Evaluating the Impact of Social Capital on the Empowerment of Young Female Heads of Households (Case Study of Bojnourd)

Abstract

Until now, only income factors were considered for empowerment. But in contemporary times, most nonprofit and non-advocacy approaches, such as social capital and its components, have been taken into consideration. The World Bank has identified social capital as one of the pillars of the empowerment process. Hence, the main purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of social capital and its components on the empowerment of young female head of household. The present study was conducted using a survey method. The statistical population consisted of young female headed households who are resident in Bojnurd city in 2019 and are covered by the Welfare Organization. The sample size of the study was 106 people. A random sampling method was used to select the sample size based on the list of households covered by the Welfare Organization of North Khorasan Province. The results of the comparison of the means show a significant difference between the mean components of social capital in the statistical population under study. The F test shows that there is no significant difference between the ethnicity of women head of household and social capital and their empowerment level. Also, there is a positive and direct relationship between social capital and the empowerment of young female headed households. From the components of social capital, a significant relationship between social cohesion, social security and social trust with the empowerment of young female head of household has been confirmed. The strongest relationship is social trust with empowerment. Young female headed households are more vulnerable to social networking and social security network components; therefore, efforts to improve the components of social capital can be an effective way to empower women headed by households.