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Here are the results of the Feminist Essay Grant announced in March: brief descriptions of the essays, and the full essays will be available soon.

Elena Yeghiazaryan

The impact of World War II on pronatalist and family policy in the USSR

In the framework of the essay, the “Increasing state aid for pregnant women, women with multiple children and single mothers, fortifying the protection of motherhood and childhood, defining the honorary maternal titles “Heroic Mother”, “Maternal Glory” order and the creation of the “Motherhood” medal,” adopted on July 8, 1944, will be presented and its impact on gender, family relations and reproductive behavior of USSR citizens. Despite the purpose stated in the decree’s title to protect the interests and well-being of women, it rather promoted the interests of men. Consequently, this legislation has resulted in a negative impact on gender relations, family stability, and the well-being of women and children. Soviet experts tried their best to correct the situation, but in vain, it only accelerated the process of revising the decree. As later research showed (it will be presented in the essay), success depended on correctly presenting the pro-natalist logic to the country’s leadership, based on statistics and analysis, which later led to a change in the law.

Tatev Baldryan

“nation, army, victory…”. militarization as a gendered and hypermasculine process

All states rely on some ideological direction, which constructs public perceptions of national and social identity, as well as security. Nationalism does this through the overriding importance of difference – ethnic, national, class, religious and otherwise. This essay will examine how nationalism manages to construct its security ideology through the imposition of militarized gender roles.

Sona Nikoghosyan

Militarisation of Women: A Step Forward?

This essay will attempt to critically evaluate the injunction between gender equality and the risk of sexual violence as Armenia moves forward in its military reforms. Initially, the essay shall focus on the history of patriarchy in Armenia and what gender norms mean in terms of armed conflict in relation to the Protector/Protected roles often used in militarized contexts (Young, 2003). Then an in-depth analysis of the new proposed reforms including the organized shooting courses. Then a look into the experience of women in the Armenian military and how their experience compares with other nations. Subsequently, an analysis must also be made into how the participation of women in traditionally male roles, helps promote gender equality through the breaking (or redefining) of the aforementioned gender roles. Finally, it shall look at the precedents of the voluntary militia unit and whether the Armenian Ministry of Defense is considering the worries of violence against women. This ultimately intends to decipher whether the militarization of women in the context of Armenia is an indication of emerging democracy. 

Eviya Hovhannisyan

The Gender Aspect of the Commercialization of War

The purpose of this research is to examine the current (post-war) practices of war commercialization in Armenia and their gendered aspects in order to understand how war is manipulated in terms of everyday profitability and entrepreneurship, and whether it has a gendered component. For the research, the author plans to use the toolkit of socio-anthropological methodology, combining discursive and content analyzes and expert interviews.