Based on the statistics of 2005, the number of women in Armenia exceeds that of men by 100,000. These are the statistics of the Armenian National Statistics Service published in the “Armenia’s Men and Women” statistical manual. There are 1,665,000 women and 1,554,000 men.
The statistics refer to all aspects of life and I will present the more interesting ones. On the average, Armenian women live 6 years longer than Armenian men. The average lifespan of women is 76 years, while men live up to the age of 70. The fructification factor for 2005 was 1.4. That’s the average number of children that an Armenian woman gives birth to during her entire reproductive period. As comparison, it is worth mentioning that in 1965-1966, that factor was 3.9, while in 1992 that number went down to 2.4.
According to statisticians, people have started getting married at an older age. For women, the first average age for marriage is 24.5 (in 1991, that mark was 22.8). As for men, whereas in 1991 they were getting married at 25-26, now men get married after 28.
The statistics for the survey on children’s names is the following: Parents prefer the name Narek for male children (then Davit, Gor, Erik, etc.) and the most stylish name for girls is Ani. What’s also interesting is the division of girls and boys according to their professions in state and private universities. In general, the number of female students, especially in private universities, exceeds the number of male students. There are 38,007 female students and 35,709 male students studying in state universities. The number of female students at private universities is 15,556 and the number of males is 8493.
When it comes to choosing a profession, males exceed females in the fields of transportation, law, economy and agriculture. Females are more into pedagogy and no matter how surprising it may sound industry and construction.
The children studying in art and music schools are mostly females (more than 70%, of which 82% take piano lessons).
Now let’s talk about occupation. It turns out that men are more active. 76.8% of Armenian men are economically active (capable of working). As for women, 48.5% are capable of working. The reason why not many women work is because they have to take care of the home and that doesn’t allow 23.7% of women to work. Women reach their peak of working at the age of 40-44, while men at the age 30-34. The majority of both men and women (more than 44%) are active in the field of agriculture. 15.7% of women work in the education field, 12.7% in trade and public nutrition.
Here are a couple of more statistics, which will probably enliven the NGOs involved in “defending” women’s suffrage. Statisticians say that the average salary of men in all fields of economy is much higher than that of women. It turns out that the wealthiest are the credit and state insurance institutions. Men earn an average of 228,103 drams working for these institutions, while women get 109,337 drams.
More than 60% of workers are hired and one-third is self-employed.
Now let’s draw our attention to the government. Seven of the 131 National Assembly deputies are women. There were fewer women during the last congress of the National Assembly (4 women). There are almost the same amount of men and women in the executive branch of government, i.e. ministries-2444 women and 2465 men.
We get the following image for the percentages (which part for men and women). There are many female workers at the Health, Labor and Social Issues, as well as Finances and Economy ministries. However, this is not the case at the energy and agriculture ministries, where there are more male workers. But women do form a majority in the government-57%. As for the president’s administration, there are more male workers-55.6%.
There were seven female ministers and deputy ministers in 2005. If we look at it from this angle, there is a decline-in 2002, there were eight female ministers and deputy ministers and seven in 2003 and 2004. On the contrary, the number of male ministers and deputy ministers has grown-92 in 2002, 93 in 2003 and 2004, and 95 in 2005.
Men also form a majority in the judicial branch. 81% of judges and 62% of lawyers are males.
Now let’s move on to how Armenian men and women spend their time in Armenia. Nearly half of the day men and women spend time on personal hygiene (sleeping included). No matter how surprising it may sound, men and women spend almost the same amount of time on personal hygiene-women spend 11 hours and 48 minutes, while men spend 11 hours and 44 minutes. Men spend 5 hours and 18 minutes on jobs, while women spend an hour and 44 minutes. Women spend more time on house chores-nearly 6 hours. Men only spend an hour doing chores. Armenian women have 4 hours and 20 minutes of free time, while men have much more free time-5 hours and 47 minutes.
And finally, perhaps the most interesting statistics is that women dedicate 21 minutes a day to learning, while men dedicate four minutes, nearly five times less. This is open to interpretation-either men are more capable of working and spend less time on learning, or women simply place more emphasis on the role of education. Everyone has his or her own opinion.