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