On Women's Participation In Local Governance In Kazakhstan

In the last two decades,one of the most remarkable phenomena worldwide is the escalation of women in politics.However,the development of women's political participation in local governance in Kazakhstan lags behind women's political participation in local governance in Western countries.In the Kazakh political field,public positions tend to be gendered,and the authority of female officials is marginalized.In this paper,I examine the factors that have shaped the political development of Kazakh women's movement towards equality with men,and I explain why the political participation of Kazakh women lingers to lag behind men'sAfter assessing the lack of women's political participation,I contemplate ways to improve Kazakh's women's political participation,including developing women's access to jobs in tertiary industries and decreasing the time women spend on unpaid domestic work;strengthening the institutional guarantee of Kazakh women's political participation;strengthening the cooperation between the government;strengthening teacher training,downplaying the gender bias in textbooks,and raising women's consciousness of political participation.These conclusions will be useful to public policy analysts in Kazakhstan who are concerned about the enduring obstacles to women's political empowerment,and who are considering policy measures they might adapt to further increase women's political participation in local governance.