A Study on the Effect of Spatial desirability of Collective Arenas in Residential Complexes on Women's Social Empowerment

Any activity, social action, and conversation for women require opportunities for being present in all social arenas. The collective arenas of residential complexes are the most important arenas that provide appropriate opportunities for activities and increase the personal and social capabilities of women. The suitable design of these arenas according to attitudes and needs by overcoming barriers to attendance provides a suitable context for social participation, increasing social capital, and empowerment of women. The present research investigated the effect of architectural space on the social empowerment of women in collective arenas of residential complexes. The research aimed to answer the question of how the improvement of the spatial quality of residential collective arenas is effective in the social empowerment of women. To this end, the research was conducted in three stages: First, the content analysis of social sciences based on women's social empowerment. At this stage, the two factors, increasing the social capital of women and being in the public space, were the most important factors in the social empowerment of women; second, the modeling of factors obtained from the factor analysis of the users' questionnaires, in which the statistical population consisted of 200 women living in four residential complexes in Tabriz City. Based on the results of this stage, the architectural design of cultural and religious spaces in residential complexes was a physical-environmental factor that created and expanded many communication networks leading to higher social capital of women and space presentability for them. Third, the comparison of results obtained from previous stages of the research. The final model indicated that effective environmental factors in improving the spatial utility of residential collective arenas(play effective roles in increasing the social capital of women and space presentability and they were the main components of women's social empowerment (based on the results of the first stage). Therefore, improving the spatial utility of the collective arenas of residential complexes by increasing the social capital of women and their presence in collective arenas is effective in women's social empowerment.