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The mediation effect of rural women empowerment between social factors and environment conservation (combination of empowerment and ecofeminist theories)

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Abstract

Women in developing countries are a key element of development, especially in terms of environmental conservation. Environmental issues have deep social concepts and are changing under the influence of social systems. Women, as one of the basic pillars of a social system, play a fundamental role in development and the environment conservation, which depends on empowering women. Social factors can affect environment conservation directly or indirectly, and the rural women empowerment can be assumed as a mediator variable in this relationship. This study aims to examine the mediation effect of rural women empowerment on the relationship between social factors and environment conservation by combining empowerment and eco-feminist theories. Based on a cross-sectional survey, a sample of 384 rural women was randomly selected and interviewed in the Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Province, located in the southwest of Iran. The direct structural model revealed that women’s position in the family, their husband's behavior, and women’s participation (as predicting variables) significantly explained 31% of the variation of the environment conservation variable. Moreover, the mediation structural model showed that the rural women empowerment variable had a mediating role in the relationship between women’s position in the family, husband's behavior, plus women’s participation and environmental conservation. The results suggested that these social predictors determine 20% of the women empowerment variable variations and 45% of the environment conservation variance when the women empowerment was introduced as the third variable in the structural model.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the University of Zanjan for supporting the present research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Extension, Communication and Rural Development, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Zanjan, Zanjan 45371-38791, Zanjan, Iran

    Mehdi Ghasemi, Mohammad Badsar & Esmail Karamidehkordi

  2. Institute for Social and Cultural Studies, Ministry of Science, Research and Technology, Tehran, Iran

    Leila Falahati

  3. Agricultural Extension and Education Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran

    Esmail Karamidehkordi

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  1. Mehdi Ghasemi
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  2. Mohammad Badsar
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  3. Leila Falahati
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Correspondence to Mohammad Badsar.

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Ghasemi, M., Badsar, M., Falahati, L. et al. The mediation effect of rural women empowerment between social factors and environment conservation (combination of empowerment and ecofeminist theories). Environ Dev Sustain 23, 13755–13777 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-021-01237-y

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