Journal of the Geographical Studies of Mountainous Areas

Participation is recognized as one of the important indicators of sustainable development. Over the past decades, women's participation in the process of development programs has been significantly on the agenda. Because experts believe that without the active participation of women in all areas, there will be no complete and sustainable development. The purpose of this study is to identify and analyze the most important obstacles and challenges facing women's participation in the management of rural villages in Lavasan Kuchak. This article is applied in terms of purpose and descriptive-analytical. In this research, in order to collect information in a combined way, library and documentary methods and field methods and completing a questionnaire according to the extracted indicators from theoretical studies have been used, which shows the scientific validity of the indicators. Cronbach's alpha (0.78) was used to validate the questionnaire items. The statistical population in this study includes the population of women in 15 villages living in Lavasan Kouchak sub-district. The population of women in Lavasan Kouchak village was equal to 2595 people. From this number, 334 people were selected as a sample based on Cochran's formula and based on the sample size; the number of questionnaires in each village was determined and distributed. Factor analysis method was used in SPSS software to analyze the data. The findings show eight factors; Social structures, individual characteristics of women, lack of skills and awareness, limited access, culture and tradition, inequality of opportunity, limited travel and coercion and dependence have been identified as the most important obstacles and challenges of women's participation in rural management of Lavasan Kuchak village.