Scientific Papers Series Management, Economic Engineering in Agriculture and Rural Development Vol. 15, Issue 3, 2015 PRINT ISSN 2284-7995, E-ISSN 2285-3952 205 SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT OF RURAL WOMEN BY ICTs Parnia MOSHARAF 1 , Fariba FARHADI 2 , Mohammad Sadegh EBRAHIMI 1 1 Isfahan University of Technology, College of Agriculture, Department of Rural Development, PO box 84156-8311, Isfahan, Iran, Phone: 98-311-391-3446 E-mail: ebrahimi_ms@cc.iut.ac.ir 2 University of Omran-Tosses, Department of Rural Development, Hamadan, Iran, E-mail: farhadi_f83@yahoo.com Corresponding author: farhadi_f83@yahoo.com Abstract Development is a process involving major changes in social structures, popular attitudes of the people, national institutions, accelerating economic growth, reducing inequalities and eradicating absolute poverty. Social development is one of the four dimensions of sustainable development. Direct and indirect impacts of the social development can affect the other dimensions of sustainable development. Hence, it is important to understand the factors affecting social development. The aim of this study was to investigate the social development of rural women by ICTs processes in rural areas. The statistical population of this study consisted of 5018 women that have been lived in rural areas in Shahreza Township in Iran, to be using Cochran formula, 190 rural women selected and the satisfied random sampling used for select of samples. This study was conducted to examine the validity of the questionnaire using Cronbach's Alpha Coefficients for the different sectors after a preliminary study for each of the indices greater than 0.7 were calculated separately. Regression analysis results obtained show that the three variables: rural women's economic independence, awareness about ICT services and the amount use of the ICT services that provided for rural women by rural ICT offices, entered in the regression analysis and explain 59% of the variable affect the social development of rural women. Key words: Iran, social development, regression, rural women INTRODUCTION About half of the rural population is included of rural women. Use of ICT processes in the context of gender analysis could be improved the women empowerment and rural development process in developing countries. ITC are key promoting community connectivity in contemporary society (Novo- Corti and et al, 2014 ) .[10] Information and communication technology (ICT) is a principal driver of economic development and social change, worldwide (Kozma, 2005). [6] Some researchers believed that ICTs can be mechanisms that enable developing countries to leapfrog stages of development. Information and Communication technologies (ICT) have a potential for economic growth and social empowerment (Ebo, Amosa and Adenusi, 2012). [4] Development is a process involving major changes in social structures, popular attitudes of the people, national institutions, accelerating economic growth, reducing inequalities and eradicating absolute poverty (Todaro, 2006). [14] Some of these changes are very fast in such a way that increasingly today, the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as a development tool used to be. (Rubinoff, 2005). [12] Information and communication technology has led to significant changes in the way people live, work, interact, and learn to be active (Nechita and Timofti, 2011). [9] Developing countries are now aware of the benefits derived through adoption and use of ICTs but there are many serious challenges which must be addressed and chief among them are: Inadequate communications and power infrastructure Shortage of ICT facilities and ICTs skills Inadequate institutional arrangements Limited financial resources Inadequate public private partnership Limited data management capacity Inadequate horizontal and vertical communication Inadequate bandwidth nationally and on the