Globally, Gender issue is the prime concern to all over the world and Kazakhstan holds no exception. Gender remains a critically important and largely overlooked in terms to the promote of gender equality and women empowerment. Gender issues deals with all aspects of societal customs related to men and women, the way they interrelate, their differences in access and use of resources, their participation, opportunities and how they react to changes, interventions and policies. It’s been 45 years since United Nations has declared international women’s day on 8th march, marking a new wave of feminist movement. Kazakhstan has grown into an upper-middle income country from a lower-middle one in the last two decades. However, the situation of women has not changed accordingly. The government has formulated important policies on gender equality and certain progress has also been made. However it requires greater effort to realize the completion of the process given the rigid patriarchal social structure of Kazakhstan. In recent times, a new wave of feminist scholars has risen in Kazakhstan. These feminists possess Western education and are aware of all the latest trends in social development in Kazakhstan. They believe that Kazakhstan has quite a complex set of policies and attitudes towards gender equality and women’s empowerment. Empowerment on its own is seen as a process of increasing the capacity of individuals or groups to make choices and to transform those choices into desired actions and outcome.
Political And Economic Sphere
The disintegration of Soviet Union in 1991 resulted into a severe economic decline in Kazakhstan. Sudden economic shocks occurred, as guaranteed markets for products ceased to exist and the restructuring of state owned enterprises and collective production units brought about massive layoffs. These economic changes also led to considerable changes in social relations. The immediate impact in Kazakhstan was a rapid, sharp rise in poverty and deterioration in human development indicators. Unemployment and layoffs was massive. The transition period had adverse impact on Kazakhstani women. Scholars suggest that in the 1990s, unemployment in Kazakhstan clearly had “a female face”; women constituted up to 70 percent of the entire “jobless and poor” population. The status of women and related issues has not much improved since. Issues of gender inequality are prevalent in almost every sphere of social life. There are fewer women in the position of power vis-à-vis men. Presently, there are very few women who are represented in government sectors and political bodies. In the parliament of Kazakhstan, men still have more power than women. Women representation in the parliament in the 1990s was not even one fourth of their share in the population. It was 11.2 percent in 1999 increasing slightly to 15.9 percent in 2006. Some scholars’ records, the proportion of women in parliament remained 12.7 and 13.6 percent in 2007 and 2010 respectively. In 2016, the government committed to give 30 percent of decision making roles to the women at all levels though situation improved only little. Limited women’s participation in politics and access to power at all levels constrain the efficiency of the state and its policies. It is thus very important to give equal access to women in political, economic and educational sphere. “The republic of Kazakhstan” argues that the majority of Kazakhstani women have higher education, yet women are underrepresented among managers and leaders and overrepresented among the unemployed and those living in poverty. Gender equality is a precondition for meeting the challenge of reducing poverty, promoting sustainable development and building good governance. The high degree of gender equality in terms of both opportunities and benefits would help the country to achieve high economic growth and better quality of life. This made a very important observation ‘gender equality is more than a goal in itself.’ The opportunities open to women and girls, especially in their early years, determines not only their individual futures but also that of wider society. Since, rural communities of women are more vulnerable and need more support. Despite successes, further progress is needed. More robust safeguards must be put in place to protect those who are most vulnerable, especially in rural areas. Education remains crucial for eradicating these issues. In 2011, Kazakhstan weekly newspaper highlighted that women are facing a problem of gender inequality in Kazakhstan. Women have fewer rights and opportunities than men in reality. Most of the women have been migrated from paid labour to household work because of the decrease in total employment during 1999-2000.
Gender violence is only one aspect of inequality which is why sexual violence is considered as a gender inequality problem rather than just a criminal offence. It’s been 27 years since UN general assembly adopted the declaration of elimination of violence against women in 1993 but, such violence is still prevalent all over the world. Although, Kazakhstan’s constitution proclaims to maintain gender equality in the country, there are many problems like human trafficking; domestic abuse and rape that impact women’s lives in society. The falling economic status also affects their participation in the public spheres, especially in the decision-making and political processes.
When women are economically empowered, they can be significant contributors to the economic growth of the country, which has the end effect of contributing to the prosperity of every woman, every man, every girl and every boy in country. In 2019, United Nations population fund (UNDP) made an observation that Gender equality and the empowerment of women is integral parts of all aspects of development. Gender equality and the empowerment of women are at the heart of the Agenda for Sustainable Development. This implies the role that many women in Kazakhstan play in areas ranging from politics to sciences and culture as well as to bridge the gender gap in the digital space. Transformative gender roles requires transforming unequal gender relations by investing in women, encouraging and bringing to reality the requisite changes in social norms, cultural values, power structures and eliminating the root causes of gender inequality and discrimination.
Kazakhstan Gender Policy: Government’s Laws and Policy
It is believed that the role of the state and its policies are critical to improve the status of women. United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE, 2011) highlighted that promoting gender equality and women’s economic empowerment has to target lasting and long-term improvements in the policy environment in order to ensure sustainable development for all. It is important to note that successful and constructive policymaking and programme implementation should be executed in a needs-responsive manner. The gaps in this sphere were pointed out in a study done by Asian Development Bank (ADB) in 2013. Which made an observation that women’s economic empowerment is critical for achieving gender equality and combating poverty, and also for harnessing women’s economic potential and contribution to the country’s economic development. The objective of any gender policy is working towards an organization which implements gender point of view as a focal point to frame its internal and external policy. The aim of gender policy can be achieved only when both the sexes have equal access to power, authority and resources which is perceptible in the goals, strategies, structure and culture of the organization. The new Strategic Plan 2018-2021 sets its priority by UN women in consultation with the Kazakh government, NGOs, civil society. This will be basically focused on ending violence against women and women’s economic empowerment for socially vulnerable groups. They are also observing budgeting, national planning in consultation with the government.
UN Women sets its priorities for the region based on its new Strategic Plan 2018-2021 in consultation with the government and civil society individuals. But overarching all of that is the implementation of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which Kazakhstan has also signed up to and this is a framework, then, for all of our work in the country. Kazakh government’s long-term strategies focusing on empowering people. United Nations (UN) observes “Gender equality is the most important element of the success of Kazakhstan in the future. If the people of Kazakhstan and the government do not dedicate sufficient resources and sufficient attention to achieving gender equality to providing all opportunities for women and girls to reach parity with men, then Kazakhstan will not achieve its goals of becoming one of the 30 most developed countries in the world.”
