Female Entrepreneurs and Creating Small Rural Businesses in Iran.

The entrepreneurship of women in rural areas can provide economic versatility for families and help protect the social structure. Women have different reasons and motivations for engaging in entrepreneurship activities in different societies. The present research aimed to find the reasons for and obstacles to the creation and development of business and entrepreneurship activities using the interview method. The research population who were interviewed was fourteen exemplary female entrepreneurs in Khorasan Razavi province, Iran, who were introduced to us by the Office of Women's Affairs and the Family of the Khorasan Razavi Governor. The results of the interview were encoded and analyzed with the MaxQda software. The results showed that the most important reasons and motivations of women for entrepreneurship activities included economic, social, humane, personal, cultural, and environmental. Economic reasons were the strongest ones. The most important obstacles for women in creating and expanding entrepreneurial activities included bureaucratic, economic, family-oriented, psychological, infrastructure, policy-making, sociocultural, and technical. The study gives new insight into what obstacles women entrepreneurs are faced to create small rural businesses in rural areas and how they are motivated to develop their businesses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]