Abstract

There has been a decade-long focus on rural women empowerment in developmental plans. Given that, the present research is an assessment of empowerment and evaluation of socio-cultural, economic, and supportive factors which affect the empowerment of rural women in the city of Isfahan. The research population consisted of women dwelling in villages of Isfahan. The sample size was calculated as 222 through Kokran formula and the required data was collected through cluster sampling and a structured questionnaire. During the pretest phase, 80 questionnaires were randomly distributed among rural women and Alkire and Foster method was used. Moreover, logistic regression was used for evaluating factors affective rural women disempowerment. The results show that the rate and intensity of disempowerment in rural women was 28% and 45% respectively considering 30% as disability cutoff point. In other words, 28% of women in the statistical population were unable in at least 30% of criteria, and their degree of inability is 45% on average. The results of regression model reveal that education, occupation, use of the mass media, social and occupational relations, personal incomes, health, government support, use of various trainings, belief in gender equality, and credit funds have positive and meaningful effects on women empowerment.

Keywords: Rural women; Empowerment; Alkire and Foster method; Logistic regression

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