Gender Stereotypes and their Overcoming through Education (Based on the Results of the Project Implemented in Armenia)

Abstract

This article represents the experience of teaching gender knowledge in number of universities and public schools of Armenia in 2000-2010. The training carried out with the support of the office of OSCE Democratic and Human Rights Institutes within the framework of the program “Gender awareness and gender sensitivity as prerequisites for balanced democracy” by the Association with University Education. The purpose of the article is to show the importance of education in overcoming gender stereotypes, the experience made in that direction and its results. The analysis was carried out by the author through ethnographic methods of direct observation and surveys conducted with experts who participated in the teaching of gender knowledge, school and student groups. The task of the article is to show the relationship between gender stereotypes and national traditions in post-Soviet Armenia, the ways of fighting against them and the contradictory position of the society towards the process. One of the main topics of the study is the problem of changing the gender identity manifested by the participants during gender teaching, which was expressed in the subsequent state and public processe.