Women, On Their Role in Government

Apparently, Azerbaijani women are having a quixotic moment when it comes to how they should be participating in government.  I’ve recently come across a hard copy of this report, from the UNDP, on gender attitudes in Azerbaijan.  If you’re wondering, yes, it just so happens that Azerbaijani society holds the ideas of traditional roles for men and women in a typically stereotypical fashion.

The politics question, though, is particularly illuminating, or confusing, depending on how you look at it.  First, this graph (Page 75):

This is a good start, right?  More than 60% of women here believe there should be more women representing Azerbaijanis in Parliament.  Considering there are only 11 women in Parliament right now, that number should probably be a little higher.

The best part comes when you flip the page and find this graph (Page 76):

Turns out that more than 73% of women believe that politics is men’s business, and women should be out of politics.  I’m not sure if the women in this graph forgot to talk to the women in the previous graph, but they might need to get their story straight.  Even when you talk about having more women in local government, we see that 60% number again, telling us there should be more women in local government (Page 81).  We’ll see what the next election brings.

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