Investigate the role social and psychological factors on the empowerment of rural women heads of households covered by the Imam Khomeini Relief Committee (Case study: Abas Abad Township)

The empowerment of rural women, particularly rural women heads of households,
as a vital component in development efforts is inevitable. This study was conducted with the purpose of investigating the role of social and psychological factors affecting female-headed household's empowerment. The population of this survey study was including 400 rural female-headed households covered by the Imam Khomeini Relief Committee. Through simple random sampling method, 208 respondents were selected as sample. A questionnaire was used to collect the data. The content validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by the panel of faculty members in University of Zanjan. A pilot study was conducted to establish reliability of the instrument. Cronbach’s alpha coefficients for the main scales of questionnaire were at appropriate level (between .82 to .90). The collected data was analyzed by using structural equation modeling multivariate technique. The results showed that the psychological, social health and political-social participation factors had significant relationships with empowerment of rural women heads of households. Therefore, enhancing and developing the training in psychological and social aspects were suggested in order to promote the empowerment of women heads households.