An Analysis of the Factors Affecting the Optimal Employment of Women in Agriculture (Case Study: Border Villages of Sardasht County)

Recent developments in the economic situation and characteristics, especially in the rural economy, have led to the discussion of employment, especially women's employment, to one of the most important issues that can be influenced by many factors. In this regard, this study was conducted in order to analyze the factors affecting the optimal employment of women in agriculture in border villages of Sardasht city in West Azerbaijan province in 2019 in which the survey method and questionnaire techniques were developed and SPSS software was used to analyze the data. The statistical population in this study was women working in the field of agriculture in the study area between the ages of 15 to 65 years. Using Cochran's formula, a sample of 370 individuals from 30 selected villages in Sardasht city was selected using cluster sampling method. Based on the theoretical foundations and literature of the research, the factors affecting the optimal employment of women in the field of agriculture in the region are: individual factors (psychological), cultural factors and organizational factors. Data analysis was performed using Spearman correlation and linear regression tests. The results showed that among individual factors, women's age, education, marital status, and the number of children had the greatest impact on women's employment, respectively. Among cultural factors, motivation to achieve social status, cultural beliefs, religious and belief factors and financial motivation are the most important, respectively, and finally among the organizational factors, indicators of administrative and educational structure are important. In total, based on the results of the linear regression test, the three factors studied at the rate of 0.566 are effective on women's employment in agriculture in the border city of Sardasht.