Study of Socio-economic Factors Affecting the Participation of Rural Women in Creating Indoor Jobs in Kermanshah Province

The role of rural women in the process of economic development has been a growing concern of economists, planners, and the governments. The potentials of rural women as economic actors are not yet fully analyzed and yet there has not been adequate attention to the way gender affects rural women’s participation in economic development. Many projects for productivity increase in agriculture and rural development could not be realized or the outcome might have been different, if women had been involved in the process. Projects for family planning, the spread of literacy and basic health care cannot be achieved without recognition of the importance of the role of women. In the rural areas many poor families depend upon the income of women, who contribute significant amount of cash income to the subsistence level of economy. Always, indoor jobs are one way to achieve sustainable development in rural communities and rural women have a main role in the household economyy. The aim of this descriptive-survey research was to find out discrimination level of rural women participation in the indoor Jobs creation based on socio-economic aspects. Existing structures of decision-making in most developing countries cannot adequately represent women’s issues; their work and potentials for development have been neglected. The situation calls for structural change. Women’s full involvement in the formulation of programs would affect their lives. Access to and control of development resources need to be supported by organizations of the rural women themselves. Participation through local level organizations are critical for an empowering process, and which can provide access to resources for self-sustained development.
This research is a quantitative study, non-experimental type and, an applied research, in terms of nature, the extent of controlling variables, and objective. Survey design was applied to achieve research objectives. The research population were included rural women of Fash district, Kangavar County, Kermanshah province that had to take out a loan for indoor job (N= 168). In this study census method was used. Data collection instrument was a questionnaire. Five-point Likert-type response scale (from very low= 1 to very high= 5) was used to measure research variables. Questionnaires’ face validity was confirmed by a panel of experts. Pilot test was performed to evaluate its reliability that Cronbach's alpha was between 0.81-0.86. Analyzing data was done by SPSS23 and R tools.
The analysis of rural women’s demographic characteristics showed that most rural women were between the ages of 20 and 35 years. 23% of women were bachelor or higher. Thus, 52 percent of literate women were literate or illiterate. 33 percent of women were active in home businesses and marketed their products. In contrast, 67 percent of women did not participate in indoor jobs. To investigate the research hypotheses, women's participation score was divided into two levels named participation and non-participation based on the mean of the sample. Ordinal logistic regression was used for data processing using R software. Finding indicated that among the variables of the social and economic aspects, social status and income levels were highly discriminating the participation of rural women in indoor Jobs.
It can concluded that promoting women's participation in social, economic and planning activities in order to expand their participation, especially in the economic field, is a prerequisite for sustainable development. This is particularly needed in rural areas where women have long been traditionally involved in family economic affairs. Also, it can concluded that various factors influence the participation level of rural women in the indoor jobs creation. In other words, interaction among socio-economic components can determine participation level of rural women. According to the results of this study, it is suggested that if the conditions and demands of rural women are provided, family businesses in rural areas can be organized as cooperatives. In order to familiarize and encourage rural women to participate in indoor business, targeted training programs to improve rural women's businesses should be provided to familiarize them with markets. In addition, the support provided by officials by providing the facilities needed to set up home businesses such as loans and banking facilities can help develop the industry in rural areas. Finally, development of entrepreneurial and self-employment culture in rural society by empowering entrepreneurs can impact the social status of rural women and promote home businesses.