GENDER DIFFERENTIATION IN THE HIGHER EDUCATION OF IRAN

Gender has always been one of the factors causing unequal access to the educational opportunities. In Iran, the gender division of labour in the private and public spheres and cultural factors, are among the most important obstacles preventing women from having equal access to educational opportunities. According to the national statistics of Iran, the sex gap in education tends to reduced in the ages upper than 20, reaching a point at which the proportion of female entrants to the undergraduate level is about 42 percent of total entrants at present. But the proportion of accepted female students in the M. S. and M. A. level has not changed and remains around 26 percent of total students, and in the PhD level, the proportion has reduced from 35 percent in 1996 to 21 percent in 2006. Furthermore, there are considerable distinctions between the proportion of male and female students in different academic fields. According to the last public census (2006), 83 percent of students of technical and engineering disciplines have been males, whereas about 60 percent of accepted students in humanism and art disciplines and 65 percent of accepted students in hygiene and welfare disciplines have been females. The lower presence of women in the technical fields is because these fields are considered "masculine" and the lower presence of women in the post graduate levels represents higher importance of postgraduate educations for men in the view point of policy makers of higher education.