The government is formed with only one female minister

According to the decrees published on the official website of the President of the Republic of Armenia, 12 ministers have been appointed as of this moment. There is only one woman among them. Former Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Zaruhi Batoyan is now in the post of Minister.

There are 17 ministries in the government structure. It should be noted that according to the Armenian legislation, if the government of 2/3 is appointed, the government is considered to be formed. Taking into consideration the lengthy discussions on the reduction of the number of ministries, one can almost say that there will be no appointments from ministers of culture, Diaspora, sports and youth, agriculture, energy infrastructure and natural resources. In any case, the reduction of the number of ministries requires changes in the Law on the Structure and Functioning of the Government, which will likely be submitted to the National Assembly in the next week.

New appointments do not contain surprises, all of them are re-appointments, except for Zaruhi Batoyan, who was previously deputy minister.

Artak Zeynalyan was appointed Minister of Justice,

 Arsen Torosyan, Health Minister,

 Erik Grigoryan, Minister of Environmental Protection,

David Tonoyan, Minister of Defense,

 Zaruhi Batoyan, Minister of Labor and Social Affairs,

Zohrab Mnatsakanyan, Foreign Minister,

Atom Janjughazyan, Finance Minister,

Felix Tsolakyan, Minister of Emergency Situations,

Hakob Arshakyan, Minister of Transport, Communication and Information Technologies,

 Tigran Khachatryan, Minister of Economic Development and Investments,

 Arayik Harutyunyan, Minister of Education, Science,

Suren Papikyan, Minister of Territorial Administration and Development.

Earlier Tigran Avinyan and Mher Grigoryan were appointed as vice prime ministers.

Thus, at present, there is only one woman in the cabinet formed by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, and again, perception of the state officials of women’s involvement in political processes have not gone beyond the minister of social affairs.

Let’s also note that in 1991-2018, in the 16 governments of Armenia, the number of women ministers has never exceeded 3. In the same period, men occupied the post of the minister 235 times, and the women – only 8 times.