COMMUNICATION SKILLS AND EMPOWERMENT OF RURAL WOMEN

Objective: To determine the relationship between communication skills and the empowerment of women farmers located in the Puno region, Peru. Theoretical Framework : The theoretical basis focuses on communication skills and women's empowerment. Communication skills refer to an individual's ability to express their thoughts, needs, feelings, desires, and concerns using oral and written language, which serve as tools to facilitate interaction among participants involved in communication. Women's empowerment is the process through which women increase their capacity to shape their own lives and environments, manifested in different ways: a sense of security, economic participation, political involvement, leadership, and decision-making. Methodology : The methodology is based on a quantitative correlational research approach, with a non-experimental and cross-sectional design. The sample was census-based and consisted of 40 women leaders representing the rural communities of the Human Rights and Environment Association. Results : There is a moderately positive and significant correlation between communication skills and women's empowerment (r = 0.53), with a p-value < 0.05. This indicates that as communication skills develop, women's empowerment improves, giving them greater opportunities to participate in politics, the economy, and decision-making, which contributes to improving their family and local lifestyle.


INTRODUCTION
Communication is present in the human interactions that take place in different scenarios of life.According to Hervás (1998), communication is a process in which one or more people transmit messages to others, deliberately using signs that have meanings and that establish relationships that produce effects.Effectiveness depends on the use of communication techniques and skills that the person uses to communicate with their interlocutors (Cangalaya, 2021).Many people took advantage of these skills to become empowered leaders and take on leadership challenges of certain organizations, such as Barack Obama, former president of the United States, Alan García Pérez, former Peruvian president, among others.In this way, the use of appropriate communication skills can empower people in the exercise of their rights in political, social, economic and decision-making spaces.
Communicative skills are the abilities of an individual to express their thoughts, needs, feelings, desires and concerns, making use of oral and written language.In this sense, each language user needs to master these skills in order to communicate effectively in the various contexts of daily life (Cassany et al. 2007).In this regard, García et al. (2018) point out that communication skills fall within the category of skills necessary to carry out tasks that involve communication and influence to others.There are four communication skills, each of which acts as a tool to facilitate interaction between participants involved in communication.These are: speaking ability, listening ability, reading ability and writing ability (Cangalaya, 2021).These skills are often not in full right and use for the female population in certain geographic spaces and settings.
The cultural complexity and the marked conservative tradition of macho thinking have limited women's right to participate in different development spaces, among them: leadership, economics and politics, which are factors that hinder the development of women's potentialities and abilities.For many years, women were unable to exercise their rights as human beings, as a result of the kind of thinking imposed by society.They are now engaged in social, political and economic activities, developing their skills and talents.Thus, women acquire empowerment, because it is related to the notion of leadership, which strengthens the skills of self-esteem and self-representation (Agudelo, 2020).
Studies carried out in non-peasant populations on communication skills have Damiani (2011), who found low percentages in the self-assessment of aspects that concern teachers' expression skills, including empathy and behavior.Batista and Romero (2007)  On the other hand, Díaz et al. (2022) revealed that female entrepreneurs in Tijuana-Mexico have a high level of economic empowerment.However, they found an inverse relationship between the level of empowerment and age groups, where younger women present a higher level of empowerment due to their income.Likewise, Campo and Giraldo (2015) found women's empowerment in the decision-making and development capacities in their lives and actions of their environment.Salazar et al. (2022) found that women with income have greater decision-making power, greater autonomy, attitudes indifferent to gender stereotypes, and their partners participate in household and care work.
In this context, it becomes clear that there is still a gap between communication skills and women's empowerment.Therefore, the results of this study will contribute significantly to promoting gender equality.This will mean that women can participate more actively in social, economic and political life.In addition, both professional and personal development will be favored, as improving communication skills will allow women to advance in their careers by expressing their ideas with confidence and confidence.
Considering the different scenarios and realities that could influence this phenomenon, the present study aims to determine the relationship between communication skills and the empowerment of rural women in the political, economic, leadership and decision-making dimensions of women of the Human Rights and Environment Association (DHUMA) of the region of Puno, Peru, during the years 2020-2022.

