Gender Equality & Female Empowerment in Central Asia
Standing
Undergraduate
Type of Proposal
Oral Research Presentation
Challenges Theme
Open Challenge
Faculty Sponsor
Elena Maltseva
Proposal
According to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, gender equality is considered a necessary foundation for building a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable world. This research demonstrates how the collapse of communism undermined the prospects for the successful political and economic empowerment of women in the former Soviet republics of Central Asia. As some scholars argued, despite some progressive legislative acts passed by the governments of the four Central Asian republics of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, gender asymmetries have increased considerably across the region since the 1990s (Khitarishvili, 2016). In addition to gender inequalities in the labour market, women were also left out of politics and were left to face the revival of traditional values and gender stereotypes (Ishkanian, 2003). This is not to say that the performance of countries did not differ, with Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan demonstrating slightly better results than its regional neighbours. Based on extensive statistical and qualitative data collected as part of this research project, including semi-structured interviews with women activists, and building on women empowerment literature, the study first summarises the state of gender equality in the four post-Soviet republics and then explores the causes for the divergent trajectories of women’s post-Soviet empowerment. Our hypothesis is that several factors, including the differences in the levels of urbanisation and economic development, lifestyle and secularism, women’s enrolment in tertiary education, political openness and the exposure to feminist ideas, contributed to different levels of women’s empowerment in Central Asia.
Grand Challenges
Viable, Healthy and Safe Communities
Gender Equality & Female Empowerment in Central Asia
According to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, gender equality is considered a necessary foundation for building a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable world. This research demonstrates how the collapse of communism undermined the prospects for the successful political and economic empowerment of women in the former Soviet republics of Central Asia. As some scholars argued, despite some progressive legislative acts passed by the governments of the four Central Asian republics of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, gender asymmetries have increased considerably across the region since the 1990s (Khitarishvili, 2016). In addition to gender inequalities in the labour market, women were also left out of politics and were left to face the revival of traditional values and gender stereotypes (Ishkanian, 2003). This is not to say that the performance of countries did not differ, with Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan demonstrating slightly better results than its regional neighbours. Based on extensive statistical and qualitative data collected as part of this research project, including semi-structured interviews with women activists, and building on women empowerment literature, the study first summarises the state of gender equality in the four post-Soviet republics and then explores the causes for the divergent trajectories of women’s post-Soviet empowerment. Our hypothesis is that several factors, including the differences in the levels of urbanisation and economic development, lifestyle and secularism, women’s enrolment in tertiary education, political openness and the exposure to feminist ideas, contributed to different levels of women’s empowerment in Central Asia.