University and Change in Iranian Young Women's Identity: A Case Study on Female Students of Tehran and Rasht Universities

During the last quarter of a century, post-revolutionary Iranian society has undergone fundamental social and cultural changes. Modernization of Iranian women through their access to modern education has radically changed their views. The changes were accompanied by reflecting on Iranian women's traditional identity. As a result of the reflection, presence of Iranian women in new fields, like journalism, movies, writing, and areas exclusive to male like engineering and related professions has increased. The present study attempts to evaluate the changes in Iranian girl's identity after ent ering university. 384 female students from Tehran and Guilan universities were chosen to study their reflexive identity. Changes in women's attitudes toward gender stereotypes after entering university and strong influence of university on reflexivity of their womanish identity are basic theses of this survey. Results show that after entering university the rate of reflexivity in traditional identity increases, this increase is accompanied by decrease in religiosity among female students.