Iranian Women Occupying More Managerial Positions

EghtesadOnline: The share of women in managerial roles at all levels has increased from 13.7% in the Iranian year ending March 2018 to 18.6% in the current year (March 2019-20), Iran’s Vice President for Women and Family Affairs Massoumeh Ebtekar told members of the Cabinet on Wednesday.

News ID: ۷۸۴۸۴۵

07 September 2019

The appointment of women to managerial posts has grown by 36%, from 9,034 to 12,209, over the past two years, she said, adding that women’s share of managerial roles in provincial governorates has reached 9.2% this year from 6.2% two years ago.

All in all, a 48.7% rise has been registered in the number of appointments of women at the offices of provincial governors general and governors over the past two years, Women.gov.ir reported.

Their presence at senior management levels has increased from 2.5% in the year ending March 2018 to 3.9% in the following year (March 2018-19) to 5.5% in the current year. As we speak, a total of 1,159 executives are men and 67 are women, Financial Tribune reported.

Their entry to middle management levels grew from 6.9% two years ago to 8.1% in the year ending March 2019 to 9.3% this year. There are 18,701 men and 1,924 women at mid-level managerial positions.

Women held 16.9% of first-level managerial posts in the fiscal 2017-18, compared with 20.6% in 2018-19. Presently, 23% of first-level managerial positions are held by 10,859 women. The number of men at first-level managerial roles is 36,423 in the current Iranian year.

Bushehr Province has the highest percentage of women at provincial managerial positions at 18.4%, followed by Gilan (16.4%), Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari (16.2%), Hormozgan (15.5%), Alborz (15.3%), and Semnan and Lorestan (both 15%).

Qom has the lowest percentage of women in provincial managerial positions at 5.3%, followed by Khuzestan (5.7%), East Azarbaijan (6.1%), Kohgilouyeh-Boyerahmad (6.6%), Khorasan Razavi (6.8%) and Isfahan (6.9%).

Employing young people, women and citizens of other minorities in managerial positions was one of the general priorities assigned by President Hassan Rouhani for all ministers at the onset of his presidency. In 2018, he ordered 30% of government managerial jobs to be filled by women within three years.

The unemployment rate for women in Iran stood at 18.9% in the last fiscal year (ended March 20, 2019) against 10.4% for men.

Over 1.01 million women and 2.25 million men of ages 10 and above were jobless last year.

Women’s and men’s economic participation rates were 16.1% and 64.8% respectively last year.

Irrespective of gender, Iran’s unemployment rate, the proportion of jobless population of ages 10 years and above, stood at 12% in the last Iranian year, indicating a 0.1% rise compared with the year before (March 2017-18), according to the Statistical Center of Iran.

Some 5.35 million women and 21.71 million men ages 10 and above were economically active last year, that is they were either employed or looking for a job.

Underemployment, the condition in which people in a labor force are employed for less than 44 hours of service per week, stood at 10.8% and was higher among men compared to women and among those living in rural areas.

The underemployment rate of men and women stood at 12% and 5.8%, respectively.

The total employment rate in the last Iranian year was 35.6% (23.81 million). The employment rates for men and women were 58.1% and 13%, respectively, such that 19.46 million men and 4.34 million women were employed last year.

The services sector employed 9.64 million men and 2.31 million women last year. Over 6.45 million men and 1.16 million women were working in the industrial sector and 3.35 million of men and 856,102 women worked in agriculture sector last year.