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ARMENIAN ELECTION MANIFESTOS Inesa Rubinyan

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ARMENIAN ELECTION MANIFESTOS Inesa Rubinyan POST-REVOLUTION: ARMENIAN ELECTION MANIFESTOS A qualitative text- analysis of three Armenian political parties’ 2018 election manifestos from a feminist perspective Inesa Rubinyan Development Studies C (Bachelor Thesis) Department of Government Uppsala University, Spring 2020 Supervisor: Li Bennich-Björkman Words: 12341 Pages: 38 1 Abstract This thesis aims to examine the 2018 election manifestos of Armenia’s three ruling political parties’- My Step Alliance’s, Prosperous Armenia’s and Bright Armenia’s views on main political points and especially if and how gender and gender equality was represented. The theoretical perspective used in this thesis is feministic perspective while a qualitative text analysis is used to examine the material. Keywords: text analysis, gender equality, Armenian politics, election manifesto 2 Preface The idea behind the topic of this thesis developed from my interest in women's rights and gender equality. I would like to thank my supervisor Li Bennich-Björkman for her patience and support. Writing this thesis would not be possible without the support from my family and my beloved ones. 3 Table of Contents List of Abbreviations……………………………………………………………………………………..…..…….5 1. Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………………..…….6 1.1. Gender inequality in Armenia…………………………………………………………...…………………….6 1.2. My Step Alliance and women……………………………………………………………...………………….8 1.3. Bright Armenia and women…………………………………………………………………..……………….8 1.4. Prosperous Armenia and women……………………………………………………………………………...9 2. Aims and research question …………………………………………………………………………………….9 3. Theory ………………………………………………………………………………………………….…….10 3.1. Feminism…………………………………………………………………………………….……………….10 3.2. Feminism and politics………………………………………………………………………………………..11 3.3. The political and the personal………………………………………………………………………………..12 3.4. Feminism and the nation …………………………………………………………………………………….12 4. Previous Research…………………………………………………………………………………….....….13 4.1. Women’s disadvantages …………………………………………………………………………….……….14 4.2. Hindering factors……………………………………………………………………………………….…….14 4.3. Political parties on women’s issues…………………………………………………………………………..16 4.4. Resistance against women entering politics………………………………………………………….………16 5. Methodology…………………………………………………………………………………………...…….17 5.1. Selection of cases and material…………………………………………………………...………………….19 5.2. Delimitations……………………………………………………………………………………………...….20 5.3. Method critique………………………………………………………………………………...…………….21 5.4. Concepts……………………………………………………………………………….…………….……….22 5.4.1 Equality………………………………………………………………………………………….………….22 5.4.2. Gender……………………………………………………………………………………………………...22 5.4.3. Gender Equality…………………………………………………………………………………………….23 6. Results ………………………………………………………………………………………………………..24 6.1. My Step Alliance…………………………………………………………………………….……………….24 6.2. Bright Armenia……………………………………………………………………………………………….26 6.3. Prosperous Armenia………………………………………………………………………………………….28 7. Analysis……………………………………………………………………………………………………….29 7.1. My Step Alliance………………………………………………………………………….………………….32 7.2. Bright Armenia……………………………………………………………………………………………….32 7.3. Prosperous Armenia…………………………………………………………………………………….……33 8. Discussion and concluding remarks………………………………………………………….………….33 References…………………………………………………………………………………………..…………….35 4 List of Abbreviations Bright Armenia = BA European Union = EU International Labour Organisation = ILO My Step Alliance = MSA Non-governmental Organisation = NGO Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe = OSCE Prosperous Armenia = PA Republic of Armenia = RoA United Nations Economic Commission for Europe = UNECE United Nations = UN United Nations Population Fund = UNFPA United Nations Development Programme = UNDP 5 1. Introduction Background Armenia went through rapid changes that have taken place in the country since 2018. The oppositional parliamentarian Nikol Pashinyan started and led a non-violent movement against the country’s president Serj Sargsyan, who by changing the constitution had the desire of becoming a prime minister with vast power to rule. He had previously stated he would not continue being in power after being incumbent for ten consequent years. Although in April 2018 Serj Sargsyan got chosen by the majority of the parliament to become the prime minister in a parliament where his Republican Party had majority, the civilians on the streets in almost every corner in Armenia had already self-organized and were gathering in hundreds of thousands to protest and demand the resignation of Serj Sargsyan (BBC, 2018a). Days later, after repetitive demonstrations which grew in numbers by every day- Serj Sargsyan did resign and Nikol Pashinyan came to power after weeks of mass protests