Iranian Women Face Uphill Battle Toward Equal Pay

In recent months, longstanding social issues Iran have taken a back seat to major economic challenges such as a sliding national currency, rampant corruption, and the return of sanctions. But social inequality has an economic cost too as proven by the gender pay gap and disparity in work opportunities for men and women in Iran.

According to data compiled by IranSalary, the country's first specialized online platform for remunerations, Iranian women earned 27 percent less on average than their male counterparts in the previous Iranian year (ended March 2018). The wage gap has widened in recent years, rising from an average of 23 percent three years ago. 

World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Report put Iran at a dismal rank of 140 in 2017, only ahead of Chad, Pakistan, Syria, and Yemen. Iran ranked 108 in 2006 among 115 nations. Iran's worst-performing index in 2017 was "economic participation and opportunity".

IranTalent, a leading jobs website and parent company of IranSalary, began collecting and publishing detailed data on Iran's employment market five years ago. Its statistical sample was initially around 30,000 people and has since grown to over 130,000 in its latest report.

"The thing that really spread in the press and in other circles from the very first year was the income gap," Aseyeh Hatami, the founder of IranTalent and IranSalary told Bourse & Bazaar. "Before that nobody had really examined this issue and hardly any awareness had been promoted around it".

"There are no written laws in Iran saying men have the right to earn more than women," she pointed out, but added that at the same time there are no laws that actively protect women's right for equal remuneration.

IranSalary's figures offer interesting insights into Iran's work environment. For instance, the wage gap increases with seniority. The few women who manage to climb their way up to a management position in a male-dominated system find that they earn as much as 47 percent less than male managers.

According to Hatami, the private sector is responsible for the majority of the gender pay gap in Iran’s labor market. That is not to say, however, that governments have been champions of equal pay. The reason behind their less significant role in widening the pay gap is that they have simply employed fewer women, especially in the higher echelons.

State-run companies are much less equal in dispersing job opportunities—just 25 percent of employees in state enterprises are women. That rate stands at 34 percent and 38 percent among private sector and foreign firms respectively. 

Another useful indicator in IranSalary numbers was the size of companies. Larger companies in Iran contribute to inequality—only 17 percent of their high-ranking managers are women. These companies are reluctant to admit their failure. "Even in our interviews with the big companies they said [the disparity] is not true and the reason behind the disparity is that men mostly earn more through overtime work since they take it on more than women," Hatami said, stressing that their data clearly signals otherwise.

On the other hand, she said figures show that married people are earning more than single workers, mostly since they employ their negotiating powers more.

On the whole, Iran suffers from a lack of transparent and comprehensive data across all its sectors. The job market is no different. IranTalent has managed to establish its reputation by gathering more than one million profiles from employers and employees.

The firm's CEO says it can help women and all jobskeers, leveraging this data to show them their potential professional trajectory in relation to their educational degree. "One major problem is that people don't even know what they can do in the future with the degree they're holding.”

For example, only 40 percent of people studying law actually become attorneys and legal counselors. Knowing that information will help Iranians—both men and women—carve out a better career path, Hatami hopes.

But what can be done to rectify the situation of the gender pay gap? Hatami does not hold out much hope for a major cultural shift both among officials and private sector employers, at least not in the short term. She points out that some hardliners in Iran still say women should not even be allowed to work.

She has felt the sting herself as well. "Most people are surprised the first time they find out the CEO of IranTalent is a woman." But she says she is sure that as women increasingly enter the work field, they bring positive change with them.

"We must work to create a more open and accepting culture that pays better attention to women's potential. But most importantly, women must start believing in themselves and negotiate for higher salaries when they are applying for a job," Hatami said.

She has not mounted an equality program in her company, but says they have managed parity through holding a simple view when taking on employees. For Hatami, "Talent and capabilities have always been central, not gender.”

The Greatest Asset: Funding the Future of Education in Iran

Iran's higher education sector is one of the country's greatest assets, with both women and men achieving degrees. Iran's Organization for Investment, Economic and Technical Assistance issued a report in 2013, highlighting the potential of the academic sector in Iran. It stated that in that year, the country had 4.5 million active university students studying at bachelor's, master's and doctoral levels.

