A Survey of the Effects of Social and Psychological Indices on the Economic Capability of Rural Women (Case Study: Hamadan City)

Abstract. Cooperatives have a special role for empowering women that provide a critical outlet for women’s empowerment and economic independence, building the way for faster, fairer, and more sustainable socioeconomic status for them. Many studies have recognized that paying attention to the economic aspect should not be considered as the basic means for empowering rural women, because they both suffer from lower psychosocial status, lack of property rights, environmental degradation and limited health and educational resources. In regards of participation women in cooperatives it’s important to investigate psychosocial factors to have successful participation rural women in cooperatives. This study was undertaken to explore the relationships between economic empowerment and social-psychological dimensions of empowerment. In this descriptive cross-sectional study 256 rural women from Hamedan County were selected as sample using Cochran formula and stratified proportionate random sampling technique .The validity of the main scales of questionnaire was approved by a panel of expert judgment. Using Cronbach’s-alpha formula, the reliability of questionnaire assessed (α=0.81). The correlations analysis has showed that there were significant positive relationships between economic empowerment with educational level, mobility, self-confidence, self-reliance and non-economic authority. In addition regression analysis and ANOVA analysis revealed that the main component identified in economic empowerment of rural women is self-confidence and significant psychological difference between groups of women with different level of economic empowerment. The study findings reveal that the effectiveness of any economic program of empowering rural women depends on the success psychosocial dimensions.