A Study of Personal and Social Factors Impacting Women's Social Happiness Research Subjects: Women in Rural and Urban Areas of Delijan

Happiness is one of the most urgent demands of human beings, which plays a major role in the psychological and social elevation of the community. In fact, it can be argued that all human endeavors in life are directed towards achieving happiness. Therefore, if we want to have progress and development, vitality and happiness are important variables. Sustainable development will be realized when productive forces of society, namely, women and men are happy. Women, in particular, who are wives and mothers of society should be strong, happy and alive as they are at the center of the family, educating children with qualities such as self-esteem and optimism. In recent decades, the concept of happiness has been appointed as one of the cornerstones of our development. Despite the need to elevate women as a key element in the development of social and family relationships, rarely has research been done to highlight the role of women. This study aims at understanding the amount of social happiness that rural and urban women in Delijan experience and the most important factors that influence individual and social dimensions of this happiness. There are various studies that assess factors affecting happiness and ways towards its improvement. Different factors such as gender differences, age, religion, marital status, education, income (wealth) and personality type are mentioned in this regard. In this study, we combine different perspectives on social happiness and measure it. This is a study-based research. The study population includes all women (aged between 15-49 years old) living in 8 areas of the city of Delijan and one rural district called Joshagh. Using Cochran formula, a sample of 700 individuals were selected. The purpose was to measure the influence that such background variables as age, marital status, place of residence and area of residence), and other important variables like socioeconomic status, quality of life, sense of social justice, social acceptability, satisfaction with life, religious beliefs and hopes for the future may have on women's feeling of social happiness. The data was collected by using both questionnaire and interview as data-collecting tools. In terms of timing, the he study was conducted in July 2012 and the data were analyzed by using SPSS software. Discussion of Result & Descriptive statistics indicate of the studied urban women, 40/3% are teenagers, 36/8% are young and 23% are middle-aged. Also, in terms of marital status, 70/8% of them are married, 24/9% are single, and the rest have no partner either because of divorce or death. In rural areas, 57/6% are minors, 24/8% are young, and 17/6% are in middle age. Also, 187 cases (56/7%) were married, and 130 (39/4%) were single. The majority of women in urban areas (39/2%) were in the average socio-economic status, while the majority of women in rural areas (90 per 27/3%) belonged to a lower socio-economic status. Religious believes were strong in women both in rural areas (74/5%) and in urban areas (76/5%). Women's satisfaction with life in rural areas was (34/5%), while for urban women who live in Delijan this figure was a little bit lower (33/5%), indicating that they are moderately satisfied with their lives. The social acceptance of women in urban and rural communities is estimated to be at an average level. Procedural and distributive justice among the majority of women in urban areas (55/7%) and rural areas (43/9%) were moderate. Although the quality of education of rural women in Joshagh (30/6%) is not desirable, more urban women (55/7%) enjoy from educational opportunities that leads to favorable assessment of the quality of education in urban areas. Overall, it can be said that hope to meet future needs and desires of a better life is more in rural areas than in urban areas. The results also show that individuals have different levels of happiness. Married women tend to be happier than single women who are without husbands due to death and/or divorce. Based on the findings of the analysis of social factors and variables, it can be said that social acceptance and four categories of life satisfaction, including quality of life, religious beliefs, a sense of social justice and socio-economic status can explain the highest level of social happiness. Therefore, we dare to claim that social happiness of a community, depends on the quality of life and sense of justice in society.