in April-May 2018, and appointed new ministers (NYtimes, 2018). He later chose to step down in October 2018 so that the parliament, according to the constitution, would have to dissolve in order to have new snap elections (ibid). Pashinyan’s bloc My Step Armenia (MSA) won more than 70% of the votes at the country’s parliamentary elections gaining majority while a low percentage of 49% of the three million population came out to vote (BBC, 2018b). The Republican Party did not make the 5 % voting limit and instead it were two other parties- the moderate Prosperous Armenia (PA) party that won over 8% and Bright Armenia (BA), a liberal pro-Western party, that won about 6% of the vote, that entered parliament besides MSA (ibid). As 30% of the parliamentary mandates, according to Armenian law, must go to the opposition, PA and BA had to share these mandates depending on their votes from the election (ibid). 1.1. Gender inequality in Armenia Women have had disadvantages and less opportunities in education, health and employment through history, although it is noticeable that their opportunities have grown the past decades. Many governments and organizations are working hard to promote and protect women’s rights and gender equality. Gender equality is considered an important component or even a consequence in the process of democratization, depending on whether democracy is considered to be the outcome of certain processes or if itself leads to certain consequences. 6 The topics on equality and equal rights have grown to play a more important role for Armenian parties, NGO’s, the media, individual human right’s activists and organizations due to the country’s progress in democratization since 2018. The Economist ranks Armenia’s freedom level 5.54 in 2019, 4.79 in 2018 and 4.11 in 2017 (2019), on a scale of 0-10 (where 10 is the highest level of freedom). Gender-based violence and abortion that have been sensitive and almost secluded phenomenon among Armenians have also been more highlighted in the media, social media and even by parliamentarians (HRW, 2020). According to a 2015 United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) report on studies and surveys focusing on gender and/or women’s issues in Armenia, most of the studies show that different forms of violence and discrimination against women in Armenia does take place on a structural and significantly high level that slow down the progress of gender-equality. Patriarchal and “traditional” social norms and perceptions regarding masculinity, femininity, gender equality, sexuality, relationship with family members, division of household tasks and acceptance of violence against women prevail in the Armenian society (ibid: 18). Armenia’s unemployment rate is the one of the highest in European and Central Asian countries (ILO, 2019). According to the Statistical Committee of the RoA, in 2017 17.5% of women were unemployed (ILO, 2019). The gender pay gap has been reduced in many countries between 2000 and 2016, but in Armenia, despite a remarkable reduction from previous years, the gap still remains very high (33 %) (UNECE, 2018). Gender equality is a complex phenomenon and concept, but there are several methods to measure it through United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Gender-related Development Index (GDI), Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM), the Gender Inequality Index (GII), the Gender, Institutions and Development Database (GID-DB) by Jutting et al. (2008) and the Gender Gap Index by the World Economic Forum (Hausmann et al. 2007). Although there are no legal barriers to gender equality in Armenia, Armenia’s GII value still shows that women are unequal men. It is also worth to note that the presence of women in the parliament is to some extent guaranteed by the new Armenian law that states: 7 “According to Paragraph 14 of Article 133 of the “Transitional Provisions” section of the RA’s Electoral Code, political parties and each party within an alliance or coalition of parties should not include more than 75 percent of any gender; starting from the first name and each set of four candidates on a party’s (or alliance’s) national proportional list needs to include at least one male and one female.” This law is not considered to be a gender-quota and is neither called so. The percentage of women in Armenian parliament have been 3,1 % the lowest in 1999 and 35.6 % the highest in 1990 (The Global Economy). The percentage of women in parliament in 1990 is difficult to compare to the years after, as in 1990 Armenia was still part of the Soviet Union. After the 2018 parliamentary elections, 32 out of 132 members of parliament (24 %), are women. 23 are from MSA, five from PA, and four from BA. 1.2. My Step Alliance and women MSA (My Step Alliance) is a political alliance, formed in August 2018 by the Civil Contract party, the
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