Scimago, in an index of global academic prowess, ranked Iran 16th worldwide in 2015. Previous editions of the index also conjectured that by 2018, Iran could become the fourth largest contributor of academic publications in the world, and the country would notably rank first among Islamic nations.

It is therefore important to support these institutions so they can continue to thrive and grow. Prior to working in Iran, I spent a considerable time in the United Kingdom. As a student in the UK, I learned about the possibility university leaders have to take advantage of alternative investment streams to support academia. Now back in Iran, in my role at Hekmat University in the Holy City of Qom, I have come to recognize that standard channels of revenue, such as tuition, can only do so much to support the growth and development of higher academic institutions.

In my daily duties at Hekmat, I am responsible for the welfare and academic progress of students during their time with us. What is clear is that these students deserve as much time and attention as possible to help them reach their goals. But for a university to offer time and attention to its individual students and faculty, funding is necessary. Iranian institutions can do more to secure this funding in innovative ways, based on model examples from the practices of other countries. 

Investing in Learning Outcomes  

The academic community in Iran ought to begin intelligently seeking new sources of funding. There are a few ways this can be done.

First, universities can seek to commercialize innovations. Science and engineering departments in particular can conduct large research and development projects by working with major corporations. Ideally Iran's scientists and engineers should be given the opportunity to develop their scientific models with the added support of the private sector; I must add that this is an ideal way to validate if the new innovations are even commercially viable. Universities can add to their intellectual capital as research institutions through partnerships with private-sector businesses. 

Small-scale initiatives, such as startups, are also relevant. Iran’s buzzing startup scene should be considered by universities attempting to engage and support students post-graduation. Tehran University has created a successful model for such engagement through its partnership with Sarava Pars' Avatech Accelerator program.

The emphasis on developing universities as post-graduate research centers has been a focus of education policy in some countries, such as the UK, in recent years. During my stay in the UK, I noticed that the Tony Blair government was adamant about getting students in practical courses. And, beginning in 1998, the fruit of this investment helped the UK develop new industries. The value of the creative economy to Britain now stands at $120b annually. In contrast, the over-emphasis on exam performance above practical learning in Iran has weakened our overall ability to compete on an international level. 

Second, education should be made available to a wider range of learners who may not be able to be full tuition-paying students of the university, but who may find value in distance and online learning. Distance learning was first developed in Iran with the inception in 1987 of Payam-e-Noor University. The institution now has 487 branches around the country, with some in very remote areas. This system has helped bring many people to higher education.

Looking forward, with the advent of mobile media and applications, we as an academic community should push for more distance learning to be done online, and possibly adopting the increasingly popular model of massively open online courses (MOOCs). Mature students are also beginning to take up a larger proportion of our classes. This in itself is an impressive feat. In recent years we have noticed 40% growth of this student segment. We believe that this portion of students will ultimately put the knowledge they’ve gained into practice in a shorter period of time than younger graduates. Online education can help so-called life-long learners retain access to top education while still in their careers.  

Third, universities should begin capital campaigns to help drive the next phase of growth and development. Better campus life, including extra-curricular activities, would help improve the university experience for many undergraduates. But students often must live far from school, with a costly and inconvenient commute. If university administrators, with the help of private sector development firms, could offer quality undergraduate and post-graduate accommodation the overall campus life would improve, offering the chance for students to develop their skills further with such offerings as added classes and evening discussions, or simply time to enjoy and participate in extracurricular activities.

New campuses can also help with growth. Tehran University has made an effort, for a multitude of reasons, to shift many of their students out of Tehran to Pardis, 30 kilometers outside of the capital. This is an ideal way to create new growth for the university as many of the buildings and facilities on the older campuses are not set up to accommodate new kinds of university programs.  

Overall, we must use these three new channels of investment—research centers, online learning, and campus development—to feed funding back into the new undergraduate intake. By doing so, we can develop our student potential and encourage re-investment in the cohort, which follows after them, through the fruits of their innovation and hard work. 

Ultimately this is the way Iran’s academic institutions must go, but it will require a huge amount of reorganization and cooperation with companies and public agencies. The new revenue streams will ensure the tertiary education sector remains Iran’s great treasure for years to come. 

Photo: Wikicommons