modern families help to produce modern societies, and that change is to be expected in the direction of the modern family. Objective: We examine the extent to which developmental idealism has been disseminated in Iran. We also investigate predictors of the dissemination of developmental idealism. Methods: We use survey data collected in 2007 from a sample of women in Yazd, a city in Iran. We examine the distribution of developmental idealism in the sample and the multivariate predictors of developmental idealism. Results: We find considerable support for the expectation that many elements of developmental idealism have been widely disseminated. Statistically significant majorities associate development with particular family attributes, believe that development causes change in families, believe that fertility reductions and age-at-marriage increases help foster development, and perceive family trends in Iran headed toward modernity. As predicted, parental education, respondent education, and income affect adherence to developmental idealism. Comments: Although our data come from only one city, we expect that developmental idealism has been widely distributed in Iran, with important implications for family and demographic behavior

Motherhood in Socio-cultural Context A Critical Qualitative Study

In intergenerational family relationships, the respect for the role of the mother has always been emphasized in Iranian-Islamic culture. However, conducting socio-cultural research in Iran with a special focus on the roles of mothers is one of the research gaps that requires more scientific research. The purpose of this study is to examine the social and cultural concerns of mothers in familial and social relationships. The research method used was the critical qualitative method of Carspecken. Research data were collected through in-depth interviews with 15 mothers who had children under the age of two. Findings show categories such as physical and mental exhaustion of the mother, child developmental concerns, increasing needs with child growth, mother's sensitivity due to uncontrollable child, disturbance in housekeeping, gender preference, unstable social status of the mother, etc. were obtained. The results showed mothers' dissatisfaction and disturbance about some social and cultural structures that put pressure on them. Based on the results, there is a need to pass laws to facilitate and improve the supportive and emotional contexts for mothers. Also, the existing capability of Iranian society should be employed more effectively to maintain and promote the status of the mother as a proud role in Iranian-Islamic cul. ‌ Keywords Mother, Intergenerational Family Relations, Socio-Cultural Concerns, Critical Research, Zarand City ‌ ‌Introduction Social and behavioral scientists have seen the pivotal role of the mother as an important agent in reproducing and transmitting social and cultural values to future generations through giving birth to a child, socializing children, forming kinship networks, and establishing new family bonds. The social role of motherhood is often associated with wide-ranging expectations and heavy social responsibilities for the mother. In Iranian families, the mother has played an important role for centuries with a respectable social status in intergenerational family relationships. Historically, Iranian-Islamic culture has emphasized respect for the role of the mother. The present paper aims to examine the socio-cultural concerns experienced by the mother as one of the vital roles in the family and society. Motherhood in human societies is based on dual identity. On the one hand, it is defined by physical and biological processes related to women, and on the other hand, it is defined by very important social and cultural dimensions related to gender. The social and cultural rules and dimensions of motherhood are far more important than the biological dimensions in this dual biological and cultural identity of motherhood. Once women take on the role of motherhood, they confront new multifaceted challenges. Until now, social studies and research in Iran have been less focused specifically on mothers and have commonly studied women as a larger group or have studied motherhood mainly in positivistic or interpretive paradigms. The present study intends to critically examine the lives of mothers and their socio-cultural concerns and complications. In other words, this paper tries to answer the question: what issues and challenges exist for mothers from a social and cultural point of view?.       Methodology The present study has been done with a critical ethnographic approach. The purpose of critical ethnography is to explore a cultural experience in the areas of everyday social life that are embedded within larger social and structural contexts. The field of our research is Zarand city, located in the central regions of Iran and in the north of Kerman province. The sample consisted of 15 mothers with children under two years of age, purposefully selected based on various criteria such as socioeconomic status, employment status, education, physical health of the child, etc. In this study, the five-step Carspecken strategy was used. Since the purpose of the Carspecken approach is to explore and identify cultural meanings, as well as to produce first-hand data through the researcher's participation in the field, the data collection of the present study was done by means of a mix of qualitative research techniques. Based on the observational technique and daily field notes from close contact with the participants, an attempt was made to obtain basic and exploratory knowledge of the context of the study. In addition, participants' views and opinions were also collected through in-depth individual interviews. To analyze the data, attempts were made to reconstruct themes and identify cultural relationships between the local context and macro levels of reality through critical analysis models.   Findings The study categorized and extracted some of the most important challenges and problems experienced by mothers based on qualitative analysis of field observations and individual interviews with participants. The following themes were obtained from our data analysis: physical and mental exhaustion experienced by mothers, concerns regarding a child's growth and health, raising needs of children as children age increases, mother anxiousness regarding childrearing and expected socialization, demanding all responsibility of childcare from the mother, the power of gender boundaries in practice, decline in leisure time and work-related activity of mother, the consequence of gender preferences in society over the mother, and so on. The themes obtained from the research reflect the complex and multifaceted situation that the mother faces. Some of these themes reflect the social expectations that the normative rules and cultural structures of society impose on the mother and place the burden of responsibility on the mother. The other themes reflect the psychological stress and social pressures that the mother experiences in different ways during the parenting process.   Result The results show that the role of motherhood is associated with challenges and limitations. Social structures and cultural norms impact the allocation of tasks and define expectations from the mothering role. Although these rules and structures have longstanding cultural-historical roots, rapid social changes in the modern era have created role conflict, leading to multiplying psychological and social pressures on the mother role. Therefore, conducting more social research is necessary for a better understanding of individual and social concerns of mothers and to maintain and strengthen the respectable dignity of the mother. According to our results, it is necessary to design and formulate social policies to improve the context for emotional and social support for mothers. Also, the existing social and cultural contexts of the society should be employed more effectively to maintain and promote the status of the mother, as a proud role in the Iranian-Islamic culture of our society

