Women in Armenia are 30 percent more educated then men, however senior positions are mainly occupied by men. Due to the financial support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Sweden and collaboration with Oxygen Foundation in recent years the number of women in local and national levels has increased.
As a student Shake Isayan was actively involved in different social initiatives. “Back then, I wasn’t even thinking of politics, I was more involved in party work” says Shake. She participated at the National Assembly elections by the suggestion of the fraction, now Shake is a member of the Parliament from Prosperous Armenia Party.
Previous experience in the Party work helped and gave confidence to Shake to make the decision of participating in politics. Women politicians standing next to her also played an important role, “My way has started smoother due to them”, confesses Shake and adds, “In general, there is a stereotypical approach in our society about the place and the role of a woman. This hinders women's fulfilment of their potential and dreams". In addition to public stereotypes, experts consider low involvement of women in politics is due to the lack of funding for campaign activities as well as the lack of awareness of their rights and opportunities, especially in the regions.
“Politics for women has certain risks, starting from being blackmailed on the media or not fulfilling expectations of the public, up to traditional understandings of a women’s role, which are more aggravated in the rural communities. Women in Yerevan are relatively more involved in politics as they are more informed, but in the regions where there are few NGOs, women's participation in the decision-making remains low”, says Margarita Hakobyan, Executive Director of the OxYGen Foundation.
In 2015, the OxYGen Foundation launched the “Equal” Campaign in Armenia aimed at strengthening women's economic and political capacities.
In 2017, Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Sweden decided to finance the second phase of the campaign, as a result women's participation in politics has increased especially in the community’s women's activities were widely covered and local self-governing campaigns were organized.
The greatest success was the quota for women set by law, with a ratio of 25-65, thanks to which the representation of women in the National Assembly rose from 18 to 24 per cent.
First and the second phases of “ Equal” campaign were so encouraging that the Government of Sweden decided to finance the third phase as well.
As a result, on 8 March 2018, at OxYGen Foundation’s initiative, a seminar called "Civil Society - National Assembly Platform for Equal Rights and Equal Opportunities for Women and Men" took place at the Parliament. The aim of the seminar was to create a platform for cooperation between the Parliament of Armenia and non-governmental organizations to ensure a closer coordination for the advancement of equal rights and opportunities for women and men. Ms. Lotta Johnsson Fornarve, Second Deputy Speaker of the Swedish Riksdag was present at the event.
Lately, “The Leaders of Equal” award ceremony was organized by OxYGen Foundation. Gayane Abrahamyan, Shake Isayan, Anna Kostanyan, Lena Nazaryan, Arsen Julfalakyan, Ani Samsonyan, Heriknaz Tigranyan as well as more than partners – ProMedia-Gender NGO, Family Academy NGO, Center for Gender Studies and Leadership YSU, and the Swedish Embassy received awards by the Executive Director of OxYGen Foundation Margarita Hakobyan.
