Identifying and analyzing the barriers in women's economic participation in the rural regions of the Zanjan Province (Case study: Abhar- Rod Rural District)

The main purpose of this survey was to identify and analyze the barriers in women’s economic participation in the rural regions of the Zanjan Province. The study was an analytical- explanatory research regarding its method. The statistical population of the study were consisted of all the rural women in the Abhar-Rod rural district (N= 1300). According to the Krejcie and Morgan table, a sample size of 300 was selected using a stratified random sampling technique (n=300). A questionnaire was used to collect the data. A panel of experts confirmed the validity of the questionnaire. A pilot study was conducted to establish the reliability of the instrument. The Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient for the main scales of the questionnaire was higher than 0.75. The descriptive results showed that the highest level of rural women’s economic participation was in the three fields of: agriculture (including participation in farming and horticultural activities), keeping and breeding livestock and poultry, and processing and sales of household products (such as yogurt, curd, pickle, jam and etc.), respectively. The results of the factor analysis revealed that four factors namely, social- cultural, structural- institutional, personal- psychological and professional explained 67.76% of total variances of the barriers to rural women’s economic participation.