A Comparative Study of the Attitudes of Men and Women Members of Social Councils of Mashhad City Localities on Selected Indices of Social Capital

Establishment of social council of localities is one of the most effective factors of citizens’ intervention in Mashhad’s urban management. Obviously a fair and equal opportunity of participation should be provided for women and men, but unequal number of men versus women councilors signifies insufficient use of women, that the most important reason for it can be mayoralty’s distrust on women’s operation and capabilities. In this study, two indices of social capital, including councilors’ trust in each other and their trust in the effectiveness of the council, and also two indices of councilors’ tendency to participation and a sense of belonging to the locality was studied among members of 12 Social Councils of Mashhad’s district 9 . The research method is descriptive and documents and questionnaires were used for data collection. The population of study consists of all members of social councils of localities of Mashhad’s district 9. Statistical sample of the survey includes all the members of social councils of localities of aforementioned district. To analyze and produce information needed descriptive statistics and frequency command, and to compare means Mann-Whitney test was used. Data analysis revealed no significant difference in men and women attitudes toward selected indices. Thus, according to the survey results lack of sufficient trust in membership of women in social councils of localities has no acceptable justification and it is obvious that since women are more present in the locality and more aware of locality’ shortages than men, their membership in councils will bring about positive results for the efficiency of the Councils.