Sociology
Fardin Alikhah; Samaneh Koohestani; Tahereh Vaghehdashti
Abstract
The increase in the penetration of the internet and also increase in the number of membership of Iranian people in social networks through mobile phones is remarkably observed in the recent years. The presence of women in social media and the impact of social media on their lives are important from the ...
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The increase in the penetration of the internet and also increase in the number of membership of Iranian people in social networks through mobile phones is remarkably observed in the recent years. The presence of women in social media and the impact of social media on their lives are important from the sociological point of view. Reviewing the conceptual framework and some of the researches and theories related to women's bonding with communication technologies, this study has a special focus on Cyber-Feminism. The main question of the research is the impact of membership in social networks on the lives of employed women and housewives. The authors conducted a deep interview with 15 housewives and employed women in the city of Rasht based on a qualitative method and a non-objective sampling with snowball technique. The findings of the study have indicated that social networks can increase the domain of social relationships and so facilitate their participation in various social, cultural, scientific and educational arenas, which corresponds to the ideas of Cyber feminism. The authors believe that the issues such as the patriarchal system, lack of security in cyberspace, and the lack of adequate media literacy and skills among the women can challenge the empowerment and the active presence of women in cyberspace as claimed by Cyber-feminism.
