Leading capital? Where are women?

As it is known, Yerevan Council of Elders elected the first deputy mayor and three deputy chairmen at the October 29^th special session. There are no women among them, and two members of the “My Step” faction Armen Galdjian and Isabella Abgaryan expressed their concern about it.

Particularly, Armen Galjyan voted against the two candidates nominated by Hayk Marutyan. “Four candidates for deputy mayors were male. For me, it is a matter of principle that the gender equality should not be violated. I hear this argument in the fact that the matter has been raised: the mayor’s response was convincing, but not sufficient for voting. ”

In fact, Yerevan’s leadership can be described as a “men’s club”. Besides the fact that the Yerevan mayor and his four deputies are men, all the administrative districts of the city are headed by men. So far, there has been a change of leadership from the 12 administrative districts of Yerevan. All newly appointed leaders are men.

It is clear that such a picture has not been formed yet, but the new political team that has come to power, taking into account the expectations of its voters in terms of women’s participation, has no right to move forward with inertia and to ignore the potential of women in the city’s governance system.

Let us recall that representation of women constitutes 27.6% of the Yerevan Council of Elders, and this has been ensured by the 25% quota stipulated by the Electoral Code and goodwill demonstrated by some political forces. No head of one of the three factions included in the council is a woman. Earlier, the chairmen of the four standing committees of the Yerevan Council of Elders were elected, of which two were women.

Satenik Mkrtchyan and Arusyak Julhakyan are the directors of the Standing Committee on Culture, Education and Social Affairs and the Legal Affairs Committee. Only one deputy chairperson of the four committees is a woman.