Rural Women's Empowerment in Improving Household Food Security in the Divandarreh County

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Purpose: Considering the important role of rural women in food security, the main purpose of this study is to study the rural women's empowerment in improving household food security. Method: The research data was collected through questionnaires filled out by rural married women in Divandareh County. Based on random sampling, 213 of them were selected. The validity of questionnaire was confirmed by the panel of food security experts and faculty members of management and agricultural development department in university of Tehran, and its reliability was confirmed by Cronbach's Alpha coefficient and composite reliability. Results: The results can be concluded that the rural households have not been in suitable conditions in terms of food security. Also the results of Correlation analysis showed that among all dimensions of rural women’s empowerment (economic, social & psychological) with food security of their family were significantly correlated. In addition, the results of structural equation modeling showed that dimension of rural women’s empowerment with the coefficient of determination 0.83 (γ=0.72, t=7.12) had positive and significant effect on the food security of the family. Practical implications: Due to rural women' financial weakness, it is strongly suggested that financial supports will be dedicated to improvement of rural women's empowerment, and their access to credits through creation and development of rural credit cooperatives and microfinance institutions that provide small loans to rural poor with little income or collateral,. Original/value: In this study rural women’s empowerment in different dimensions that is contribute to improve food security were identified. The results of the study could be considerably helpful to rural development planners and policy makers for improving food security in rural communities.