QUOTA LAW PUTS MORE WOMEN IN ARMENIA’S ELECTION
By Nicole Itano
Women’s eNews, NY
May 10 2007
A gender quota law for political parties is putting more women on
the ballot in the May 12 elections in Armenia, where only seven women
serve in Parliament. Observers say women are now playing a wider role
in local politics.
YEREVAN, Armenia (WOMENSENEWS)–In this country’s imposing,
communist-era parliament building, men in somber suits hurry along
cavernous hallways with fraying carpets.
With her colorful jewelry and high heels, Hranush Hakobyan is used
to standing out from the crowd: just seven of the country’s 131
parliamentarians are women. She is the longest-serving woman in the
body and the only one directly elected by her constituency rather
than being appointed by a party to fulfill a gender-quota law that
she sponsored in 2005.
On Saturday, May 12, Armenians go to the polls to elect the country’s
next parliament. Even before the elections international observers
have raised concerns about unfair election practices by the ruling
party; few expect the election to result in a major shift in power.
Armenia’s parliament faces numerous continuing challenges: high
rates of poverty, massive emigration and an unfinished war with
neighboring Azerbaijan over the self-declared ethnic Armenian state
of Nagorno-Karabakh.
But voters will determine the role Armenian women will play in helping
to solve these problems. Women currently comprise less than 5 percent
of the country’s parliamentary members, putting them among the most
under-represented in the world.
The participation of women in politics in Armenia, and across the
South Caucasus region, has declined since the fall of the Soviet Union,
when quotas for women in office ended.
Hakobyan’s gender-quota legislation that took effect this year may
help change that. The law requires political parties in Armenia,
a predominantly Christian nation that became independent in 1991,
to ensure that women are at least 15 percent of their candidates.
"It’s not that we don’t have equal legal status, but we have a gender
imbalance at the highest levels," she told Women’s eNews. "I think
there is a lot of unexplored potential in Armenian women."
Hakobyan, a 54-year-old former professor and one of Armenia’s best
known politicians, predicts that the new law will help double women’s
representation in parliament. This would bring the country in line with
others in the region, but would still put it behind the global average.
Internationally women are just 17 percent of the members of
parliamentary bodies, according to the Geneva-based Inter-Parliamentary
Union. But the problem is particularly acute in the South Caucasus,
where fragile post-communist democracies have taken few steps to
encourage greater participation by women in politics.
Situation in Armenia Despite high levels of education among
women–60 percent of college students, for example, are female–the
representation of women in public office in Armenia, with a population
of 3 million, is among the lowest in the world. Men hold all but one
ministerial post and all five regional governorships.
In neighboring Azerbaijan and Georgia, women fare little better. Only
about 10 percent of parliamentarians in both countries are women,
although in Georgia the speaker of parliament is female.
Armineh Arakelian, head of the Armenian office of the International
Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, based in Stockholm,
Sweden, says the domination of the country’s political system by
economic cliques and oligarchs is a major hindrance to women.
Political power is controlled largely by wealthy men, or groups of men,
who control sectors of the economy.
"Armenia, like other countries in the Caucuses, has been a very
patriarchal society," she said. "We have men who are rich, but we
don’t have women oligarchs. We don’t have women who have a strong
position in economic fields."
Nor, said Arakelian, has there been a grassroots demand from women for
more representation in politics. Even the new quota was pushed largely
by international donors and was a requirement for Armenia’s entry into
the Council of Europe, a pan-European body which promotes human rights.
"You don’t have activism, real activism. We don’t really have this
culture in Armenia," Arakelian said. "There is potential. I can see
it in young people. We just need to support this."
Mandates Bring Few Results Quotas for women’s participation, says
Arakelian, are a start, but will not solve the underlying problems
hindering women’s fuller political participation.
In this current election, for example, political parties largely
obeyed the rule mandating that 15 percent of their candidate lists
be women. But many female candidates are low on the lists, meaning
it is unlikely they will actually be elected to parliament.
Only one party out of dozens running in the election, the Social
Democrats, has a woman as head. But that party failed to win any
seats in the last election. Another new party, the Liberal National
United Party, has made women 44 percent of their candidate list. But
that party is untried and poorly resourced.
Bigger parties have been less progressive. Women, for instance,
are just 15 percent of the ruling Republican Party’s list, on whose
ticket Hakobyan will run this year.
Alla Bakunts, who works on election and gender issues in Armenia for
the United Nations Development Program, says women are making better
progress at the local levels.
"There are many more women now on the local level, working in local
government as village heads or in village councils," she said.
"Countrywide there is a group of about 300 to 400 women who are quite
capable, very knowledgeable and very aggressive."
Lagging World Average Hakobyan, a champion of social welfare, education
and youth issues, says that putting more women in parliament will help
change legislative priorities in the country. She wants government to
put more emphasis on social welfare for the poor–the average annual
per capita income is $1,470–and education for young people.
"The areas of interest for men are business, the economy, defense,
trade," she said. "For women, it’s different: social protection,
women and kids, peace, the environment, education, health care,"
she said. "All those have to be given equal priority."
Despite the progress, some women in Armenia would like to see even
stronger efforts to increase the representation of women. A coalition
called Women Leaders backed by the Washington-based National Democratic
Institute, a nonprofit that promotes democracy around the world, asked
parties before this election to commit to making women 25 percent of
their lists. But that effort was not supported by the governing party,
the Republican Party, which is expected to remain the largest party
in parliament after the May 12 elections.
Ultimately, says Arakelian, increasing the participation of women in
politics is tied to building stronger democracy across the spectrum.
"We need more long-term resources, civil education and election
education," she said. "If not, you won’t have substantial positive
change."
Nicole Itano is a freelance writer based in Athens, Greece.
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