Journal of American Science, 2011; 7(6) http://www.americanscience.org http://www.americanscience.org 767 editor@americanscience.org Status Inconsistency of Women: A Study in Hamadan, Iran Hamidreza Babaei 1 , Amir Hossein Zomorrodian 1 , Sarjit S. Gill 1 , Leila Falahati 2 1. Department of Social & Development Science, Faculty of Human Ecology, University Putra Malaysia 2. Department of Resource Management and Consumer Studies, Faculty of Human Ecology, University Putra Malaysia babaei1973@gmail.com Abstract: This research investigates the status inconsistency among women in Hamadan province, Iran. The study was carried out in eight cities and 32 villages. Questionnaire was applied to collect data from 767 women from urban areas and 786 women from rural area. Data analysis was done by using SPSS software and multi-variable regressions. The results show considerable status inconsistency among women in Hamadan. In addition, with decreasing social status of women here, the status inconsistency increases and the rate of status inconsistency in the rural area was higher than the urban area. [Hamidreza Babaei, Amir Hossein Zomorrodian, Sarjit S. Gill, Leila Falahati. Status Inconsistency of Women: A study in Hamadan, Iran. Journal of American Science 2011; 7(6):767-774]. (ISSN: 1545-1003). http://www.americanscience.org Keywords; Status inconsistency, Socio-economic Status, Self-image, Expectations, Prediction, Women 1 Introduction Status inconsistency is a concept that is linked with modern society and its subsequent offshoots such as individualism, democracy, separation, distinction and social mobility (Chelbi, 1996; Slomczynski, 1989; Tamin, 1994). In the case of status inconsistency, people and groups suffer from stress and pressures that lead them to abnormal reactions through different attitudes and behavioral forms (Brown, Cretser, & Lasswell, 1988). Imbalance between various aspects of backgrounds, including wealth, power, prestige and knowledge, when followed by growth and development such as urbanism and education, brings along situations such as higher expectations and demands that could not be fulfilled in many societies. Furthermore, denying those claims would affect the societies and individuals in undesirable ways. This lack of conformity and agreement might be a source of negative attitudes for people and leads to social problems such as depression, anxiety and disappointment. Studies carried out in Iran on status inconsistency determined that this social problem dramatically affects the people of Iran, especially youngsters. Moghaddas (1994) revealed that although job mobility is usually the result of education and passing of different courses and makes it possible to have social mobility, it may not be accompanied by economic achievements. It has been specified that despite educational or even job mobility, people still cannot attain a sound economic position, and the result is imbalance between their desires and their socio-economic status (Chelbi & Azadeh, 2000; Moghaddas, 1994). 1.1 Status Inconsistency Status inconsistency has its roots in Max Weber’s theory of multi fundamentals in social inequality (Berger, Norman, Balkwell, & Smith, 1992). Lenski (1954) employed the concept of status inconsistency for the first time. Whitt (1983) defined status inconsistency, as the simultaneous occupancy by the individual of unequal ranks in two or more status hierarchies. Goffman (1957) argued that there has been a relationship between status inconsistency and intention to change in power distribution. Rush (1967) found the same relationship between status inconsistency and political views. Treiman (1966) expressed that there was no relationship between this concept and prejudgment with control of social status of respondents. On the other hand, Geschwender (1967) obtained some results that indicate a link between status inconsistency and some of the attitudes and prejudgments (Brown, et al., 1988). In primary studies on these phenomena, the undesirable psychological results were more emphasized (Caston, 1989; Haus, 1983). Slomczynski (1989) found a decrease in social inequalities and increase in flexible and tolerating attitudes in situations of status inconsistency. Krueger (1989) defines increase in new jobs, independent staff, innovation and creativity of entrepreneurial managers with status inconsistency, and De-Graaf (1991) found status inconsistency to be present when high consumption of cultural products is