By Adrineh Der-Boghossian, Julya Sahakyan, Syuzanna Smbatyan, and Vanuhi Matevosyan, CRRC-Armenia Junior Fellows
A three-part series
A three-part series
CRRC-Armenia Junior Fellows Julya Sahakyan, Syuzanna Smbatyan, and Vanuhi Matevosyan on September 29 and October 3 met with the heads of three major institutions in Armenia: International Monetary Fund (IMF) Resident Representative to Armenia Teresa Daban Sanchez, USAID Armenia Mission Director Karen R. Hilliard, and World Bank Country Manager Laura Bailey to ask them about their institutions’ priorities and achievements in Armenia, challenges that were particular to their experience in the country, and what they liked the most and the least in Armenia.
Part 3. Being a high-level women official in Armenia.
Asked “What are some
challenges that are particular to your experience in Armenia, a country where
the majority of state and other prominent institutions are headed by men?”, all three interviewees
said their experience of being a woman in charge of a major institution in an
environment where many of the public officials are men is not unique to
Armenia.
“I find that if there are any gender issues or if the men that I
deal with have any particular attitudes about dealing with a woman, the polite
nature of Armenian culture would prevent them from ever expressing it. And so,
I discern no difficulty, challenges, or obstacles in my interaction with either
men or women leaders in Armenia,” said the USAID representative, Hilliard,
mentioning that her relationships with counterparts in all the countries in
which she’s worked have been “very fluid, very easy, and based on mutual
respect.”
The IMF
representative Teresa Daban Sanchez was impressed by the high level of
professionalism of the Armenian authorities. “When everybody
behaves in a professional way, a gender doesn't matter, [if] you are a
woman or a man,” she said, adding that she has a good working
relationship with all her counterparts.
Ms. Sanchez, however, said it would be better if there was
some diversity among decision-makers in Armenia in both the public and private
sectors. As she noted, her impression was that Armenia “is still in the
process of empowering women.” Though, Armenia might be lagging behind other
countries, Daban Sanchez opined, it’s only a matter of time until it catches
up.
What the World Bank representative, Bailey, preferred to
stress, however, were not the differences but the similarities between Armenia
and other countries. These are some of her remarks on the issue:
“I think that
when you are in a position of leadership you take very seriously the fact
that you are representing not just your institution […], but also all the
people who work with you.
When I go to a
meeting with the government, when I sit in a meeting with ministers, I am
representing not just the World Bank, this institution, I am representing every
Armenian man and woman who works here in my office.
It’s my
responsibility to represent them with integrity, to be very clear and honest in
my communication, and to bring all of the best technical knowledge that we have
and offer it, whether it’s in a discussion with the Minister for Energy or a
discussion with an environmental civil society organization.
No matter who
it is from the Armenian side, if I bring a great degree of technical value, if
I bring a great deal of integrity, then my experience is people will listen.
They will not perhaps worry too much about whether I am a man or a woman. What
they are looking for is the value that I bring.”
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| CRRC-Armenia Junior Fellows: Adrineh, Syuzanna, Julya, Vanuhi |
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