Women and girls constitute the majority of the world’s poor. In the developing world, economic and
social conditions of women had worsened (Falkingham& Baschiere 2004). Iran is an Asian country and about
10 percent of the population nationally lives below the poverty line according to statistics but in rural areas this
ratio leaps to over 15 percent (World Health Organization 2008).Studies from various parts of the country suggest
that, there are widespread and systematic inequalities within households. In this paper the main questions
were: what are policy-practice impasses of the reduction of gender inequality and poverty of women, particularly
household -headed women? How much have policies been succeeded? The aim of this paper was to examine
the situation of poverty in Iran and the social policies for declining of women poverty in this country. For answering
to these questions, research was based on analyses of documents, include: data of Statistical Center of
Iran, yearly reports on developmental activities specifically oriented toward poverty reduction .According to the
report of UNDP (2004) Iran’s rank in the reduction of gender inequality among 124 countries was 82 in 2004
while this rank was 118 among 124 country in 2007. The gender inequality in health and education is less than
that of economy and the income. Women’s employment rate has been 15.4 percent in 2005 while this rate is 18.5
percent in 2008. The rate of unemployment women with academic education in comparison to men was 23.6
percent in 2005 and declined to 9.3 percent in 2008.