Yesterday, the National Democratic Institute (NDI) organized a forum titled “Women Leadership Forum.” The goal of the forum was to unite “talented and knowledgeable women,” who would discuss political and civic issues and would contribute to raising the number of women in state, local, and civic levels.
Program Director of NDI Armenia, Taline Sanassaryan, said that women all over the world have challenges and difficulties when trying to achieve more in their lives. “We should discuss the ways of changing the stereotypes that societies have about women,” she said. The facilitator of the forum, Hranush Kharatyan, mentioned, “Miss Taline has just been introduced to our reality and she is quite orientated towards changing things here. She will still have her victories and disappointments.” The main topic of discussion was the small number of women in parliament. Women themselves should contribute to increasing their role in politics. This is the opinion of almost all the female participants in the forum. In order to not confuse feminism with democracy women should assess their own potentials and values. The most important thing is to be able to imitate new ideas and also to not become stagnant. This is the goal of all leaders, not only women.
Nowadays, equality between men and women is acknowledged. There are few female politicians, as well as businesswomen. According to the Chairman of NDI, Madeline Albright, “Today the world is wasting an expensive resource,” that is the potential of women. The woman is a symbol of freshness, reality, and reforms. Statistics show that, in counties where there is a larger number of women politicians, there are fewer social issues and the level of corruption is lower. However, there is not an outstanding female leader in Armenia yet because of the national mentality and the environment overall. The majority of presenters and participants are sure that women hardly ever occupy the position they deserve within parties and sexual discrimination is noticed in higher-ranking positions. This is not only the prejudice of men; some women are not ready for this either. “The political elite has a man’s face,” this is what the participants think. Politics affects families and family members; that is the reason why women cannot standout in politics. It is more concerning when women do not believe in their own strengths. However, it is more concerning when women without sufficient knowledge try to insist on their opinion. During his speech, the Chairperson of the Youth Party, Sargis Asatryan said, “Women have minimal chances to appear in Parliament. Women, please refuse your ambitions.” Many participants in the forum were only satisfied with the wish to speak from the podium because there was an impression that many of them did not have much to say.
Is it possible to create a woman leader?
Women have all the prerequisites to become leaders, and these are not only ambitions because many of them have higher education and the necessary knowledge. For example, women head 60% of the NGOs registered in Armenia. According to Nora Hakobyan, 15 out of 35 women candidates nominated for the position of head of the village communities were elected. Shortly said, if there is an objective attitude towards women they can find their way themselves. In the business sphere, women are only involved in small and medium business, and only 5-6% of Parliament representatives are women. Stereotypes hinder the process of revealing the actual potential of women. Very often women create those stereotypes themselves, and they put up with that.
The huge army of the participants of the forum is ready to fight despite the fact that, Sanassaryan reminded them that changes in politics are not made rapidly. In our reality, the age, speaking style and behavior of Armenian women who occupy high ranks are closer to the image of a woman leader in the pre-election period of the Parliament. Even the clothes of many of these women resemble the image of a Parliamentarian. Chairman of the Union of Consumers, Tsolvard Gevorgyan, mentioned, “We need new leaders. Leaders are born, not educated. We need middle-aged and educated women and undoubtedly younger than me.” Roza Tsarukyan, did not agree with this age discrimination, and although she is 73, she is still willing to develop our agriculture.
There is a small number of confident female politicians and businesswomen. Many people think that it is because of women’s social apathy. It is necessary to wake women up. NDI is going to conduct special trainings for women to reveal women leaders. Perhaps there will be a special foundation established too. A new declaration was adopted during the forum. One of the provisions of which is the following, “Organize lobbying and decision making level to provide at least 20% women’s representation in the Parliament.” According to the last provision of the declaration, a database will be established for those women who wish to work in decision-making levels of all branches of government. In order to have a generation of professional women leaders, it is necessary to educate them, to make them more knowledgeable, and modern. We need women who can have the trust of the electorate. Perhaps we have women like that, however, they are not out in the open.