An overview of women’s work and employment in Azerbaijan
2. Gender analysis regarding work and
employment
2.1. Introduction: the general picture
2.1.1. History
In the 1880s, Azerbaijan took worldwide attention as its first oil boom took place: easily accessible oil re-
serves in the vicinity of the Baku capital attracted European trading interests seeking to break the American
oil monopoly and making quick fortunes; some local residents also developed into oil barons. The country
was briefly independent from 1918 to 1920, when it declared independence as the Azerbaijan Democratic
Republic (ADR). The short-lived ADR was the first democratic parliamentary republic in the Muslim world.
One of the important accomplishments of its parliament was the extension of suffrage to women, making
the country the first Muslim nation to grant women equal political rights with men. A number of measures
aiming at state building, education, independent financial and economic systems, et cetera, were taken. How-
ever, Lenin made clear that the young Soviet republic could not survive with Azerbaijani oil: soon the Red
Army invaded the country and established the Azerbaijan SSR as part of the Soviet Union. With the support
of government and Communist party organisations women were involved, involuntarily at times, in public
life and production, also in the most arduous fields of production like the oil industry. During World War
II, Baku oil was crucial for Soviet resistance against the German war machinery. Some 800,000 Azerbaijanis
fought in the ranks of the Soviet Army of which 400,000 died (wikipedia Azerbaijan; Cosby et al 2007). For
seven decades Azerbaijan was one of the principal oil-producing regions of the Soviet Union, with large
chemical, petrochemical and metallurgical complexes. High levels of environmental damage resulted, in-
cluding widespread pollution of the Caspian Sea and surrounding areas. Currently, the country faces serious
challenges concerning air, soil and water pollution (cf. ADB 2005; Republic of Azerbaijan 2005).
In 1990, in the course of the collapse of the Soviet Union, an Azerbaijani independence movement
developed. On 18 October 1991, the Supreme Council of Azerbaijan adopted a Declaration of Independ-
ence which was affirmed by a nationwide referendum in December 1991, when the Soviet Union was of-
ficially dissolved. The early years of independence were overshadowed by the Nagorno-Karabakh war with
neighbouring Armenia. With the cease-fire in mid-1994, Azerbaijan lost control of one-fifth of its territory.
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