Effective Mechanisms to Promote Women Participation in Training Courses in Isfahan County

Abstract

Extended Abstract 1. INTRODUCTION In our country, rural women have a great role in agricultural activities in most of the regions. Today, in national and international development programs, a special place is given to half of society i.e. women. Training as key pillars of development of nations is considered as the key activity in the development of rural women (half of the population). In this context, if agricultural training programs are well anticipated, planned and executed, they could be effective in increasing quantity and quality of agricultural production and finally improving the incomes of rural households. Accordingly, it is important to investigate women participation in training courses in order to achieve sustainable rural development. Therefore, the main question of this study is what are the mechanisms affecting rural women's participation in extension and training courses in Isfahan? 2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK Participation is a process in which members are actively involved with knowledge, freedom and responsibility to achieve a common goal. Regarding the definition of participation, individual and socio-cultural characteristics are among factors affecting participation in activities. Of course participation in voluntary activities and educational and extension activities were also affected by the same factor. Even due to the specific characteristics of participation in such activities, individual and psychological characteristics, personality, and social and economic status of people is more important compared to participating in other activities. Generally, factors affecting participation include: 1) demographic factors such as age, marital status, number of children and age of children, 2) socio-economic status including income, education, social class determined by oneself or others, employment status, home ownership and other physical properties, 3) Physical Social Profile: Gender, ethnicity, physical health and physical abilities, 4) Personal characteristics and capacity, including extroversion, socialization, friendship and social self-esteem, survival, identity, psychological adjustment, satisfaction, happiness, dominance, independence, achievement motivation, effectiveness, flexibility, adaptability and willingness to change the mood. 3. METHODOLOGY This research uses descriptive survey method. The population of this research includes rural women (93593 = N). Cochran formula was used to make a sample of 195 people (P & Q= 0.5; d=0.7). The survey instrument was a questionnaire whose validity was confirmed by a panel of experts. To determine the reliability of the questionnaire, Cronbach's alpha coefficient was used (0.73). The data were analyzed using SPSS software. 4. DISCUSSION The results showed that the mean age of women was 48.5 years; the youngest woman was 22 years old and the oldest woman was 71 years old. Furthermore, the results of the analysis also showed that the average education level of the respondents' education was 2 years and the level of their education ranged from 0 to 14. In addition, 16.4% of the subjects had low and very low participation, 47.9% had average and 35.7% had good and very good participation. The findings from correlation analysis demonstrated that rural women's participation in training-promotional courses had significant relationship with age, level of education, husband's level of education, number of children, working with rural communities, attitude towards training courses, view of the villagers' toward women's participation in educational programs, insights about the quality of previous training courses, relationship with urban communities and viewpoints about the usefulness of the previous training courses. The results of multiple regression analysis showed that variables including husband's level of education, relationship with urban communities, view of the villagers' toward women's participation in educational programs, viewpoints about the usefulness of the previous training courses and attitude towards training courses had a significant impact on the dependent variable of the research, yet the impact of other variables were not significant. 5. CONCLUSION Due to the low level of education of rural women of Isfahan and its significant relationship with their participation in training -extension courses, it is necessary to plan in order to execute proper educational programs for adults. Therefore, it is suggested that certain measure be taken to increase rural women knowledge through training classes such as the Literacy Movement. As a result of such measures the participation of women will increase in such training- extension courses regarding agriculture and rural life. Since villagers' viewpoint toward women's participation in educational programs is the most important variable for women's participation in training courses, it is proposed that women's participation be established through the creation of proper local conditions. To achieve this goal, villagers' viewpoint toward women's participation could be enhanced via the implementation of appropriate programs. In this context, the media such as radio and television, which have a lot of audiences in many villages, could be helpful. Given the negative correlation between the number of children and women's participation in training courses, it is proposed that at least during the designing training programs, certain facilities be provided to take care of young children of these women, thus providing care for the children does not impinge on women's participation in training courses.