Nagham Muhammad^1*, Ghassan Yacoub² and Munther Khaddam³

¹Department of Agricultural Economics, Faculty of Agricultural Engineering, Tishreen University, Syria.

(*Corresponding author: Nagham Muhammad, E-Mail: nagham89gh@gmail.com ).

Received: 22/ 05/ 2024     Accepted: 29/ 08/ 2024

Abstract

 This research aimed to measure the level of economic empowerment of rural women through several indicators and the impact of demographic variables on economic empowerment. To achieve the above, a random sample of 384 rural women was taken, and the necessary data for the research were collected by designing a questionnaire designed for this purpose according to the personal interview method with rural women.The descriptive analytical approach was relied upon to describe and analyze the answers of the sample members to the questionnaire questions using frequency tables, arithmetic averages and percentages. The research hypotheses were also tested using one-way ANOVA using the SPSS program. The research results showed that female employees and housewives occupied the highest percentage in the studied sample, as women in the Al-Haffa area depend on government jobs as a primary source of income in addition to a significant percentage devoted to housework and childcare in general. In contrast, the percentage of agricultural work did not exceed 11.2% of the total sample, due to the small size of agricultural holdings, as most of the lands of Al-Haffa are forests and some are rocky and rugged. The research results also showed that rural women in the Al-Haffa region are still at a low level of economic empowerment in the field of competition in the labor market due to the low level of their qualifications that are consistent with the requirements of the labor market. Also, the percentage of their ownership of land and property is still low due to customs and traditions that favor men over women in inheritance. In general, rural women in the Al-Haffa region enjoyed an average degree of economic empowerment, as the total score of the scale reached 57.41%. The results of the research hypothesis test indicated that there were statistically significant differences (sig<0.05) in the level of economic empowerment of rural women in the Al-Haffa region according to the variable of educational level, income, and the profession in which the woman works, as the educated, working woman who has a good income is able to achieve a better economic status compared to others.         

Keywords: Economic empowerment, demographic characteristics, poverty, rural women.

 Full paper in Arabic: PDF