Women’s participation in rural cooperatives in Iran

ABSTRACT This research aimed to investigate women’s level of participation and the factors influencing their involvement in different stages of cooperative activities in Shiraz, Iran. The statistical population consisted of the members of a women’s cooperative named “Tafihan,” which has a total population of 418 members, from which 200 were sampled. The findings show that, based on Kanji and Greenwood’s ladder of participation [2001. Participatory approaches to research and development in IIED: Learning from experience. London: IIED], women’s participation was mostly at the level of “surrender” or “acceptance,” while the least participation was seen at the level of “consultation” and “contemplation”. To explain factors influencing the amount and level of women’s participation, four main stages of cooperative activities were used in the project cycle, with a linear regression test used to find each influential factor that predicted the effect in different stages.