Rangriz explains how wartime layoffs and structural neglect push women out of work, deepening dependence, poverty, and domestic violence.
The Iranian Labour News Agency (ILNA) has reported that, following the recent U.S.-Israeli war on Iran that began on February 28, a broad wave of layoffs has pushed large numbers of workers into fear and uncertainty about the future. Statistics indicate that women are among the main victims of this crisis. Zahra Behrouz-Azar, the vice president for women and family affairs in the Islamic Republic, announced that nearly one-third of unemployment insurance claims registered over the past 40 days were filed by women. Given women’s lower share of formal employment, this figure points to their disproportionately high share in forced exits from the labor market.
Critical and feminist sociologists argue that gender stereotypes play a decisive role in this phenomenon. The false belief that women are not breadwinners means that, when layoffs occur, women are often the first group to be sacrificed. At the same time, nearly a quarter of households in Iran are headed by women, and these households are among the poorest segments of society. Women generally work in the lowest ranks of employment and in the informal economy. As a result, during economic crises, they are hit first and hardest.
Unemployment pushes women to the bottom of class and gender hierarchies. Among lower-income classes, this crisis leads to deeper poverty, the inability to secure food, housing, and healthcare, and a greater risk of homelessness, malnutrition, and social harm. Among the middle class, the loss of economic independence brings greater dependence on men and increased control by them, depriving women of the ability to confront domestic violence. Given that only around 11 percent of women in Iran are formally employed, every crisis, from sanctions and Covid-19 to war, further reduces even this already limited share.
What is even more alarming is that women’s unemployment is not treated as a serious problem within the Islamic Republic’s governance and management structures, but rather as something “normal.” This neglect is rooted in the failure to recognize the necessity of women’s employment. When women breadwinners lose their jobs, a vast population is pushed into severe poverty and its consequences: the feminization of poverty, homelessness, informal survival work such as waste-picking, and violence.
Ultimately, a society that sidelines half of its potential and human capital will never see welfare, social justice, or development. Zamaneh discussed the growing unemployment of women during war and crisis with Atefeh Rangriz, an Iranian feminist, sociologist, and women’s rights activist who has faced repeated arrest, imprisonment, and sentencing for her labor and women’s rights activism.
How do gender stereotypes become a tool for sacrificing women?
For Atefeh Rangriz, gender stereotypes in times of crisis such as war, sanctions, and economic recession are not merely cultural assumptions. They become structural mechanisms for sacrificing women and reproducing gender inequality across society.
Rangriz emphasizes that this issue is rooted in the economic and social structures of society. The formal economy and jobs located higher in the occupational hierarchy, including managerial and decision-making positions, are largely controlled by men. In a capitalist society, care and support work are placed at the bottom of the occupational hierarchy and coded as “feminine.”
The belief that women are more efficient in domestic, care, and support work becomes a justification for exploiting them through lower wages. Domestic labor, meanwhile, is not recognized as work at all. It is not counted in gross domestic product and comes with no wages, insurance, leave, or benefits.
During crises, Rangriz argues, these deeply rooted socioeconomic stereotypes become more visible. They help justify women’s dismissal and push them toward lower-status jobs. The result is the strengthening of women’s economic dependence on men, whether fathers or husbands.
These same gender stereotypes lead to lower incomes for women, their placement in lower occupational levels, an increase in the wage gap, and the reproduction of beliefs such as “women are not efficient” or “women are incapable of holding higher-level jobs.”
For Rangriz, this issue goes beyond the economy. It is rooted in power, decision-making, and policymaking. It creates a vicious cycle that sends women back into the home and into unpaid work, while reducing their capacities and agency in society.
She also points out that women had previously held a significant share in the digital economy and online jobs. The war, however, has rendered a large number of them unemployed. This could intensify discrimination and the gender gap in the future, and should be seen as a serious warning sign for society.
How does women’s unemployment lead to the “feminization of poverty” and increased domestic violence?
Rangriz describes the dismissal and unemployment of women as the result of a structural neglect that already existed, but which has become much more visible under conditions of war and crisis.
Excluding women from the labor market has been easier and less costly for policymakers because women are not seen as the main breadwinners of the family, and priority is given to men’s jobs. Yet care, support, and social reproduction work play a vital role in maintaining social cohesion and stability during war and crisis. This reality, Rangriz argues, has been ignored.
The consequences are severe. This structural neglect during wartime has intensified gender-based violence, sexual harassment, rape, and, in particular, domestic violence. Rangriz links this directly to women’s growing economic dependence on the men in their families, as well as to the fact that many women have been dismissed from relatively better jobs and pushed into lower-ranking work.
In her view, male-dominated policymaking has caused a society that sidelines half of its human capital to lose the capacity needed to confront the consequences of crisis. Women’s skills and capacities decline in the long term because they are pushed out of the labor market and lose the opportunity to use or improve their skills.
For a society to achieve welfare and sustainable development, it must use all of its human capital, properly organize the reproduction of life, and preserve class and gender justice.
Rangriz warns that Iran is facing the phenomenon of the “feminization of poverty,” in which gender and class are deeply intertwined, pushing women into a more subordinate position and generating widespread social harms.
She also stresses that the upbringing and reproduction of human labor power have largely been placed on women’s shoulders for free. For the sake of future generations, society must divide childrearing responsibilities between women and men and stop treating them as gendered duties. Achieving this goal requires serious welfare policies, such as free kindergartens, the fair division of domestic labor, and adequate parental leave.
You can listen to this interview in Persian here: https://www.radiozamaneh.com/888215/
