Women, as managers of rural households, are the most important element in waste management at the source. Leveraging this potential requires addressing the obstacles and challenges that hinder their participation in waste management. In tourism-destination villages, waste production is consistently higher than in ordinary villages due to the high volume of tourist arrivals. Consequently, women's participation in waste management plays a key role in preserving the pristine landscape and environmental health of these tourism-oriented villages. Therefore, the present study aims to assess the status of women’s participation in waste management and to identify the factors inhibiting their involvement within an empirical model, conducted as a case study in the tourism-destination villages of the Sirvan district. The main research tool for collecting field data was a researcher-made questionnaire, the validity and reliability of which have been confirmed (the calculated alpha coefficient for women's participation in household waste management and the variables of factors inhibiting rural women's participation were 0.864 and 0.786, respectively). The results of the research showed that the average obtained for women's participation in waste management, with a value of 3.048, did not differ significantly from the baseline average. The exploratory factor analysis revealed eight factors, which together explained 64.738% of the variance in the dependent variable, as the most significant barriers to women’s participation in waste management. Among these, the three factors of “weak family participation and lack of women's knowledge regarding waste,” “lack of government financial support and the prevalence of consumerist patterns combined with the use of waste-generating materials,” and “lack of indoor residential space and the cost-inefficiency of source-based waste management” were of greater importance, with variance percentages of 10.234%, 9.254%, and 9.096%, respectively. Furthermore, the results demonstrated that the empirical model of barriers to women's participation in household waste management showed an acceptable fit according to all proposed criteria.