Poverty, Gender and the Informal Sector in Iran Since the 2009 Iranian presidential elections there has been considerable gender rights advocacy in Iran, primarily— if not exclusively— focusing on civil rights. While such rights are important, they tend to be more pertinent to urban middle and elite classes, and not necessarily to those from low-income households. In this research, based on a sample of 90 interviews with women from low-income households engaged in the informal sector, it was found that economic hardship is their most pressing concern. Close to one-third of the women in the sample were divorced or abandoned by their husbands or were heading single-headed households, one-fifth were married to men with drug addictions, the rest were either taking care of a sick or disabled husband or their husbands were in jail, and in some cases husbands simply were unemployed, illustrating the challenges some of our sample (selected through snowball sampling method) were facing. The followings hypotheses were put to test a) women of low-income households have entered into the job market to increase their economic status, b) economic empowerment has led to increases in inter-household negotiations over the allocation of the extra income and c) it has increased women’s sense of independence and empowerment vis-à-vis their husbands, fathers or brothers. The first hypothesis has been validated for the sample. As for the second hypothesis, the results show that women have gained some control over household-spending decisions. However, the third hypothesis has generated mixed results: some have become empowered, while others responded that the extra burden of a double day has been a strain on their time and health. Interestingly, some women in the sample were part of rotating credit clubs. These clubs generated funds that were vital to the social safety nets of their members and, in some cases, self-help groups were formed that built economic and community solidarity. The findings suggest that on the one hand women of low-income households face major economic challenges often exacerbated by international economic sanctions and government mismanagement of the economy, and on the other hand some women manage to create opportunities for themselves in the informal sector and increase their access to economic resources through self-help groups and rotating credit clubs while energizing community solidarity.