COMMUNICATION
According to Martínez, cited by Cangalaya (2021), communication is a process by which a person can establish contact with another person through a message and hopes that he or she will respond to him or her, either through an idea, attitude or behavior.This implies that both partners establish a connection, as the response must be directed in that direction.Gómez (2016) points out that communication encompasses a series of elements to carry out the process ___________________________________________________________________________ Rev. Gest. Soc. Ambient. | Miami | v.18.n.7 | p.1-16 | e08025 | 2024.5 effectively, where it is necessary to emphasize more than talk to break the barrier of superficiality; since not only information is transmitted, but also ideas, feelings, opinions and emotions of both the sender and the receiver are expressed.
In the context of communication, there are different levels of communication, as Santos (2012) indicates, that the levels of communication comprise different types and response schemes, which depend on the number of participants in the communication process.The levels are: a) Intrapersonal, this level of communication refers to the articulation of language that does not transcend another individual, but belongs only to it; b) Interpersonal, in this two or more individuals who exchange messages participate; c) Group, level of communication where two or more people participate who consider to be able to achieve something through a joint action; d) Organizational, involves a structure where the common objectives are cohesive; e) Massive, which refers to the design and transmission of content of a medium, oriented to an imprecise and indeterminate public by its number, and which has diverse characteristics.
Communication can fulfill different functions in the relationship of people or organizations, as stated by Gómez (2016), that communication represents an essential element in human relations and fulfills the following functions: informative, affective, regulatory, conative, and factual.The informative function consists of sharing meanings and is considered the raison d'être of the communicative process.Through the construction, transmission and reception of information, individuals or groups make decisions to evaluate options, obtain knowledge and comply with the established.

COMMUNICATIVE SKILLS
Communicative skills are defined as the ability of an individual to express their thoughts, needs, feelings, desires and concerns, making use of oral and written language.In this regard, García et al. (2018) point out that communication skills fall within the category of skills necessary to carry out tasks that involve communication and influence others.They are known as verbal and non-verbal resources that allow the achievement of communicative goals.
Consequently, the fundamental skills that must be mastered to communicate effectively are speaking, listening, writing, and reading.
According to Cangalaya (2021), the indicated communication skills, each of which acts as a tool to facilitate interaction between participants involved in communication.That is why it is necessary that they be examined together, because, despite their differences, they work 6 together to achieve communication, which ends up being the same objective.Regarding speech skills, according to Saussure, cited by Cangalaya (2021), it is an individual act that allows the exteriorization of language.This allows the subject to express their feelings, needs and desires through the emission of sounds that are typical of a particular language and are used in a particular geographic area.

EMPOWERMENT
Empowerment, according to Acuña et al. (2014), is intimately linked to the potentiality of the sense of belonging, the sense of commitment to oneself and to the community, and the social consciousness that makes it possible to work together towards a common goal.This means internal change and behavior change that leads to empowerment and the pursuit of the common good.In this way, people begin to see problems as opportunities for change rather than as obstacles.Agudelo (2019) adds that the idea of empowerment, on the other hand, is related to the notion of leadership, since it strengthens the skills of self-esteem and selfrepresentation.Leaders must develop their own unique personal qualities in order to influence community members, using strategies that allow them to exert influence to achieve their desired goals.Paredes (2015) defines empowerment as the process in which people with less power manage to control the circumstances of their lives.In this scenario, Hoinle et al. (2013) point out the existence of four dimensions of empowerment that lead to the emergence of social tools that strengthen decision-making.The dimensions are: a) Personal empowerment, which emphasizes the importance of strengthening self-esteem, self-confidence, power of action and individual capabilities; b) Economic empowerment, which involves the development of individual capacity to manage own resources, power of merit and negotiation; c) Socio-political empowerment, which involves the ability to identify as a political actor, in addition to referring to the ability to assert one's rights and manage their communities; d) Spatial empowerment, which involves the power of self-representation, in addition to speaking in public scenarios regarding individual and collective rights, considering voice and visibility.
Women's empowerment is a phenomenon that is becoming more visible today and seeks to assert their rights.Alcázar and Espinoza (2014) define women's empowerment as the process by which women increase their ability to shape their own lives and environments.In this framework, empowerment manifests itself in six different ways: a sense of security and a clear 7 vision for the future, greater power in decision-making, the ability to act effectively in public, the ability to succeed in life, participation in social groups that are not related to oneself, and the use of solidarity groups as a source of support and information, as well as visibility in the community.
For their part, García et al. (2022) highlight that the empowerment of women is a process of social transformation that allows women to improve their abilities for the advancement of the social system in which they are immersed, where there is still a gender gap.It is recognized that the element that has received the most attention is the control and access to economic resources; however, there is also a connection between the achievement of competencies that allow the transformation of social structures so that women can participate in scenarios where they have previously been denied the opportunity to do so.

