The social factors effecting the role of women in the sustainable urban development of Arak city
Subject Areas : Journal of Iranian Social Development StudiesFatemeh Farahani 1 , Ali Roshanaie 2 , Mohammad Hossein Asadi Davoodabadi 3 , Omid Ali Ahmadi 4
1 - Economic and Development Sociology Ph.D student, Faculty of Humanities, Ashtian Branch, Islamic Azad University, Ashtian, Iran
2 - Assistant Professor of Sociology Department, Faculty of Humanities, Ashtian Branch, Islamic Azad University, Ashtian, Iran.
3 - Assistant Professor of Sociology Department, Faculty of Humanities, Ashtian Branch, Islamic Azad University, Ashtian, Iran
4 - Assistant Professor of Sociology Department, Faculty of Humanities, Ashtian Branch, Islamic Azad University, Ashtian, Iran
Keywords: women, sustainable urban development, social capacity, social factors, Arak city,
Abstract :
The principal objective of the present Research is to identify the social factors effective on the women's role-playing in the sustainable urban development of Arak city. The concept of women’s social capacity in the development projects has attracted the attention of policy makers and social policy authorities due to the fact that the roles of national governments have been weakened by globalization, thus, it has made the capacities of local communities a viable solution to the development problems. The theoretical framework of the research was developed based on the theories that explain the relationship between gender and development including feminist theories, capacity theory, theory of urban sustainable system, Bourdieu theory of masculine domination, theory of urban attachment. Based on the samplimg plan developed among women with ages above 20 from 55 neiborhoods in 5 district in Arak, the research was carried out using survey method and researcher-made questionnaire. Cluster and inappropriate stratified samplings with 392 individuals as the sample volume were used. The research results confirm the hypotheses based on which factors effecting the role of women in sustainable urban development of Arak city include: capital amount available for women (such as social capital, cultural capital, and economic capital); city’s capacity to supply the citizens’ needs; housing welfare conditions; gender stereotyes dominating the family; education, being native or not; employment; city attachment; believing in gender segregation in development; gender discrimination feeling, and development-related talents. Finally, based on regression analysis, the independent variables’ power used in explaining the dependent variable variance was 35 percent.
