The paradox of gender inequality in Armenia

i’m the eldest daughter in my family

it’s not that i complain but as you know

it comes with

enormous responsibilities being the

well-brought up armenian girl

i was studying hard at school i was

helping my mom do some household chores

like

settling the table vacuuming washing the

dishes and so on

and also i was looking after my brother

and my sister

apart from these huge responsibilities

there were many

strict rules to respect as well such as

getting back home till it’s too late

or going out with friends too often

my parents were proud of me indeed and

life was bright and beautiful

but in my family another teenager of my

age grew up as well

my cousin a boy who was always out with

his friend

arguing endlessly with his parents and

missing lessons

but he wasn’t even expected to get

better

to try to be better or something else

you don’t know why because boys will be

boys right

soon at the age of 16 17 we both decided

to work

luckily the reason to work wasn’t to

earn money

but looking for stuff to do we meant

developing personal qualities and

skills improving self-esteem

getting new experience and of course

discovering another

new world it was

better and i started to think of myself

as a

company manager in a company calculating

commanding my employers to do these or

that and checking the

system customer service but

here i heard my first no

my parents were against their daughter

to work at that age

and the reason the argument was that i’m

not mature enough

it felt quite disappointed but what

surprised me even more

was the fact that my brother got the

approval and he was

even supported to work and earn money at

that age

awkward right this time

i was a little bit stressed and was

going through

psychological problems for the following

weeks

as soon as you can notice i wasn’t

treated as an adult

whereas my brother was even encouraged

to work

and earn money it turns to me that

what comes to my private space such as

family

home and relatives i was expected to

take responsibility for a number of

things but what came to my

public space such as friends or seeking

a job

and making a career it was seen as

unacceptable for me to take charge of

such things you would now ask what was

the problem

okay firstly why should a young lady

work at that age when she’s only

expected to

get concentrated on her lessons and then

get married and have children

i do not want to say that it was forced

upon me but it wasn’t even discussed

with me either

it was seen as the natural flow of

things

furthermore why should a young lady be

out of the house in the evening as it

was a night shift

not a common behavior for a traditional

armenian young lady

in other words you have many useful

capacities

but you are not allowed to choose your

own job

on your own path so coming back to my

brother

all in all two people possessing nearly

the same working capacities and

potential were treated

differently because of the specific

social attitudes

and cultural norms

so though my family was against my

decision

i decided to work to look for a job

and of course since i was too concerned

with this type of discrimination

i did an experiment with a male friend

so a friend of mine

with the same educational background and

working experiences

me and i applied for the same post

and after a while of nervous wait the

results shook us down

we were both invited to have an

interview and

luckily to be honest i was better

prepared because

previously i had the opportunity to hear

one of

armenia’s best hr manager’s opinion

but the reality was quite the opposite

they

decided to hire both of us but the

opportunities concerning the career the

money and the benefits suggested to my

friend

were much much much more diverse and

promising

than the ones suggested to me in

addition to this

i was asked many unexpected questions

such as

my plans for the next five years

and the interview was sure i was going

to be married

also we have the mentality in our

mentality the fact that

huge majority of employers prefer men

rather than women

as given the idea that a young lady of

let’s say 25

is going to be married soon and also

women are also considered as

agents of childbirth and not

professionals who can easily choose

their

own job after this

we can see that this is the public space

this was the second circle of

discrimination that i was going through

and soon i realized that there are many

other circles of discrimination to go

through

as well i was so destined to

find out that there really exists a

right to work

and low for equality between men and

women

but as i said the reality is quite the

opposite

so the fact that the right to work is

enshrined in the constitution

doesn’t automatically mean yet that you

can make use of your rights really

so we’re given the private space family

family

and the public space working environment

what’s next these two spaces comprise

the society

i’m sure you all know at least a little

group of grandmas

sitting in the yard and waiting for

something

extraordinary to take place so that they

can discuss it

and a young lady who finishes her work

at 10

let’s say can easily be considered as

not normal because she gets back home

not till midnight

even if they know it isn’t true they

continue to criticize the young lady

and though this can be designed as

subjective personal opinion

we have to know that not everyone can

escape its

horrible effect on one’s self-esteem and

sometimes we cannot

escape the complexes as well

so these grandmas are a collective

figure

of our society which i would say is the

third

circle of discrimination that i couldn’t

oversee we should undoubtedly talk also

about the

influence of armenian mentality

conservative mentality

on the opinion of modern society and

even now when i’m speaking to you

some of you may consider that this

cannot be true

not because you want to but because

you’re mentally

used to it and it turns to me that what

comes to the

private space women are considered

mature

and responsible enough to take charge of

such things

but what comes to the public space such

as working environment

and friends there is that

we’re being paralyzed not because of our

incompetencies

a lack of knowledge or i don’t know

leadership skills

but rather because there exists that

invisible cloak

that tries to protect us from the outer

world that i still cannot figure out

so as george gerjerov once said the only

prison you can never escape

is the one you do not see so the first

step

in order to get out of this metaphorical

prison

is to recognize there is in fact a

discrimination

that though we have a modern society

with rising human capital

the perceptions and traditions are still

limiting for women

so the key point to get out of this

situation

and revolut discriminated stereotypes

is to act and break these borders

artificially created to make our lives

more

and more complicated just remember that

your progress

is only up to you thank you

thank you