METHODOLOGY
The research approach was quantitative, which according to Rodríguez (2010), studies the causes of social events, using questionnaires to generate numerical data and analyze them statistically in order to test or reject hypotheses.The defined variables of the study are communication skills and women's empowerment.The variable empowerment of women was measured through the dimensions of participation in politics, economic participation, leadership and decision-making.
The research design was non-experimental, descriptive, correlational and transversal, since the analysis variables were not deliberately manipulated, but only the phenomena were observed in their natural environment to analyze them (Hernández-Sampieri and Mendoza, 2018).The technique used was the Likert scale with the alternatives of totally agree (5), agree (4), neither agree nor disagree (3), disagree (2) and totally disagree (1).Twenty-six semistructured questions were asked; for the communicative skills variable 6 questions were developed, and for the empowerment of women 20 questions were asked distributed in four dimensions: for the dimension participation in politics 5 questions were asked, for the dimension economic participation 5, for leadership 5 and for decision-making 5 questions were also asked.
The data collection instrument was validated by four experts: two specialists in communication and two in social work, in order to guarantee the validity of the research content.
In addition, a pilot test was conducted with 15 women to measure the reliability of the instrument through the Cronbach Alpha, whose result was 0.87, which means that the collection instrument is reliable.
The study population was made up of peasant women members of the Human Rights and Environment Association (DHUMA) of the region of Puno -Peru, and the census sample was 40 leaders representing the different peasant communities that make up the association, with an age range between 30 and 40 years.The study was carried out between the years 2020 -2022.
Data collection was done at association meetings that were held sporadically due to the pandemic.Only on those occasions were women contacted to collect information, as their communities are located far away from the headquarters of the association's premises.
The data were analyzed using Rho de Spearman inferential statistics to determine the extent to which the communication skills and women's empowerment variables are related.

ANALYSIS OF RESULTS
The results of the study are presented in correlation tables between the communication skills variables and the dimensions of the women's empowerment variable, considering the objectives that were formulated in the research, which are detailed below: Table 1 presents a moderate positive correlation of r = 0.466, where p value is equal 0.002 less than 0.05, which means that the correlation between communication skills and the dimension of political participation of the variable empowerment of women is significant, that  Table 2 demonstrates the relationship between the communicative skills variable and the economic participation dimension of the women's empowerment variable, where it is observed that there is a direct, positive and weak correlation r = 0.340, whose p value = 0.032 less than 0.005, which means that the correlation is significant between these variables.So, it can be said that the greater the communication skills of the older woman will be the possibility of generating her own economic income.Table 3 shows a moderate positive correlation of r = 0.510, where the p-value is less than 0.05.This indicates that the correlation between the communicative skills variable and the leadership dimension of the women's empowerment variable is significant, which means that

Table 4
Correlation between the communicative skills variable and the decision-making dimension of the women's empowerment variable.Table 4 shows that there is a correlation between the communicative skills variable and the decision-making dimension of the women's empowerment variable, the result indicates a weak positive correlation r = 0.449 and a p value of 0.004 less than 0.005.This means that the correlation is significant.The greater the communication skills of the peasant women of the Association of Human Rights and Environment, the greater the decision-making in different scenarios.Table 5 presents the correlation between the communication skills variables and the empowerment of women, it is appreciated that there is a moderate positive correlation r = 0.530, where the p value = 0.000, which means that the correlation is significant between these 11 variables, that is, the greater the developed communication skills of women, the greater their empowerment.

