Policy Paper

During the Soviet system an official poverty and unemployment did not exist in Kazakhstan 
though there was a narrow circle of low-income people. The break-up of the Soviet Union 
and transformation towards the market economy took place in the country after the 90s 
with the reformation of the ownership forms and the changes in the social and labor 
relations. These processes were accompanied by hyperinflation, closure of many 
enterprises, and drastic decrease in GDP. Due to the absence of the appropriate 
protection system covering all the society groups a new social phenomenon such as 
unemployment has occurred. Poverty and unemployment appeared as a multiple-factor 
phenomenon which could not be confronted by the society facing the crisis in economy 
and lacking the efficient mechanisms of the social policy.  Recession has led to the 
reduction in employment, and women were a first group of those who lost the jobs. 

Other countries’ experience proves that usually women are not integrated into the labor 
market as well as men. They generally have less regular and secure jobs and carry more 
of the burden of care for children and other dependants, which mean that there are some 
gender problems in the labor markets. In Kazakhstan the principle of equal rights and 
equal opportunities is guaranteed by the Constitution of the Republic of Kazakhstan. 
Paragraph 2 of the Article 14 of the Constitution says: “No one can be subject to any 
form of discrimination on the basis of origin, social status, job position or property 
ownership, gender, race, nationality, language, religious affiliation, belief, place of 
residence or any other kind of distinction”. But in a real life, economic and social 
turmoil of transition affected Kazakhstan women at most. 

Women of Kazakhstan faced the challenges of economic inequality, changing environmental 
conditions and domestic violence in the middle of 1990s. Deteriorating social 
infrastructure, decreasing amount of pre-school and nursing establishments, absence 
of child-care facilities in the workplace negatively affect the social status of women. 

In terms of unemployment, women became the most vulnerable group in the labor market of 
Kazakhstan at middle and the end of 90s. According to the CIS Statistical Committee, out 
of 10 fired people in Kazakhstan, 8 of them were women. Because women’s income in the 
family’s budget accounts for about 40%, it means that the family is becoming poorer in 
the case of loosing a job. 

Although women account for more than a half of the Kazakh population, their rights suffer 
more often than those of men. This could be observed in all spheres of both political and 
economic life of our society. This paper is concentrated on economic rights of men and 
women in the labor market. Men constituted 48,16% and 49,44% of the total population in 
1989 and 1999 respectively. Average monthly nominal salary rate for females to salary rate 
for males in 1998 year was 75.7%.  At the beginning of the 21st century, economic 
situation has been improving a lot compare to other Central Asian countries, but despite 
Kazakhstan’s higher level of GDP (per capita $1, 506 in 2001) than its neighbors, salary 
rate for females were decreasing, - women receive less than 70 percent of men’s wage. 

Prior to the transition, earnings and benefits were the main source of income and property 
and individual ownership were rare. In the past decade, however, the privatization 
restructuring of productive resources has transformed the economic landscape, and women in 
Central Asia are often the last to benefit, in part because of the traditional customs 
whereby men de facto own most property. Another barrier women face in the growing private 
labor market is the form of access to credit, where evidence suggests considerable gender 
differences. Gender specific barriers include limited access to networks, financing and 
markets, which reflect a gender biased privatization process. Women’s businesses are 
usually small or micro-enterprises, which indicate that many women became self-employed 
only due to the lack of other job opportunities. 

During the Soviet era, the significance of women as mothers and workers was greatly 
emphasized by the government. It is undeniable that great progress was made in many 
aspects of women's life. Healthcare, paid ma¬ternity leave and numerous kindergartens, 
for example, all testify to this. In a break with tradition and Islamic norms, women gained 
custody of their children after divorce. Because of greatly improved healthcare, women made 
up over half of the population for the first time. The literacy rate of women in Soviet 
times was almost 100 per cent. The majority of doctors, chemists and biologists in 
Central Asia were women, a feature unusual even in many western countries. 
The high level of women's employment was proclaimed as a supreme achievement of developed 
socialism although at the same time scarce social bene¬fits for mothers, employment of 
women in manual and heavy jobs and poor pro¬gress in social questions led to above average 
high burdens on women.

There are some new features that have appeared in the labor market of Kazakhstan since the 
end of 1990s that have to be taken into account under policy’s recommendations:

-	the old model of the sole breadwinner having someone at home taking care of his 
	children and private life is not the norm any more. With the occurrence of a market 
	economy, there has been a serious shift towards a dual breadwinner model
-	women are more involved into a small business and become a very successful 
	entrepreneurs
-	since the social support system in Kazakhstan has been gradually reduced after its 
	independence (after 1991 year), women started to work on the equal conditions 
	with men and have family responsibilities combining with their responsibilities 
	in the labor market.
-	A strong performance of SME has raised interest in many countries of the former 
	Soviet Union to strengthen their SME sector
-	The decline in public employment and the growth of a highly unregulated 
	and informal private market for labor
-	The old centralized system of wage setting has been replaced by a more 
	decentralized system of plant negotiations or collective bargaining. 
Therefore, the relevant strategy should exist today in a labor market to achieve the goal 
of gender equality, especially in a private business 

Focus on equality of opportunities is focused on two things: first, equality of outcome’s 
across gender reflects a particular view of gender “equity” or fairness, and second, equity 
requires men and women to be free to choose different roles and outcomes, depending on their 
preferences and their comparative advantage in performing different activities. Inequality 
of opportunities and unequal treatment across gender often refereed to as gender 
discrimination.

