Abstract
This paper is an attempt to indicate that the segregation of male and female in Iran in order to study the differences in their attitudes, is not possible due to structural barriers. Nevertheless, the significance of such segregation, through a complex theoretical attempt, can provide the grounds for understanding generational and gender differences and pave the way for understanding contemporary social changes in Iran. On this basis, this paper indicates that understanding attitude changes among males and females will be possible through a reference to their generational status. In order to substantiate this, the reactions of male and female members of various generations to four of the following attitude-scale items will be examined. This indicates that what is often considered in Iran to be a generation-gap (Alikhani, 1382) is not in fact a gap in the sense that one generation distance itself from other generations. Rather, "generation-gap" refers to the socio¬
economic changes that can be identified as articulation of cultural modes of generations in contemporary Iran, i.e. a phenomenon that intensifies cultural interactions among generations means that each generation uses specific cultural values of other generations to promote its own generation's ambitions. It shows that through this articulation model, the Iranian society is reproducing itself and crystallizing its new societal values.
On this basis, an argument on the two following conceptual fields will be presented which are related to generations and the attitudes that originate from sex: 1- what is the nature of the generation-gap, 2- theoretical legitimacy of combining the two concepts of sex and generation. I will then present the results of my research on attitudes of males and females towards four following attitude-scale items as the empirical foundation for identifying a gender-based generation-gap. I will mention 8 items to indicate
Keywords
)