Key-Factor analysis of elements affecting women’s employment in small and medium enterprises (SME) among women living in Tehran

The recent global developments followed by altered attitudes have improved women’s contribution to small and medium enterprises. However, women’s employment in Iranian SME is not in a good condition. In fact, attitude of society towards women together with socio-cultural environments have resulted in reduced rate of women’s employment in developing companies. However, for changing these attitudes the relevant layout should be created anyway. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to enumerate factors affecting women’s employment in Tehran SME from those women’s views. In this regard, we applied Lernerʹs model which is more comprehensive than the other similar models. The analysis was carried out through distribution of some questionnaires among a statistical population including 384 women living in the city of Tehran. After data analysis and hypothesis testing, it was concluded that economic elements (as an environmental factor), achievement requirement (as an individual factor) and encouragement (as an organizational factors) respectively affect women’s employment.