“Have you ever faced prejudice because you are a woman?” facebook poll

Gender bias. how does it manifest itself, how does it affect the quality of our lives and our daily lives, and why does our society place different demands on women and men regarding the same issue, phenomenon, work, etc.? And while men are sometimes the target of gender bias, experience and research on gender stereotypes show that women are more likely to suffer from bias.

WomenNet.am conducted a survey on the manifestations of bias against women in the Armenian segment of the social network… The answers were numerous, but focused on similar issues, for example, due to bias, a female employee was paid less than a male colleague performing the same duties… In another case, a woman being an obstacle in choosing a career, a dream profession or a job, cases were pointed out when the bias blocked a woman’s entry into the political field and even prevented her from building personal happiness…

WomenNet.am tried to summarize the problems pointed out by users…

Men are often paid more than women”

  “I have faced such a situation when, in case of performing the same duties, my and my partner’s salary is unequal… I immediately raised the issue, and since there was no solution, I quit my job. For a long time, no replacement was found for me, whoever came did not do as much work as I did, but I got another job with a higher salary.”

“There is a bias towards female students”…

“I studied at the Academy of Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, in previous years there were very few female applicants, now they have increased, but there is still a biased attitude towards female students, especially among male professors. They don’t accept in any way that a girl can also go to work in the rescue squad, they imagine only as an operator and are surprised when you name the squad.”

“Sometimes it just seems like these phenomena have disappeared”…

“I haven’t faced such obvious prejudice at work, but in everyday life often… If you are a girl and you are not married, everyone considers it their sacred duty to sympathize, saying that it is not her fault, she just doesn’t have a partner (or with a slightly different text), but if it’s a man that is, he is the one to choose: he doesn’t want to get married and that’s it. Or if it’s a girl who comes home late, the appropriate label is ready, and if it’s a boy, everything is normal etc. “Unfortunately, sometimes it only seems that these phenomena have disappeared or are in the process of disappearing, but in fact they are not, they exist and continue regardless of the age of a person.”

“Why does our society calmly accept that a divorced man wants to start a family and be happy again, and this question is completely normal, it does not cause any surprise, but when a divorced woman tries to move forward in the same way, it becomes public. a matter of discussion and goes beyond the personal domain. For some reason, familiar and even unfamiliar surroundings reserve the right for you to live by their “shoulds”…

“We talk a lot about prejudice or stereotypes, women are the ones who mostly complain about their effects, but then again, women are the ones who exhibit the most stereotypical behavior… But that’s probably a whole other topic of discussion…”

Full text in Armenian