From dreams to possibilities: the role of gender and family income in aspirations among youth in the city of Yazd

Understanding what youth aspire is widely considered to be a critical step towards recognizing further changes in societies. This article explores young people's aspirations, including personal and collective desires, in a less-studied social setting, Yazd in Iran. This paper also examines the differentiating roles of gender and family income for the importance and chance of accomplishment attached to these ambitions. The data for this study comes from an initial explanatory phase followed by a survey comprising 2700 youth in Yazd. Our findings suggest that marriage-based and political aspirations are the most and least important dimensions, respectively. We also found that the importance given to aspirations and chance of their realization are generally, but not consistently, different in terms of gender and family income. Accordingly, young women, compared to young men, commonly attended more to their ambitions but perceived them as less reachable. In most cases, youth from low-income families considered their desires less accessible than others. Drawing an importance-expectation matrix for each gender group, 'having a healthy body and soul in aging' was introduced as a critical aspiration with the widest gap. We discuss the results and implications vis-a-vis contextual and structural conditions in which the youth are embedded

Social Trust in the City of Yazd: An Analysis of the Levels and Factors

Trust is the most important factor in making social order and capital. It also plays a crucial role in establishing stronger interpersonal relationships, increasing risk power and making social life more comfortable. The present study was carried out to investigate the rate of social trust and the factors affecting it in the city of Yazd. In this survey study, a sample of 288 citizens of Yazd (15 years old and over) were interviewed. The findings show an index of %17.4 for low social trust, %64.6 for moderate social trust and %13.5 for high social trust. It has also been found that social trust is more among men, and more among the married. The relationship between social trust and variables Such as social participation, religiousness, social relation and normative integration is significant. Among independent variables, normative integration yields the most effect in explaining social trust

An Analysis of the Street-Children Phenomenon in the City of Isfahan

Introduction   In nearly all big cities around the world, the phenomenon of street children is one of the contemporary social issues. During past several decades, there is an increase in the volume of street children phenomenon around the world. The rising number of street children has many pathological and consequential negative impacts for children, youth, families, and the society at the whole . According to 2000 UN report, the number of street children is estimated between 100 to140 million people. According to this report, it is estimated that around 40 million people living in Latin America, 35 million in Asia, 10 million in Africa and remaining live in other countries including advanced industrial societies. There are not reliable data about the number of street children in Iran. According to the available reports there are around 20 thousand street children in Iran. Some preliminary studies show a trend towards the growth of street children phenomenon in several big cities of Iran. The pathological impact of street children phenomenon need appropriate policy-making based on scientific approach. Thus various scientific researchers should work for deeper understanding of factors associated with the formation and characteristics of street children to better social policy.     Materials and Methods   The present paper aims to examine the overall situation of street children concerning their life style, activities, experiences, family background, educational achievement and other behavioral characteristics. For this purpose, data collected through a survey administered in the face-to-face interview among 122 street children aged 6-14 which working in the street of Isfahan city in the spring of 2010. The measurement validity of the study obtained through face validity and the questionnaire has been revised based on the experts’ comments and suggestions. Also a pretest study conducted to examine questionnaire and based on the results of the pretest, questionnaire has been finalized. Data analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics.     Discussion of Results and Conclusions   Other characteristics of sample indicated that around 12 percents of street children was illiterate and about 58 percent of them leave their school before the completion of guidance school. Monthly income for 8.2 percent of respondents was below 150 thousand Tomans, 76.2 percent between 150 to 300 thousand Tomans and 14.7 was between 301 t0 500 thousand Tomans. The highest income had for those children who were selling drugs. Around two third of respondents give their income to their adult family member. Also around two third of children worked as peddler and around one-fifth had a deviant job.   Findings also indicate that five-seventh of respondents were physically abused by their parents. 22% of respondents arrested by police and 5 percent went to prison and 7 percent have one to two years in a juvenile institution. Examining parental characteristics of street children show that over 90 percent of mothers and fathers of the respondents have had below elementary schooling. About 70 percent of fathers’ respondent and 24 percent of mothers’ respondent has been employed. About 72 percent of children have at least one or both parents who addicted. 15 percent have had parents who divorced and 25 percent has experienced orphanhood.   In sum our research findings confirm that majority of street children under the study are boy, migrant, with low family income, having addicted parents, and usually have been physically abused by their parents and they are working as peddler. The findings also indicate that street children had deviant behavior in some case, was arrested by police, some of them even have gone to prison. Finally, research has shown that there are a significant relationship between parental drug addiction and the abuse of children by parents with the type of works that children are doing. Data shows that the kind of jobs that children do has a significant relationship with such variables as parental addiction, children abuse by parents, and parental imprisonment. Results also indicate that deviant job observed in the most cases among those children who have an addicted parent, employed in deviant job and abused by their parents.   In sum, it can be concluded that various factor played an important role in the formation and the emergence of street children phenomenon. 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Identity Integration of Afghan Immigrants in Iran: A Grounded Theory Study

