The linkage between Iranian patriarchy and the informal economy in maintaining women's subordinate r

Abstract Home-based carpet weaving is labor-intensive work done mostly by women from low income classes in rural and undeveloped urban areas in Iran. These women are dependent on income from weaving to support themselves and their families. This article argues that the contradictions between gender ideology and economic reality can be resolved by having women work at home. Home-based work keeps women in their culturally defined place and upholds the requirement of gender ideology which advocates the traditional division of labor, requiring men to work outside the home to support families while women stay at home in order to take care of their family and home. This arrangement can be well maintained in home-based work even as it generates, without recognition, income for the family and contributes to the national economy. Using gender ideology is a strategy manipulated by a free market economy for extracting surplus capital from women. Women's exploitation and oppression at home-based carpet production most likely will continue as long as the state nurtures historical gender ideology in Iran.

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