آتنا وطن خواه نوغانی

Migration is one of the most prevalent and effective social phenomenon that may cause some changes in origin’s population structure, consequently, lead to emerge of socioeconomic changes especially in relation to gender. So, the migration is a gender process naturally. The present research seeks to analyze the consequences of husband’s migration on socioeconomic status of left-behind women in rural areas. The research method is descriptive-analytical and sample size is 289 women in 22 sample villages of Mashhad County who their husband migrated to work. In this study, the examined women were identified by snowball method and participated in completing the questionnaire. The effects of men’s immigration on rural women were evaluated in term of economic and social dimensions with 15 positive and 15 negative effects separately. From the women perspective, the results of paired Sample t-test showed that men’s migration mainly had positive rather than negative effects; as in the social term, the average positive effects of migration of men is 3.26 that significantly more than the average 1.99 of negative effects; and in the economic dimension, the average 2.54 of positive effects were more than the average 2.23 of negative effects. In total, the average 2.88 of positive effects of men migration were more than the average 2.09 of negative effects. This is justified by the predominant type of men’s migration, which is mostly daily, across the mashhad county. The results of variance analysis also showed that the average of negative effects of households with daily migration of husband were 2.06 that this figure was increased to 2.18 in short-term migration and to 2.53 in long-term one. Therefore, if the migration of men from rural areas is daily, it will have a positive effect on the economic and social status of left-behind women in rural areas.

There is definite or seasonal migration of men individually like other third-world countries in Iran as well as the migration of rural households to the city. The present study seeks to identify the most important positive and negative effects of gender migration of male heads of households from rural areas. The research method is descriptive-analytic, and it is applied-development research. The sample size included 289 women in 22 villages with low sex ratio in Mashhad County. The positive and negative effects of individual male immigration on rural women were investigated using 30 variables using exploratory factor analysis. The most important positive effects of the men›s migration were five factors with 68.38 percent of the variance: increased women›s decision-making power in the family by 21.2%, increased women›s financial independence by 16.2%, increased psychological empowerment by 13.4%, willingness to make income-generating activities with 9% and increasing participation in the economic and social spheres is explained by 8.5% of variance. Furthermore, the most important negative effects of male immigration were the following five factors, with 63.17% of the variance, respectively: breaking the gender division of labor in the family by 19.2%, increasing the dependence of women to others by 13%, reducing the chance of marriage and fertility by 12.5%, problems in managing family affairs with 10% and the entry of minors and elderly people into economic activities with 8.5% of the variance.

The natural result of the application of modernization approach in developing countries is the formation and development of large-scale migration from rural to urban areas. This has changed the sex structure of population in a number of rural settlements in the country. As the current situation maintains, it is clear that women will be the main beneficiaries of the development plans in rural areas in the future. The present paper thus aims to identify and prioritize the strategies used for women's empowerment in a specific group of villages, that is, the migrant rural settlements due to their specific conditions and priorities. The research method used in the study is descriptive-analytic, which is of applied and developmental research type. The data were collected using documentary and field approaches through the instrument of a questionnaire. The statistical population of the study includes the villages with a low sex ratio (less than 95 males per 100 females). In the present study, optimal strategies used for women's empowerment in the migrant rural settlements were first identified, and then the strategies were prioritized through Quantitative Strategic Planning Matrix (QSPM). The results show that the offensive strategies (maximum-maximum) are optimized in order to empower women in the migrant villages. In addition, the most important strategy for empowering women in the rural areas in question is the increased attention to women in the development plans of rural areas at the highest levels of decision-making with a score of 4.29.