Women play a significant role in the labor market and must be valued as an important segment of social welfare. About 20 percent of the population covered by insurance of the Social Security Organization (SSO) and 35% of pensioners are women.
The vast potential of women in administrative and industrial positions is yet to be properly utilized, Dr. Taghi Nourbakhsh, CEO and Managing Director of SSO, was quoted as saying by IRNA.
Women’s social and legal needs differ from that of men and therefore a number of work conditions must be facilitated for them, like easy accessibility to kindergartens and reduced daily working hours, he said, at the Mother’s Day celebrations at the SSO.
Nourbakhsh pointed out that maternity leave is granted with insurance coverage for nine months to women to ensure strengthening of the mother-child bond - an important physiological and psychological need- as well as the primary force in infant development.
Pointing to SSO’s role in national development, he said women account for 30,000 out of its 65,000 staff members, but their role in management was meager. “Only seven of SSO’s 500 branches are run by female managing directors,” he rued, and stressed the need for harnessing women’s potentials and facilitating their promotion.
