Developing a Model of Rural Women Entrepreneurial Activities Based on Educational Experts' Perspectives

TThe aim of this study was to identify and leveling the factors affecting on entrepreneurial activities of rural women in Yazd province based on interpretive structural modeling. The research method was a case study for presenting an interpretive structural model. The statistical population included key experts including faculty members and rural entrepreneurs and 25 of them were selected by purposful sampling method. In order to determine the factors, first, by examining the research literature, the factors affecting on entrepreneurial activities of rural women were extracted. And then, based on the expert’s perspectives and by putting together and combining and eliminating some similar cases, the final factors were determined. Then, in order to determine the effect of cause and effect of the extracted factors, the self-interaction questionnaire was used. The results showed that among the final ten factors, entrepreneurship education is the most effective factor in the entrepreneurial activities of rural women in the fourth level. Rural socio-cultural space is on the second level of leveling. Gender differences, institutional-organizational factors and economic factors are also at the third level. Personality traits and work experience, psychological capital, creative thinking and empowerment are also at the first and most superficial level of the model. Based on the research findings, it is suggested that according to the leveling model presented in this research, the process and order of measures taken to expand the entrepreneurial activities of rural women should be based on this model. Also, since most of the fundamental factors affecting womenchr('39')s, entrepreneurial activity is related to training, empowerment and rural social climate, t is necessary to pay attention to education and culture.