ABSTRACT
Poor women engage in home-based industries because of their social class and gender. Lack of opportunities in education, training, and employment as well as persistent patriarchal ideology lead lower class women to become unpaid workers or homeworkers with small incomes. This chapter is an empirical microanalysis of the home-based handwoven carpet industry in Iran based on field work conducted at two sites: Najaf-Abad and Klar. It draws its theoretical framework from the literature on women and development, especially works focusing on industrial homework and gender ideology and on Iranian women. This chapter focuses on the nature of the carpet industry and the process of the research and then explains the Iranian gender ideology and the organization of homework. The handwoven carpet is a traditional craft in Iran. Historically women in nomadic tribes carried out carpet weaving. Formal Islamic and secular laws as well as Iranian customs reinforce classical and modern patriarchy.
