THE ROLE OF COOPERATIVES IN EMPOWERING THE RURAL WOMEN: IN THE CASE OF KAJIMA CHABICHO RURAL SAVING AND CREDIT COOPERATIVE UNION IN HAWASSA ZURIA WOREDA.

ABSTRACT Women face multi-faceted challenges to empower in cooperative due to different factors. This thesis is based on the fact that there are fewer female members than male, both in the country and in the organization. The objective of this study is to examine the role of cooperatives in empowering the rural women: in the case of kajima cabcho rural saving and credit cooperative union. It also aimed to assess the contribution of RUSACCOs on the women social empowerment of its women members, to assess the contribution of cooperatives on the Women Economic Empowerment of in cooperative to enhance the achievement the goal. In order to meet these objectives, qualitative and quantitative research methods were used. Consequently, non-probability (purposive) sampling was used to select the 80 respondents and discussants of the study. The quantitative data collected were entered to SPSS software version 20 and analyzed using tools of descriptive statistics such as frequency, percentage and inferential statistics such as: independent sample test. The data was collected by interviewing and conducting questionnaires for explore the current gender practices in the organization and assessing the factors determining women empowerment. The findings showed that women are highly represented in cooperatives due to membership. Thus, in order to sustain the women ratio, the organization needs to implement affirmative action at leaders level, giving quota number for women at entrance stage as well as clearly needs to set the criteria while assigning women to cooperative members.