Factors affecting of the employment patterns Rural Iranian Women's in the Industrial Sector

Analyzing employment trends and structures in Iran and its different regions requires detailed knowledge of the capacities and potentialities of different sectors and their composition in various regions. Since women make up half of the rural population, it is possible to accelerate the development and reconstruction of Iran’s national economy by identifying the current situation, the factors influencing women’s participation according to local and regional circumstances, and increasing their involvement. Accordingly, the present study attempted to conduct an economic base analysis on the spatial distribution of women’s employment in the agricultural sector via location quotient (LQ) and exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA). Data were extracted from the 2011 General Population and Housing Census. Local indicators of spatial association (LISA) and Moran's I index of global spatial autocorrelation were used for analyzing the data as variants of the ESDA approach. The results showed that North Western parts of Iran, including East and West Azarbaijan provinces and some parts of Markazi Province, are considered as base regions in relation to women’s employment in the industrial sector whereas Western, Southern and Southeast provinces of Iran, including Ilam, Kermanshah, Kordestan, Khuzestan, Sistan and Baluchestan and southern parts of Kerman province, are considered as non-base regions in relation to women’s employment in the industrial sector. Moran's I indicated that the spatial distribution of women’s employment via location quotient (LQ) in the agricultural sector was not random or sparse but clustered.