Gender analysis in understanding the effects of rural tourism in Kan–Sologhan Villages in North –West of Tehran

Today, rural tourism has been considered from different aspects .In the gendered society that we live men and women have different attitudes and expectations that have been taken from their life experiences. This study, relying on gender analysis, tries to find how tourism effects are understood by men and women. The method used in this research is survey-descriptive and the data was collected through a questionnaire. Using Cronbach's alpha, we found the reliability of the questionnaire to be 0.794. The statistical society of this study includes men and women living in seven villages of Kan- Sologhan rural district which has tourism attractions. From total of 560 households in the area, 250 households have been active in tourism .Based on Morgan–Krjsy table, 158 households were chosen as sample and among them, 108 men and 50 women who were active in tourism activity participated in research. The results of the study showed that there are convergence between men and women in understanding the tourism effect from social and economical perspectives; on the other hand, there are divergence between men and women in understanding the environmental impacts and their attitude toward the efficiency of tourism development in the area. Moreover, the results show that tourism causes women to gain more knowledge and to increase their social contacts, but it failed to reduce gender inequalities and to attract the women’s practical participation in the related activities.