Gender-related analysis in the process of diffusion of entrepreneurship in rural areas Case study: Soolaghan Dehestan

Introduction Sustainable human development is possible only in case of justice being kept between the two genders. Even, it will remain incapable without the participation of women. Rural entrepreneurship, as a new approach in the development theories of empowering and capacity building of human sources, especially women in rural district, plays a crucial role to achieve sustainable development. This article will analyze conditions of entrepreneurship acceptance and its development between men and women to restore the status of women in economic activities and create an atmosphere of justice-oriented development. In fact, as a new strategy in the development of rural areas regarding to its high capacity of employment generation, entrepreneurship can create productive and permanent job chances for villagers and temporary employment for the seasonal unemployed ones. Rural women constitute a large segment of the rural population. So, if they get pushed to the entrepreneurship as well as the improvement of their spirit of entrepreneurship, job creation, and social participation, rural development will be achieved faster as a subset of sustainable development of the country. Therefore, it is meant to examine factors affecting the inequitable acceptance and development of entrepreneurship between the two genders based on gender analysis. This study is to examine influencing factors and barriers ahead of the development of entrepreneurship between rural men and women by evaluating the process of acceptance and development of entrepreneurship between genders. In this article, we are trying to find answers to the questions that; "What causes the inequality between genders in the process of entrepreneurship development?" and "What affects the pattern of entrepreneurship development between men and women?" Methodology The present study is an applied one which has done using descriptive method. Data collection was conducted by library and field methods. Data collection tools include interviews, observations and set by Likert scale. The study population consists of men and women of 82 families as the adopters of entrepreneurship in Sooleghan village. The district contains 11 villages. Four out of this number named by Keshar-Elya including 76 adopted families as the center of entrepreneurship acceptance and development, Keshar-Sofla: 3 adopters, Sooleghan: 2 adopters, and Kan: 1 adopter, are studied here. The village is located in the North West of Tehran within the municipal zones of 5 and 22 which is 7 KMs. far from it. The obtained data were analyzed in SPSS software using non-parametric and parametric tests. Discussion and conclusion Studying the process of entrepreneurship acceptance and distribution between rural men and women led to the two questions. First, "What causes the disparity between the genders in the process of entrepreneurship development?" Second, "What affects the pattern of entrepreneurship development between men and women?" In this study, we have studied the process and pattern of entrepreneurship development. According to the questions, it was identified that geographical conditions, environmental factors, and family status are different for men and women that can lead to the inequalities of the entrepreneurship acceptance and distribution among them. Results indicate that there is a significant difference up to 99% among role, legal and judicial, and institutional factors of men and women. Such differences can be the results of other various factors, all of them together can cause faster and more complete acceptance and distribution of entrepreneurship among men and women. Results from the gender- based analysis suggest that the social role of women in the villages is mostly confined to their home and its immediate environment. This happens because of the prevalence of patriarchal culture, beliefs, traditions and social attitudes towards women and their role in the rural environment. Gender-based discrimination of these kind have a significant impact on the direction and speed of entrepreneurship acceptance and its distribution. This means that the entrepreneurship has always been stronger among men than women. Also, women's entrepreneurship has been less during the process of acceptance. Even, in case of their presence, women's group has been counted among the Late Accept groups of the entrepreneurship. Family oriented constraints of women and their dependence on men, especially their financial dependence, some cultural and geographical factors and environmental conditions can all be counted as some other barriers in terms of entrepreneurship acceptance and its distribution against women. This study reveals that women are highly affected by their husband in their position in the labor market, home and family. In this way, the acceptance of women entrepreneurs is subject to their husband being an entrepreneur.