Prioritizing Major Barriers to Rural Women's Entrepreneurship, Using AHP Method Case study: Ardabil province

The entrepreneurship of rural women is considered as a resourceful element for growth, employment generating, as well as innovation. In other words, entrepreneurship of rural women is an effective policy for raising employment and reducing unemployment. It is obvious that raising employment and reducing unemployment are indices of development. Recently, new findings show that women are increasingly becoming entrepreneurs in a formal sense in the rural areas. However, the prospect of rural women becoming entrepreneurs is limited by various barriers. The purpose of the present study was to prioritizing main barriers to rural women's entrepreneurship in Ardabil Province. The methodological approach was a descriptive survey type. Also, information gathered by using the questionnaire filled by 50 women who are rural entrepreneurs. The obtained data was analyzed via AHP technique and Expert Choice software. The research results showed that barriers of social-cultural, individual, psychological and economical were among the main ones in Ardabil Province. Finally, based on the results of the analysis, some applied recommendations were provided.