Heshmatollah Sadi; Hosein Shabanali Fami; Somayeh Latifi
Abstract
This study evaluates the economic and social power of rural women in Hamadan who manufacture rugs and factors affecting it. Survey method was applied through questionnaires to conduct the research. 404 female rug makers were selected from Hamedan province based on Krejcie & Morgan table. The results ...
Read More
This study evaluates the economic and social power of rural women in Hamadan who manufacture rugs and factors affecting it. Survey method was applied through questionnaires to conduct the research. 404 female rug makers were selected from Hamedan province based on Krejcie & Morgan table. The results suggest that social ability mean of female rug weavers is higher than their economic potency. The results of regression analysis also showed that the variables of handmade rug’s size, availability of materials and tools of rug making, the level of related technical knowledge, and rug weaving time length during a day are among the most important factors of rural women’s economic ability which defines 42 percent of variance of their economic ability. Regarding social potency, the variables of job satisfaction, economic ability, level of related technical knowledge, and level of education explicate 43 percent of the variables of social ability. Considering the results of this research, strengthening the indicators affecting economic and social power of female rug makers especially indicators of availability of materials and tools of rug making, and related technical knowledge of rug making through holding courses to empower them is necessary.
H. Shabanali Fami; N. Fallah Haghighi; Ali Asadi
Volume 8, Issue 4 , February 2011
Abstract
In recent decades, empowerment has been used as a mechanism to improve
the quality of women’s personal life and career. In this respect, information technology can be used as an effective instrument to meet that end. The purpose of this study is to examine gender roles in inclination of men and women ...
Read More
In recent decades, empowerment has been used as a mechanism to improve
the quality of women’s personal life and career. In this respect, information technology can be used as an effective instrument to meet that end. The purpose of this study is to examine gender roles in inclination of men and women towards using Information Technology in Agricultural Extension. The study is conducted in Gilan province and it gains significance as it reveals the existing gap between men and women in terms of knowledge and skills of using information technologies. The statistical population covers 472 agricultural extension workers of Gilan province that are studied in two groups of men and women. Using Cochran formula and stratified random sampling method, some 203 people are randomly selected, of which 160 are men and 43 are women. Data is collected through a questionnaire and its reliability stands at 0.76 using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient. The independent variables include the amount of using information technology in agricultural extension, extension worker's level of knowledge about information technologies and their attitude towards using information and communication technologies. The dependent variables consist of gender, age, marital status, level of education, the field of study, the years of services, the organizational status, the employing status, the place of access to computer and the place of access to internet, the level of extension activities, the level of knowledge of English language, contributing in IT courses and the hours of using computer and internet in a week. The results of analysis indicate that women have less knowledge about IT and the level of using it stands at a lower level than as compared with men. Moreover, in terms of variables such as age, the years of services, the skills of using internet and computer in extension activities, there is a significant difference between men and women; namely that in each case men demonstrate higher level of skills in comparison with women. The results of diagnostic analysis reveal that the level of using internet, the level of internet knowledge, the skills of using computer to do extension tasks, have the highest importance in differentiating men and women respectively. In addition, in all cases men have higher level of skills in using IT in extension affaire in comparison with women. The results also confirm that skills of using computer in extension tasks have the highest correlation with diagnostic score and play the most important role in explaining total variance. Group mean for men is 2.121 and for women it stands at -0.908.