Society Without Violence NGO created a comprehensive academic offline course pertaining to gender for teachers/educators, and adults in continuing education.

The long-term experience of SWV in the field revealed the lack of in-depth gender studies course in the Armenian language developed for beginner and intermediate levels. The designed course specifically targets teachers and educators of the secondary schools aiming to decrease gender-based stereotypes and discrimination in educational institutions through educating the staff on gender matters.    

The course is designed by six local and international feminist academic scholars. It consists of six modules covering the definitions and concepts in gender studies including gender, sex, gender roles, gender stereotypes, gender – based violence, media and gender constructions, structural violence, continuum of violence, militarization, etc. For the detailed study of gender matters the social context and the role of the institutions are examined parallelly.

The syllabus was developed in a form of separate guidebook providing thorough understanding of objectives and outcomes of each module of the course (the syllabus is available in Armenian).

The course was developed in the scope of Enabling Accessible and Sustained Gender Education project.

On September 28, members of “Take action” Women Political Club had a chance to meet with prominent woman political figures: MLSA minister’s adviser Olya Azatyan and NA delegate Maria Karapetyan.

The active discussion revolved around the topic entitled “Women’s Involvement in the Governmental and Decision-making Processes; Opportunities and Challenges.”

The next day, the participants of “Take action” had a workshop session on policy writing. Ani Kojoyan, gender studies expert and lecturer of Yerevan State University lead the training, introduced the methods and tools of conducting research and developing policy proposals. The participants of the women’s political club applied their skills and knowledge in writing policy proposals and submitting them to the corresponding governmental bodies.

The topics of researches varied including women’s matters in the agriculture, temporary unemployment and maternity allowance, women’s employment issues in rural communities, excluding violent scenes in television.

We are glad to share that policy proposals and recommendations will be considered for the amendments in laws by the National Assembly of Armenia.

Society Without Violence NGO (SWV) has been actively engaged in the process of amendments in the state standards of general education and curriculum initiated by the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport (MESCS) of Republic of Armenia.

Since its foundation, SWV prioritized the role of education in promoting gender equality. In the course of the 19 years of experience, SWV contributed to the formation of democratic society through centralizing formal and informal education. The huge work was implemented by the tight cooperation with the MESCS in the scope of the following areas:

• Monitoring various strategies regarding gender policy.
• Textbook analysis from the viewpoint of gender sensitivity.
• Teacher training to increase gender sensitivity.
• The publication of theoretical and practical training guide “Man and Woman: Different but Equal”. The guidebook has been handed over to 1358 teachers of basic and high schools in Armenia.
• Inclusion of gender component in "Social Science" subject.

Currently, the organization is a member of the Public Council to the Minister of MESCS.

Based on its longstanding practice, SWV submitted its observations and suggestions on the state standards of general education, particularly on expected competencies of a secondary school graduate, and expected learning outcomes of an elementary, middle, and high school graduate, as well as on “Social Science” and “Me and the Surrounding World” subjects.

SWV suggests to include gender component in the state standard of general education and in the above mentioned subjects, based on the 2019-2013 gender strategy, as well as on the need to overcome gender stereotypes, gender-based discrimination and inequality between boys and girls at school.

We highlight the presentation of equal rights and opportunities of men and women and the introduction to the concept of gender equality. In this scope, it is necessary to clarify the idea of gender, the difference between gender and sex, promote the formation of gender-sensitive attitudes, address gender issues, gender stereotypes, discrimination, and its consequences. It is necessary to introduce the term - “sexism” to students, its manifestations, and most importantly, its consequences.

Several researches suggest that gender stereotypes formed at an early age are the root of gender inequality which leads to a wage gap, low representation of women in politics, gender-based discrimination and violence, high level of domestic violence among women, etc. Therefore, starting from general education institutions to overcome gender stereotypes is quite urgent and essential.

We thank the expert groups for their efforts to bring qualitative changes to the education system of Armenia.

We are assured that the inclusion of professional observations and suggestions in the ongoing project of state standards of general education and curriculum is fundamental for achieving tangible results. We will keep monitoring the processes, provide support and cooperate to ensure the desired outcome. 

On August 9^th a round table discussion entitled "Violence among adolescent couples" took place. The purpose of the event was to present the research on "Violence among young couples" within the framework of "Love and Respect preventing teen dating violence" campaign, online quizzes, website and social media campaigns to discuss the current situation and the existing legislative changes and come up with suggestions for improvement.

At the beginning of the meeting, Project Coordinator Sona Arakelyan delivered the opening speech and presented the results of the research. Later the speakers of the meeting reflected on the current situation and the necessary legislative changes.

The survey was conducted among 1,000 youth across Armenia to identify the prevalence of different types of violence among young couples, their impact, and possible ways in which young people find a way out of or improve unhealthy relationships.

You can get access to the research by the following link: https://bit.ly/2Z13vsA

The speakers of the meeting were Nelly Duryan - Head of the Department of Criminal Investigation for juvenile cases and Fight Against Domestic Violence of the RA Police, Deputy Chief of Control over the Legal Proceedings of the Interdepartmental Criminal Proceedings Shushanik Israelyan, and Deputy Director of the Legal and Legal Education Program at the Ministry of Justice Gayane Hovakimyan.

In the second part of the meeting, the youth ambassadors of the "Love and Respect preventing teen dating violence” campaign - Manan Zeynalyan and Maria Salmasyan, presented the online work done by the ambassadors, the opportunities that the online quizzes give. At the end of the meeting the participants expressed their readiness to continue the work and to use the positive experience of the ambassadors in order to inform the youth of the larger community.

You can find our quizzes in our online platform: www.love-and-respect.org/siteAM/quiz.php

Facebook group:https://www.facebook.com/groups/1646397495477263/