Journal of Urban Economics and Management

Empowerment is a process in which an individual will be aware of his needs, internal demands, and capabilities, and acquire necessary abilities aiming to achieve requests. Native notion of socio-economic empowerment, effective factors on growth and its barriers were studied by two qualitative (grounded theory) and quantitative (correlation analysis) in this research. Depth interview techniques, and focus group discussions, and participatory and direct observation were used for qualitative data collection, and Scott and GYF questionnaire was used for 111 samples for quantitative data collection in order to examine the obstacles of women’s empowerment based on three factors: attitude and the amount of experience, training, and women’s socio-economic status (employment) in the form of 33 items. The qualitative results show that employment, balancing income and expenses, savings and entrepreneurship have influential and determining role in continuation and sustainability of people’s economic empowerment. The overall results of qualitative research show that some relatives who live together, family-orientation, social capital, cooperation, social correlation, and supporting each other are some effective factors on empowerment growth. Also, the results of quantitative research indicate that two factors: training and employment are the most important effective factors on vulnerable women’s empowerment in empowerment staff of Tehran Municipality.