Abstract
There is no single sociological theory which can explain the full extent of women's social participation in the developing countries. An analytical framework is developed to serve the objectives of the research. This article presents a summary of most important findings on the types and intensity of women's social participation in the city of Tehran. Factors related to their social participation are divided into four groups: values- culture, family, personality and socio-economic characteristics of the individual and her family..
Religious and charity organizations have the highest rate of participation (over the group mean) and the levels of other types of social participations are much lower. Based on the intensity of social participations women are grouped into four categories: (1) Absolutely non-participants 38%, (2) Isolationists 31%, (3) Cultural participants 14% and (4) Social Participants 16%. Structural and family norms are among the most important factors related to low levels of participation.
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