Women in Armenia face a much greater risk of poverty (video)
There is not a single sphere in Armenia where men and women [in the same work place] are given equal pay, independent analyst Nvard Manasyan said at a press conference on Monday. Today, she presented the results of a new study on discrimination against women conducted in Armenia from 2015 to 2016 with the financial assistance of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). “In Armenia, the average salary of women is lower than that of men in all sectors,” she said. The gap is 35.9% in Armenia, while it is 15.9% in the EU countries. In agriculture, women earn, on average, 83.8% of the male wage, in educational and health care sectors, it makes 81,3% and 75,1%, respectively, though the study shows that women are not less educated than men. “In Armenia, 57% women and 38% of men receive higher education,” said UN Population Fund Executive Representative Garik Hayrapetyan. He says the country’s annual GDP loss is US$50-60 million as a result of restriction of women's work. The specialist stresses that the country will face two major problems if it does not address the problem of gender inequality. The first is that the rate of funded pension will be very low, the second is the risk of poverty in adulthood, especially for single women. The UNFPA Armenia Country Office is going to submit the findings of the survey to the Armenian Government requesting the executive body to include these issues in its strategic plans for the next 5 years.