Introduction: Iran has hosted foreign immigrants, mostly Afghans and Iraqis, for the past four decades. The number of Afghan refugees registered by the UN Refugee Agency in 2021, shows that among different countries, Iran is the second destination of Afghan refugees after Pakistan. One of the key aspects of immigrants' lives that changes in the context of life and residence in the host community is identity. Identity is an important element in the process of immigrant integration, reflecting the sense of belonging or alienation from the culture of host society by the migrant. This paper aims to explore the identity integration among the first- and second-generation Afghan immigrants in Iran. Method: The research has been conducted within the framework of a constructivist approach and a Grounded Theory research method. The sampling method was purposeful and snowball. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 45 participants in the cities of Yazd and Tehran. The theoretical coding method was used to analyze the research date. Findings: Findings indicate eight main categories including fear of identity expression, Iranian identification, identity concealment, identity crisis, comparison with Iranian peers, sense of belonging to ethnic identity, and comparison with Afghan peers were extracted. By summarizing the main categories, "identity purgatory" was obtained as the final core category. Discussion: According to the results of our field study, it can be concluded that the process of identity integration is not an intergenerational process for Afghan migrants, but it depends mainly on how migrants form their interpersonal interactions at the micro, intermediate and macro levels. Another challenge for immigrants is that they are unable to develop their different social identities in a way that allows them to affirm both their own ethnic as well as destination national identities

At the Crossroad of Decision to Have Children: An Analysis of Individual and Social Childbearing Challenges in the Context of Low Fertility in Isfahan

Introduction In low fertility settings, couple's decision to have children is usually a planned and complex decision that the couple makes based on consideration of their individual and family life on the one hand and considering the social and economic conditions of society on the other hand. Child-bearing is an individual action at the private or micro level. In fact, future-oriented decisions are associated with the decision-making process of whether or not to have a child. However, in recent years, this issue has been at the center of concerns at the societal levels. This study aimed to provide a deep understanding of decision-making processes and childbearing behaviors. Isfahan City as one of the low fertility contexts in Iran was an ideal research field for the present study. Recent estimates made by the Statistical Center of Iran showed that the total fertility rate of Isfahan Province in 2020 ranged between 1.3 and 1.5. It was expected that this figure for the city of Isfahan was even well below that of the provincial estimate. The sample of the present study included the single and married people of child-bearing ages, who were considered influential actors in childbearing.   Materials & Methods The present paper employed an inductive qualitative method by using the Grounded Theory (GT) approach. The data was collected from 30 single and married men and women of childbearing ages by using in-depth interviews. The respondents were selected based on the gradual sampling strategies, which were mostly based on theoretical (theory-based) sampling, snowball sampling, and sampling with maximum variety. Lincoln and Guba's (1985) criteria were used to achieve the validity. First, a member check was applied so that after analyzing the findings, concepts, and categories, some participants were asked to evaluate and express their views on the accuracy of the findings. Second, control was exercised by the scientific and expert counterparts on the subject. Third, data analysis and coding were performed by open, axial, and selective coding methods using Maxqda 2020 software package. Discussion of Results & ConclusionBased on our analysis and coding, 20 main categories were extracted from the data. The central category in this study was "value modification from parenting". The results generally reflected the fact that economic fears, futurism, social responsibility, and accumulated concerns engaged families in rational decision-making. Economic fears, job insecurity, and fragility of economic parameters, sick and unstable economy, and economic hardships that families faced were the key factors in creating doubts about childbearing among couples. The participants considered the decision of whether to have or not to have children. It was a responsible and informed decision that a couple could make and would thus bring requirements and obligations for them. These calculations not only led to a variety of strategies in the Iranian families, including delay in childbearing, preference for remaining childless or intending to be a single-child family, and desiring and planning for migration to another country, but also caused them to undergo a kind of metamorphosis and value shift regarding parenting and childbearing. Consequently, children lost their former status and was replaced by other values. The findings of this study are in line with the risk aversion theory, as well as some other theoretical models that emphasize the effects of economic security and social support on fertility intentions and behaviors. The results also has policy implications for rising fertility levels. The success of the recent pronatalist population policy depends upon a realistic understanding of the couple's childbearing desires, as well as challenges and strategic plans to facilitate their reproductive ideals and intentions. Conducting research with mixed methods in the future, which combines both the quantitative and qualitative elements of research, can enhance understanding of fertility intentions and preferences