Bound to Benefit: Exploring How Gender Roles and Relations Shape Women’s Access to Economic Growth from Connectivity: One Case of the Road Corridor in Armenia

Abstract: The study takes off from gender studies, aiming to identify and explore the relations and roles that people share in society that shape their daily lives. Road corridor investments and how they affect women are argued to be in the middle of a development dilemma where three global agendas that appear incompatible are yet promoted simultaneously. The study aims to explore how gender roles and relations shape women’s access to economic growth from connectivity can be framed using a gender-centred conceptual framework employed in the research question: How have the productive and reproductive roles of women been recognised in a road corridor investment programme? The analysis will suggest that initial social conditions will matter to what and how wider economic benefits from road corridors can reach women by concluding that inclusive growth arguably makes women bound to benefit from road corridors. However, women may have limited agency to choose how to benefit. The study suggests a possible way forward to remain aware of how a macro-scaled project affects the public and private domains is to track governmental spending on public services.