TY - JOUR AU - Gorman, Meghan PY - 2019/01/10 Y2 - 2024/03/28 TI - Women's Rights: A Study of Iran & Tunisia JF - Colloquium: The Political Science Journal of Boston College JA - CPSJ VL - 3 IS - 1 SE - Articles DO - UR - https://ejournals.bc.edu/index.php/colloquium/article/view/10894 SP - AB - <div class="page" title="Page 56"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><p><span>What factor is the most important determinant of a successful expansion of women’s rights? Through my research, I have concluded that societal norms are the most crucial factors in</span><span>the expansion of women’s rights. As a reflection of collective attitudes and expectations,</span><span>norms determine how willing a society is to adopt new ideas about women’s rights and</span><span>gender parity. However, these norms and expectations must be a genuine reflection of</span><span>public sentiment and not simply imposed on an unwilling population. The two cases I have examined in this essay are the Iranian Revolution of 1979 and Tunisia’s Jasmine Revolution of 2011. These cases have different outcomes: Tunisia experienced an expansion of women’s rights while a retraction of those rights occurred in Iran. Both cases prove that women’s rights are only expanded when a society believes that they align with its values and supports their integration.</span></p></div></div></div> ER -