A Survey on the Factors Affecting Women's Political Participation (Case Study: Women in Booshehr City)

Political participation is an indication of democracy and political development and legitimacy in different societies. The more participation in a society occurs, the more legitimacy a political system will have. So, the efforts of Iranian political system are toward increasing people’s political participation rate. Since half of the Iranian world consists of women, a survey on the factors affecting their political participation can make us understand how and why the political participation is done and reveal the solutions to increase women’s participation. The purpose of this paper which has been done through survey-research method is to consider the factors that affect the political participation of women in Booshehr. The sample size is comprised of 350 persons who have been selected by cluster sampling (urban areas) and random sampling. The obtained results show that women in Booshehr have either mass or observational participation. The equation obtained by regression shows that the variable of political awareness has the most effect on increasing women’s political participation. After that, variables of being religious, educational level, feeling of powerlessness, social rank, feeling of political efficacy, and membership in communities have the most effect on women’s political participation. Among these variables, the variable of political powerlessness has negative effects on political participation.