The Role of Rural Women's Home Business and Empowerment on Family Economic Decision-making (Case study: Islam-Abad Gharb County)

The main purpose of this study was investigate the role of women's home-businesses and their economic empowerment in decision-making. The required data for this study has been developed by using questionnaire technique as survey method. The reliability of the questionnaire was obtained 87 precent based on Cronbach’s alpha coefficient. Population samples of this research were 161 rural womens which were selected according to Cochran's formula (N=265). The results showed that 73.9 percent of women had high economic empowerment and only 12.4 percent of women were poor. Totally of 71 precent of cases, the decision-making power was good or excellent, and only about 7.5 percent have poor decision-making power. The results also showed the significant relationship between economic empowerment and some independent factors like education and type of home-business. Finally due to the impact of home-based businesses on economic empowerment in decision-making, it is recommended to develop rural women home business. Also it is recommended to identify successful and effective home-based businesses and use their experience in developing rural home business.