Sociological Study of Generational Differences on Women’s Expectations from their Spouses

Subject Areas : Iranian Sociological Review

Mansour  Vosoughi ¹ (Professor of Sociology, Islamic Azad University, Science and Research Branch, Tehran)
Fatemeh  Meymandi ² (M.A. in Women’s Studies, Islamic Azad University, Science and Research Branch, Tehran)

Received: 2012-01-12 Accepted : 2012-01-12 Published : 2012-01-01

Keywords: Generational gap, minimal expectations from the , promoted expectations from spo, capitals, Qualitative Method,

Abstract :

This research aims to understand mother’s and girl’s expectations from their spouses, and shows the difference between these two generation’s expectations. Along this, by using qualitative approach and deep semi-structured interview, we studied the expectations difference among 14 mothers and 14 girls resided at Tehran city’s fifth region (area).Results from the research showed that women’s expectations from their spouses are in five various backgrounds including expectations in domains of communicative economic, affection mental, behavior indices and matrimonial expectations. That is so while generational observed differences are of attention in all of these five domains. In a manner that first generation mothers, ask for a minimum expectations from their spouses, and second generational girls have promoted expectations of their spouses. Research findings also indicate that two generations of mothers and girls, because of their different speculative spaces and objective conditions they have been brought up, and consequently their access to social, cultural and economic capitals which are different to each other, have different interactions and expectations from their spouses, and generational observed differences among them are obvious and clear. Oppositeness of mothers’ traditionalism in front of girls’ tradition strikenism, traditional marriages of mothers in front of girls’ modern matrimonies, mothers’ expanded motherhood encountering girl’s’ limited motherhood, governance of patriarchal life in front of spouses’ taking equality level, maximum obedience versus reduced obedience, pretentious conversation versus matrimonial dialogue, interactions based on family versus interactions based on self and mothers’ minimal expectations versus girls’ maximal expectations, are of those contradictions caused by generational gap on the down skirt of expectations from the spouse.