DISCUSSION
The highest percentage of women indicated that the communication skills used in their association are appropriate, since the messages are easily understandable and guarantee an interpersonal communication that can generate debate among them on the topics they deal with in their meetings.
The result shows that there is a significant correlation between communication skills and women's political empowerment, as these skills help them to bond with other people and to have spaces in the political field at different levels.This result is consistent with the idea of Cueva (2006), who emphasizes that the political power of women must be evidenced by the percentage of seats occupied and their presence in local governments.As Dijkstra (2002) indicates, gender empowerment is composed of three indicators: (1) the proportion of seats held in parliaments; (2) the percentage holding decision-making positions; and (3) the share of economic income.This is corroborated by the Peruvian case, where in the 2016-2021 administration in the Congress of the Republic there were 39 parliamentarians who represented 27% of the congressmen of Peru (Congress of the Republic of Peru 2019).In this way, women's participation in political spaces must be supported by communication skills that represent a strength and ability to access political seats or local positions, where they must show their leadership with a vision of development for their peoples.
Communication skills may also have contributed to women's economic empowerment, as the results show a positive correlation.This can only happen, according to Porter (2013), when there is an interrelationship between human rights, democracy and the rule of law; there can be no one without the other, and the only way for women's participation to have an opportunity is for these three pillars to work.Likewise, social empowerment should include freedom of movement, knowledge of legal rights, political participation, etc. (Schuler et al., 2018).These are the factors that must guarantee a true economic and social empowerment of women, so that they can participate in work spaces, both professionally and in other types of independent activities.
Likewise, women's economic empowerment, according to Noureen (2015), is seen as a unique way to eliminate gender discrimination, as it involves the distribution of power.Our Communication Skills and Empowerment of Rural Women ___________________________________________________________________________ Rev. Gest. Soc. Ambient. | Miami | v.18.n.7 | p.1-16 | e08025 | 2024.12 result is also partially related to the study of Cinar and Kose (2018), where Turkish women living in more religious localities have higher levels of economic empowerment than those living in areas with higher levels of unemployment and ethnic diversity.The difference with our study is that the women of the Human Rights and Environment Association are mostly engaged in agriculture, because the lack of land and the migration of men in search of employment has boosted the participation of women in the agricultural sector (Head et al., 2015).Therefore, the economic income that women can generate, whether in the agricultural sector, commerce or crafts, allows them to feel empowered in their home and other spaces.
The results also show a moderate positive correlation between women's communication skills and leadership, reflected in the ways of influencing their peers in the organization and in their communities, that is, as a guide.Leadership is the art of being able to influence other people so that they can, on a voluntary basis, participate in the process of achieving the goals of a specific group.Likewise, leadership means encouraging people to integrate voluntarily into work, but with desire, excitement, enthusiasm and confidence (Parra, Rocha and Durán, 2021).
The result is related to the study of Pando et al. (2022), where communication skills influence the female leadership of women entrepreneurs in Lima, Peru.Therefore, the empowerment of rural women is reflected in the fact of encouraging and motivating their peers to achieve their goals and objectives.
The empowerment of women in the association is also reflected in decision-making, such as having their own business, being the political authority of their locality, having employment, etc.All this is attributed to the communicative skills that facilitate such actions in certain circumstances.As Bertrand et al. (2002) indicate, communication skills facilitate their participation in family decision-making, national, local and legal policies.The result resembles the study in the Philippines where women have the economic decision-making power to acquire products and other forms of decisions, which showed the increase in their empowerment (Nava et al., 2010).Decision-making is important for achieving a certain goal that a person can set for themselves.Empowered women may have the ability and ability to achieve their goals and goals based on the decisions they make for the benefit of their homes, local or national communities.
The implications of the study highlight the urgency of providing training in communication skills and human rights to women as a key strategy to advance towards gender equality.For example, the case of the government of Pakistan, which has implemented women's empowerment policies through educational initiatives and labor participation quotas 13 (Muhammad et al., 2020), is noted, underscoring the importance of concrete actions to promote social change.
However, it is important to recognize that this study has significant limitations, mainly related to the study population.The sample used is not representative of the diversity of women in different contexts and regions.Therefore, generalization of findings to other populations can be difficult.To address this constraint, it is suggested that future research should employ broader and more varied samples, which would lead to more generalizable and robust results.
This approach would significantly contribute to the advancement of literature on women's empowerment by providing a more complete and accurate understanding of women's dynamics and needs in different social and cultural contexts.

CONCLUSIONS
Between the communication skills and women's empowerment of the Association for Human Rights and the Environment there is a moderate positive correlation (r = 0.530) and a significance of p value = 0.000.This means that the greater the communication skills developed by rural women, the greater their empowerment, expressed in participation in politics, economics, leadership and decision-making.
There is a significant weak positive correlation between communication skills and women's political empowerment.Communicative skills allow rural women to participate in local politics, where they are elected as representatives or authorities who must organize and lead their associates in the community.
There is also a weak positive correlation between communication skills and economic empowerment of rural women; and a moderate correlation between communication skills and leadership, as well as in decision-making.Rural women generate their economic income through participation in local and interprovincial economic activities to improve the quality of life in their homes, which is a product of their leadership skills.As such, they make decisions in different circumstances and scenarios.
To deepen this phenomenon, it is suggested to carry out additional research in other women's organizations located in different areas and regions.The main objective should be to promote equal rights and opportunities for women, in order to ensure their protection and empowerment.
indicate that, in Communication Skills and Empowerment of Rural Women ___________________________________________________________________________ Rev. Gest.Soc.Ambient.| Miami | v.18.n.7 | p.1-16 | e08025 | 2024.4 the university context, social dynamics require the leader to interrelate with his peers and develop communication skills within his organization.In the framework of communicative skills in pedagogy, Boizán et al. (2020) recommend transforming pedagogical practice towards the development of communicative skills in the scenarios of interaction with interlocutors.

Communication
Skills and Empowerment of Rural Women ___________________________________________________________________________ Rev. Gest.Soc.Ambient.| Miami | v.18.n.7 | p.1-16 | e08025 | 2024.9 is, the greater the communication skills of the peasant woman, the greater the participation in politics.

Communication
Skills and Empowerment of Rural Women ___________________________________________________________________________ Rev. Gest.Soc.Ambient.| Miami | v.18.n.7 | p.1-16 | e08025 | 2024.10 as the communication skills of rural women increase, their leadership skills also improve in scenarios where they have participation.

Table 2
Correlation between the communicative skills variable and the economic participation dimension of the women's empowerment variable