Changes in the Gender relations after the fall of the Soviet Union: the case of Azerbaijan

Abstract: Nowadays, the immense amount of discussions exists regarding the gender roles and social inequalities between men and women in the world. The concept of gender equality can be distinguished differently when it comes to the country’s political and economic issues, and aspects such as culture, traditions, history and mentality, that play a crucial role in the creation of the society. Being one of the post-Soviet states, Azerbaijan has been chosen as a country where gender issues were examined due to the fact that, Azerbaijan is a unique case for studying the interplay of religion, state socialism, ethnicity, culture, traditions in affecting the gender relations within the Azerbaijani society. Thus, the research has been conducted in order to see the changes and the reasons that triggered the changes in gender relations within the Azerbaijani society that happened during and after the fall of the Soviet Union and up until today. A field work has been done in order to investigate this topic, where semi-structured interviews had been used while interviewing Azerbaijani people, both male and female. While presenting field narratives, the changes and reasons for the changes are demonstrated that further are analyzed by using different theories and analytical framework provided by other authors. Thus, analytical discussion provides the answers to the research questions and suggests the future challenge for Azerbaijan society in eradication process of gender misbalances, as well as tests the stated hypothesis.