Empowering Women-Headed Households During the COVID-19 Pandemic: an Action Research Study

Background: Women-headed households represent a vulnerable group in any society. These women face many psychological and economic problems and role conflict, so they require empowerment programs. Accordingly, this study was conducted to empower women-headed households during the coronavirus pandemic. Methods: The present study is an action research conducted in five stages (assessment, planning, acting, reflection, and evaluation) in Kerman in southeastern Iran from 2019 to 2020. The participants were 33 individuals, including 12 women-headed households, 15 faculty members, and 6 nurses. The data were collected through interviews and focus groups and analyzed using a conventional content analysis approach. Results: Based on the data analysis in stage I, the category of the need to make a living and subcategories of financial turbulence, job loss, and income reduction, and concern about meeting the basic needs of children were extracted. In stage V, four main categories were extracted from the analysis of the qualitative data: psychological empowerment (self-confidence, feeling of existence, and motivation for progress), economic empowerment (improving financial situation, making a living, and financial independence), social empowerment (active presence in crisis, helping medical staff, a sense of social usefulness, overcoming isolation, feeling decision-making power, gaining social trust), and spiritual empowerment (inner satisfaction and inner peace). Conclusion: Empowering women-headed households can affect all individual, social, and family aspects and can even pave the way for their spiritual advancement. Therefore, empowerment programs with long-term goals should be planned and implemented for this group.