Representation of women in the executive. Addressing women’s issues in the government program

• In just 22 countries around the world, women are heads of state or government

• 9% of the world’s ministers are women

• In 16 countries, women account for 40-50% of ministerial portfolios.

• The share of women in the governments of 14 countries is 50% and more.

• In Armenia, women have never held the post of Prime Minister or Deputy Prime Minister. There is only one woman in the current government (Prime Minister, 2 Deputy Prime Ministers, 12 Ministers), which is 7%.

The photo published on the government’s Facebook page after the appointment of the ministers after the early parliamentary elections announced the full composition of the government.

Accordingly, we can state that only one of the 15 members of the executive are women, which makes about 7%. Minister of Health Anahit Avanesyan will continue to serve in the newly appointed government.

For comparison, after the previous elections, there was only one female minister in the government: Zaruhi Batoyan, the Minister of Labor and Social Affairs. Avanesyan was appointed Minister of Health when Zaruhi Batoyan was dismissed after the Artsakh war.

It should be reminded that in May 2018, there were two women ministers in the first government formed by Nikol Pashinyan, and during the previous government there was only one cabinet of ministers, which consisted of three women ministers.

In September 2019, there was only one female minister in the government, however, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan mentioned on his Facebook page that “our government is superior to all previous governments in Armenia in terms of women,” as it has one woman minister, 12 women deputy ministers and the prime minister’s staff. Two of the three deputy heads are women. In addition, women chair the Civil Aviation Committee, the Social Security Service, and the State Committee for Tourism.

Today, the Chief of Staff of the Prime Minister has five deputies, only two of whom are women: Tsovinar Soghomonyan is the first deputy and Zaruhi Matevosyan. The number of women in the positions of deputy ministers has also decreased, at the moment there are only 7 women deputy ministers.

None of the services included in the structure of the ministries, the committee is headed by a woman. Only Tatik Revazyan continues to chair the Civil Aviation Committee of the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure.

None of the three bodies subordinate to the Prime Minister – the NSS, the police, the state control service – is headed by a woman. None of the 11 bodies subordinate to the government is headed by a woman.

In these bodies, too, women are represented at best as deputy heads.

In general, the representation of women in the executive has significantly decreased. This is especially visible in comparison with the increase of the representation of women deputies in the parliament, which would not have been possible without the application of the quota.

Full text in Armenian