WUNRN
ARMENIA - WOMEN STRUGGLE TO
FIND WORK & ESCAPE POVERTY
Low
pay and male prejudice deter Gyumri's poorest women from earning much-needed
incomes.
Liana Muradyan and two of her children.
Photo: Nelly Shishmanyan
4
August 2012 - Single mothers in Armenia often find it hard to escape poverty
because they are paid very little, if they can get a job at all. But those
living in Gyumri, the country’s second-largest city, have a particularly hard
time.
The
northwestern city still lives in the shadow of the massive Shirak earthquake of
1988, which devastated this part of what was then Soviet Armenia. Today, women
make up 60 per cent of the town’s 360,000 inhabitants, because so many men have
left to find work in Russia as migrant labourers.
The
hostel used to accommodate workers at Gyumri’s LenTextile factory was badly
damaged in the earthquake. The plant is long closed, but 20 or so families
still live in the hostel many of them without men or a wage-earner. The gloomy,
decrepit building lacks basic amenities and almost all the staircases are
damaged.
Most
of the women living there rely on state benefits. Edward Baghramyan, head of
the local social services department, said families living at the hostel
received basic monthly benefits of 16,000 drams, the equivalent of 39 US
dollars, as well as an additional 6,000 drams, or 15 dollars, for each child.
Ani
Koretsky, 19, lives in the hostel together with her mother, brother and
daughter Alvard, who is one-and-a-half. After two years of marriage, Ani’s
husband abandoned his wife and daughter and left for Russia.
“Every
night I fall asleep, and wake up terrified at the thought that this ramshackle
building will fall down,” she said.
Her
family’s total income comes to 26,000 drams, or 63 dollars, including the
benefits received by her brother and child.
Ani
doubts she will ever find a job.
According
to the Shirak provincial department for family, women’s and children’s affairs,
72 per cent of women in the region are unemployed, a far higher rate than among
men.
In
Gyumri, job adverts often specify that female applicants must be good-looking,
young and have a university degree.
Vahan
Tumasyan, head of the Centre for Political Culture and Accord in Gyumri,
singled out a few such adverts – “company looking for a good-looking girl aged
up to 28 to work as a cleaner”; “store looking for women aged up to 30 to work
as shop assistants”; “restaurant looking for a well-educated woman aged up to
30 for waitressing work”.
Tumasyan
said women’s wages in Gyumri averaged only 35,000 to 40,000 drams, roughly
85-100 dollars a month, and that many women preferred to stay at home and live
on benefits.
Yepraxia
Kirakosyan, 24, worked as a hairdresser for eight months but left because of
the low pay.
“I
was earning next to nothing for a whole month’s work. Once I earned 40,000
drams, but the next month I only got 10,000. You can’t live on that, of course.
Everything is expensive,” she said.
Women's
rights activists say traditional attitudes towards gender roles contribute to
especially high rates of female unemployment.
Vahe
Tagvoryan, deputy director of the NGO Ajakits, which helps women and vulnerable
older people, said many men do not believe wives should work.
“There
are many impoverished families in Gyumri, but still men would never allow their
wives to work because they think it’s disreputable to work as a waitress or
shop assistant,” Tagvoryan said. “They believe this kind of work could harm
their reputation. Public opinion is very important here, since the society
condemns women who take up such jobs.”
Liana
Muradyan, 26, lives in the hostel with her five children. Her family’s monthly
income is 53,000 drams, or 130 dollars. Despite their hardship, Liana’s husband
Gevorg Mangasaryan, 22, refuses to let her work.
“I
work, and that’s enough. She could only work at a cafe where there’s lots of
people coming and going. Why would I allow her to work there?” he said.
“Besides, we have five kids. She should stay at home and take care of them.”
Psychologist
Manushak Karapetyan argues that social conditions harden existing attitudes,
explaining that “unemployment makes men in Gyumri insecure, aggressive and
despotic. They fear if women start working, they will get ahead of them.”
Lusine
Ginosyan, head of the regional department for the family, women and children
said local government was trying hard to get more women into work through
job-creation schemes and business loans for women in rural communities.
“It’s
impossible to provide all women with work, but it’s clear that programmes are
being implemented and that some progress has been made in this area,” she said.