52%?
Woman president?
NPR has a syndicated feature- Fifty One Percent. It is mainly all about women, by women and for women. The premise is that more than half of humanity is female, their loose assertion- 51%.
And now we read the following below from ArmeniNow.
Once again, just as above NPR, is that 52% an arbitrary number or just an assertion that the population of Armenia is more than half female?
NPR has a syndicated feature- Fifty One Percent. It is mainly all about women, by women and for women. The premise is that more than half of humanity is female, their loose estimate- 51%.
And now we read the following below from ArmeniNow.
Once again, just as above NPR, is that 52% an arbitrary number or just an assertion that the population of Armenia is more than half female?
Woman President?
Տիկին Նախագահ? Tikin Nakhagah?
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"It is estimated that about 52 % are women" .
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Issue #45 (215), December 01, 2006
(December 01, 2006)
Decision 2007: Survey says population warming to idea of women in politics
By Gayane Abrahamyan
ArmeniaNow reporter
Editor’s note: On December 8, ArmeniaNow will produce a special edition related to issues of women and politics in Armenia. Return here for “Listening to the Quieted Voice”.
A recent sociological survey says 60 per cent of Armenian men and 83 percent of women are in favor of having women in politics. The percentages have tripled since a similar report five years ago.
The “Political Participation in Transition Society: Measuring Gender Equality” survey, jointly organized by the Association of Women with University Education and the Center for Democracy and Peace, tried to determine whether Armenian society is ready for women politicians, and whether Armenian women and politics are compatible.
{ai187701.jpg|left}The survey interviewed 500 men and 500 women across Yerevan, Vanadzor, Gyumri and a number of small towns of Armenia.
“This is an extremely important survey,” says head the UN Department for Public Information in Yerevan Valeri Tkachuk. “Women can have a serious contribution to politics, they are quite capable a force that sees the existing problems from a different angle. These qualities are quite necessary for politics.”
An expert within the research project and also a holder of a doctorate degree in history Yelena Vardanyan says they first needed to identify the level of women’s interests toward political issues.
According to the survey 25.2 percent of women are strongly interested in political issues; 61 percent are generally interested in politics and only 2 percents of them are totally uninterested. For comparison, the figures for men are 41, 57.6 and 1.4 percent correspondingly.
While 82 percent of interviewees said the concern over a lack of women in politics is a recent phenomena, impressions break down according to gender.
Only 29 percent of men believe the problem is very important against 54.8 percent of women. About half the men (50.4 percent) say the problem is “generally important”.
Sixty percent see gender inequality most vividly in elective bodies – a perception that matches reality, as in 15 years of independence women have held only three ministerial posts, four deputy ministerial posts out of 62 in Armenia, and there are no female mayors in all 47 towns.
So, what hinders women from entering politics?
According to the survey, 30.3 percent (both men and women) think the problems lie in the traditional mentality of society; 23.5 percent say it is due to social hardship, while 24.8 percent say women’s entrance into politics is hindered by the strict distribution of social and family roles between men and women.
Would the interviewee vote for a woman? The answer was mostly positive.
Sixty four percent of women and 43 percent of men say they would give their votes to a woman candidate for presidency.
The numbers drop when men are asked if they would like to see their wives, daughters, mothers or girl friends running for presidency or a parliamentary seat. Only 34 percent of the interviewed would prefer seeing a female relative as a president, 63 per cents – as member of the parliament and 66 per cents in the bodies of local administration.
Perhaps surprisingly, the number of the respondents willing to see their wives and sisters in high position is lower in Yerevan than in Gyumri and Vanadzor.
“This indicates that the reason for not wanting to see women relatives on positions is not purely a matter of mentality as the traditional stereotypes in Gyumri, Vanadzor and other small towns are stronger. It is because unlike the regions there are numerous spheres of self-realization in Yerevan. So one should not observe the problem only in the light of mentality,” says philosopher Siranush Khachkalyan.
The interviewed have underlined women participation is not an end in itself for them; still they say they cherish some hopes with making the political situation healthier in the country in case of women’s participation. For instance, 42 percent believe women’s involvement in politics will result in humanization of the core social issues.
It is estimated that about 52 percent of Armenia’s resident population is female.
“. . . So we can’t provide sustainability in the processes without their participation,” says chairwoman of the Association of Women with University Education Jemma Hasratyan.
Edited by Arpa, 02 December 2006 - 01:43 PM.