Womanhood in Transition: A Qualitative Study of Gender Identity Reconstruction Among Women Born in the 1980s in Yazd

Articles in Press

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 PhD Student in Demography, Department of Demography and Anthropology, Faculty of Social sciences, Yazd University, Yazd, Iran.

2 Associate Professor, Department of Demography and Anthropology, Faculty of Social Sciences. Yazd University, Yazd, Iran.

3 Associate Professor of Sociology, Faculty of Social sciences, Yazd University, Yazd, Iran.

Abstract

This research aims to understand how gender awareness and the experience of femininity are formed among women born in the 1960s in Yazd. The study was conducted with a qualitative approach and using the grounded theory method. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 23 women from the 1960s living in Yazd in 1404 AH, and the sampling was purposeful and theoretical until theoretical saturation was reached. The findings show that the childhood and adolescence experience of these women was formed in an atmosphere of “gender silence”; an atmosphere in which awareness of the body, gender, and sexual needs was largely hidden within the framework of cultural taboos, and at the same time, a strict model of normative femininity was reproduced by the family, school, and society. In this social order, marriage is defined as the only legitimate path to overcome the limitations of girlhood and achieve some relative freedoms. However, the expansion of education, media, and social changes from late adolescence onwards have provided the basis for a kind of rethinking of the experience of femininity for this generation. As a result, many women of the sixties, in a gradual process conceptualized in this study as “splitting the gender shell,” have begun to redefine their feminine identity, reclaim individual agency, and strive for a more autonomous life experience. This generation can be seen as a generation in transition between the traditional gender order and more modern horizons.

Keywords

Main Subjects

Strategic Research on Social Problems

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 29 August 2026

Files

History

  • Receive Date: 26 May 2026
  • Revise Date: 01 August 2026
  • Accept Date: 29 August 2026
  • Publish Date: 29 August 2026

Share

How to cite

Statistics