Stakeholders and Policies 
In terms of the stakeholders there are the most influential in terms of decision making 
and policy recommendations, which are
-	Center for Gender Studies
-	City Akimats of Development of Small Business
-	Association of women-entrepreneurs
-	Associations of professional entrepreneurs
-	Ministry of Labor and Social Protection
-	Representation of International Labor Organisation (2 people only)
-	UNDP Gender Bureau “Women in Development”
-	Association of Small Businesses
-	USAID project of Pragma Corporation on Support to the SMEs
-	Other donors organizations’ efforts (EBRD, Tacis, ADB, UNDP, OSCE, NATO, etc.)
  The meetings with majority of these listed organizations took place that show that the 
big efforts and money were allocated for the program of support for small businesses, but 
the situation has not been improved. The government itself does not allocate money to 
support the small business, despite different promises. Banks provide money thanks to the 
donors’ programs of EBRD, but the interest rate is very high (more than 18% - at the 
beginning and middle of 2003 prior to the devaluation of US dollar) and entrepreneurs 
are reluctant to take any opportunities in this respects. The program that was initiated 
by the ADB, was very limited, directed only to the rural sector of economy, and was not 
successful.

There is a suggested Gender Mainstreaming strategy for Central Asia for 2002-2005 
developed by the ILO that have to be reflected in all policies’ documents. 


Conclusion and recommendations:

The paper concludes that women’s entrepreneurial potential in transition countries remains 
largely untapped especially when compared to global trends. Gender asymmetry requires more 
attention o f Government and policy makers to achieve equal opportunities for men and 
women in the labor market and fully utilize human resources for economic growth.  This 
requires political commitment, development of support measures focused on women 
entrepreneurs and building partnership among all stakeholders at national, regional 
and international levels. 

A gender equality strategy is recommended to include all relevant policies and programs.  
If this strategy exists only in the labor market, and it doesn’t embrace the other sectors 
like health, education, nutrition, social protection, it may not work. The situation can 
be tacked efficiently only by integrating the gender equality objectives into the policies 
that have a direct or indirect impact on the lives of women and men. Gender equality in 
Kazakhstan can be promoted either by introducing the pro-active intervention: gender 
mainstreaming or by implementing reactive intervention: the specific actions designed 
to improve the situation of women in society. In general, this strategy should be based 
on the following objectives:

- to advance women’s leadership and governance positions
- to promote women’s entrepreneurship, and to facilitate women’s equal access to resources, 
employment, markets and trade

Women’s concerns and needs should be taken into account and assume that the same importance 
as men’s concerns in the design and implementation of policies
-	It is evident that the narrow definition of work does not capture the reality of 
work for women. The first recommendation is related to economic decision-makers at the 
level of the Ministry of Labor market and social protection on defining work to incorporate 
the full scope of women contribution to the national product, making visible the economic 
value of unpaid social reproduction and social capital. The unpaid work of women has to be 
taken into consideration when determining resource allocation, compensation, and benefits 
for both women and men. The explicit redefining of work to include women’s work is a major 
step towards meeting the United Nations goals of gender equality and equity.

-	Assistance for women’s entrepreneurship and self-employment through the development 
of different governmental programs. The measures on women’s support are to be  introduced 
to the government programs of support for the small business and the development of the 
special chapter for women’s entrepreneurship in the State program of employment
-	The system of Microcredits are to be introduced in both urban and rural areas. 
This system has to be introduced as programs that extend small loans and other financial 
and business services to very poor people for self-employment projects that generate 
income allowing them to care for themselves and their families. Since women are suffering 
from unemployment and underpayment, but banks  won’t lend credits without collateral, it 
would be better to use a powerful tool to help transition economies recover and strengthen


-	System of the trade unions is recommended at the level of state enterprises where 
	the level of salaries is considered to be the lowest in the country
-	Work is broadly defined to include all activities and efforts, remunerated or 
	non-remunerated, needed to achieve an object or result. 
-	The government must also ensure that women’s interests are represented in a 
	collective bargaining effort in the workplace, through the presence of trade unions.
-	Introduction of the Equal Opportunity programs at enterprise level
-	Women’s business associations and other NGOs by each industry of economy have 
	to be developed with the assistance of donor organisations
-	The network of credit unions 

Bibliography:
1.	Disparities Between Men and Women in Transition Countries of Europe and Central Asia 
	Merit Special Attention, Washington, September 18, 2002.
2.	The OECD Observer, January, 1999 N 215; http://www.oecd.org/publications/observer
3.	Jorg Meyer-Stamer and Frank Waltring, August 2000; Behind the Myth of the Mittelstand 
	Economy. The Institutional Environment Supporting Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises 
	in Germany; http://www.oecd.org/els/women/women.htm
4.	Teri G. Lindgren and Afaf I. Meleis, March 2001; Institute on Global conflict and 
	Cooperation. Women, Work, Health, and the quality of life
5.	Daniel Sommerstein Development Projects to Promote Economic Empowerment of Women, 
	50th Sessions issues
6.	О некоторых проблемах занятости женщин в странах СНГ. Всеобщая Конфедерация 
	профсоюзов. http://www.vkp.ru/doc/7.thml
7.	Kazakhstan Development Gateway http://www.women.kz/pub/pub0003.htm
8.	Towards a Community Framework Strategy on Gender Equality (2001-2005). Communication 
	from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the Economic and Social 
	Committee and the Committee of the regions. Brussels, 2000/0143 (CNS)
9.	Global Gender Programme. 
	http://www.sdnp.undp.org/gender/programmes/empowerment_strategy.html
10.	Transition Newsletter about reforming economies, How do Men and Women Fare 
	in Transition countries? Pierella Paci, World Bank, 2002
11.	Dr. Ewa Ruminska-Zimny, Women’s entrepreneurship in transition countries. 
	UNECE, Geneva, Switzerland, June 15-18; 2003