Analysis and Evaluation the Relationship between Gender Stereotypes and Empowerment of women in Poor Urban Areas(Case Study: Informal Settlements in Ilam)

As a visible manifestation of urban poverty and spatial inequality, all human populations live in multidimensional poverty conditions in informal settlements. According to conducted studies, women and children are particularly vulnerable to the risks and harms of informal settlements. Therefore, the United Nations has declared women's empowerment on a large scale as one of the critical objectives of the Third Millennium development. In this study, women’s empowerment in informal settlements has been investigated from stereotyping perspective (gender stereotypes). According to the micro-level research conducted, the main challenge is culturally restrictive settings for the women's group. In these settlements, women are exposed to poverty and gender discrimination more than men. This often stems from the imposition of gender stereotypes. Gender Stereotyping is an obstacle for women to have a social activity that prevents mobility and presence of women in society and imposes gender roles (housekeeping, childbearing, etc.), and ignores or reduces the women. Accordingly, this study aims to analyze the relationship between gender stereotypes and women's empowerment in informal settlements in Ilam as well as to assess the relationship between women's empowerment and contextual variables to answer the question; what is the relationship between gender stereotypes as well as the contextual characteristics of women and their empowerment? The research hypothesis is: there is a significant relationship between gender stereotypes and contextual variables with women's empowerment.

The present research is of a fundamental-applied nature and has used survey as a method. To collect the data, a researcher-made questionnaire was utilized .The research population is women, 18 years of age and older, residing in informal settlements in Ilam seleced through random sampling. Based on the Cochran's formula 377 women were selected. The validity of the questionnaire was determined through content validity and its reliability was determined through Cronbach's alpha (0.89). Data were analyzed using SPSS and running Analysis of Variance (F), Pearson correlation test, T-test, and regression analysis. AMOS was used also for the structural equation modeling (SEM). In this study, women's decision-making in both individual and family domains through a Likert scale with 16 items to measure their empowerment; the gender stereotype variable was measured with 17 items. In this study, in addition to the relationship between gender stereotypes and women's empowerment, the relationship between contextual variables such as age, marital status, education, immigration, and employment with empowerment is studied.
Discussion and

In this study, the role and position of women's empowerment in informal settlements in terms of cultural factors and the relationship between gender stereotypes and women's empowerment have been examined. Also, the research hypothesis was confirmed following data analysis. According to Pearson test results (R-value = -0.174 and significance level = 0.001), there is a significant and indirect relationship between belief in gender stereotypes and women's empowerment at confidence level. The more women believe in gender stereotypes, the less their empowerment is, and vice versa. Research findings also show that contextual variables such as education level, employment, marital status, age, and migration positively affect women's empowerment. In this study, six independent variables were introduced in the regression table, whose multiple correlation coefficient (R) with women's empowerment was equal to 0.474, and the coefficient of determination (R2) was equal to 0.225. Based on this coefficient, about 0.23, i.e., 23% of the dispersion for the women's empowerment variable is explained by independent variables in the experimental research model, and the rest of the dispersion is explained by variables not introduced in this study. Among the independent variables, the education level of  = 0.350 has the greatest effect on the women's empowerment. Then, employment status of  =- 0.306, immigration of  = -0.217, marital status of  = -0.160, Gender stereotypes of  =-0.157 and finally age of  = -0.002 have been effective in explaining the dependent variable. In this study, structural equation modeling (SEM), as one of the new methods for examining the causal relationships between variables, was used through AMOS software, where the structural equation analysis of the proposed model was performed. According to the goodness of fit index, the research model is relatively good.

As the half population of the society and their roles in the development, women’s empowerment in informal settlements can be a pragmatic and realistic approach in dealing with these challenges and reminding women’s role in the society.  Gender stereotyping imposes gender roles (housekeeping, childbearing, etc.) and ignores or reduces the women’s role. It also keeps women in inferiority and deprives them of decision-making within and outside the family. According to this study, rising education-centered gender stereotypes can free women from a passive person who needs others’ attention and turns them into an energetic and capable body in society and makes the basis for their local social capacity and the culture of local participation. Considering international references and firm views and theories, women play a central role at home and outside the home. To create women’s real, active and effective role-playing, it is needed to look at their potentials and abilities and overcome pure gender stereotypes.