Social Factors affecting Women's Political Participation in Hamadan Province of Iran (Case Study: Nahavand City)

Political participation is one of the important issues drawn to the special attention of various fields of social sciences and politics. Today, women as an effective group in participation and political participation especially have an important role in political decision-making. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to examine social factors affecting women's political participation in the city of Nahavand. In this study, the survey method was employed and the data have been obtained by using a questionnaire. The sample of the research consisted of Nahavandi women of 18 years of age and older out of which 400 women were selected based on Cochran formula and multi-stage cluster sampling method. The results of the research show that there is a significant relationship between women’s political participation and social capital variables, social class positions, mass media, political participation experience and political efficacy however, there is not a significant relationship between the variable of membership in civil organization and access to political figures and women’s political participation. Results obtained from regression analysis suggest that the variables of social capital, social class position, mass media, political participation experience and political efficacy explain totally 12% of variations in women’s political participation. Path analysis diagram also showed that social capital variable has a greater impact on women’s political participation than the other variables.