Gender inequalities in labour markets in Central Asia Tamar Khitarishvili The collapse of the Soviet Union has initiated an unprecedented social and economic transformation of the Central Asian economies. Their experience has demonstrated that the changes in the gender balance triggered by economic shifts are far from obvious. Whereas during the Soviet years, women in Central Asia experienced considerable advances in economic and social well-being, during the post-Soviet period these advances were in many cases reversed, in part due to the economic shifts experienced by countries in the region, including private sector growth and significant migration flows, and to some degree due to the strengthening of patriarchal traditions. This paper establishes the current state of various dimensions of gender inequalities and their recent dynamics in the five countries of Central Asia and proposes steps aimed at reducing them to advance inclusive growth, decent job creation and economic empowerment. Tamar Khitarishvili1 1 Research Scholar, Levy Economics Institute of Bard College, [email protected], 1 845 758 7714; paper prepared for the joint UNDP/ILO conference on Employment, Trade and Human Development in Central Asia (Almaty, KazaKhstan, June 23-24, 2016). 2 Table of Contents Background ......................................................................................................................... 4 Labour markets .................................................................................................................. 5 Rural development and agriculture ................................................................................ 11 Entrepreneurship and private sector development ...................................................... 13 Industrial and occupational segregation ....................................................................... 19 Education .......................................................................................................................... 21 Pay gaps ............................................................................................................................ 24 Unpaid work and care ...................................................................................................... 26 Migration ........................................................................................................................... 32 Social Institutions, Legislative Framework and Policy-Making ................................... 35 Social protection systems ............................................................................................... 39 Conclusions ...................................................................................................................... 40 References ........................................................................................................................ 43 Appendix ........................................................................................................................... 49 Background The Central Asian countries2 represent a heterogeneous group that includes energy-exporting countries (Kazakhstan and TurKmenistan); agriculture-dependent small economies (Kyrgyzstan and TajiKistan); and the more industrialized economy of UzbeKistan. UzbeKistan and KazaKhstan have the largest populations, at over 30 and 17 million, followed by TajiKistan with over eight million, and TurKmenistan and Kyrgyzstan with almost six million each. Kazakhstan is the most affluent Central Asian country with a Gross National Income (GNI) per capita of $20,867, and TajiKistan the poorest with GNI per capita of $2,517 (UNDP 2015). Based on the Gender Inequality Index (GII) and the Gender Development Index (GDI), the Central Asian region is characterized by moderate levels of gender inequality (Figure 1). According to the GII, which gauges reproductive health and gender gaps in empowerment and economic status, the region performs better than the world average on measures of gender equality (Table A1). This is largely driven by relatively strong gender indicators in education and below average maternal mortality rates (even though they remain considerable). A similar conclusion emerges using the GDI, which measures gender gaps in human development achievements focusing on health, education and living standards and places the Central Asia countries above the world average (Table A2). However, in the case of the GDI, this outcome can be explained in part by poor health outcomes of men, in particular, and the relatively low levels of gender-disaggregated estimated gross national income per capita (with the exception of natural-resource-rich KazaKhstan and TurKmenistan). TurKmenistan stands out as a Central Asian country with the lowest life expectancy for women and men and the lowest expected years of schooling. On the other hand, Kazakhstan performs the best out of its fellow Central Asian countries and is the only Central Asian country classified by the UNDP as a country with high level of human development. The other four countries of the region fall into the medium human development category (UNDP 2015). Kazakhstan also performs better than its regional neighbors based on the Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI), an OECD-produced measure of discriminatory social institutions, which assesses formal and informal laws, attitudes and practices that restrict women’s and girls’ access to rights, justice and empowerment opportunities. In fact, it is the only Central Asian countries categorized as having low degree of discriminatory practices, with the SIGI value of 0.1196.TajiKistan, UzbeKistan and Kyrgyzstan are part of the medium degree group with the SIGI values of 0.1393, 0.1475, and 0.1598, respectively (OECD SIGI database). 2 The Central Asian region includes Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, TajiKistan, TurKmenistan, and Uzbekistan. 4 Labour markets Despite the region’s positive performance relative to the rest of the world, gender inequalities in labor marKets are pervasive in the Central Asian region. They emerge already at the level of labour force participation (Figure 2). It is notable that male participation rates across Central Asian countries are similar. The gaps are present due to the considerable variation in female labour force participation rates, which range from 46.9 percent in TurKmenistan to 67.7 percent in Kazakhstan in 2013. As a result, the gender gap in labour force participation in the Central Asian region varies from about 10.2 percentage points in Kazakhstan to 30 percentage points in TurKmenistan Over the last 20 years, the overall labour force participation rates in Central Asia have not changed considerably however their gender dynamics have varied. In KazaKhstan, the gender gap contracted, as the female labour force participation rate increased considerably from 70.1 in 1991 to 75.1 percent in 2013 5 whereas male rate went up only slightly from 81.9 in 1991 to 82.4 in 2013.3 The increase in the female rate is particularly noteworthy because it was the highest in the region to begin with and has risen even more. On the other hand, the gap appears to have widened in other countries of the region. In Tajikistan, TurKmenistan and UzbeKistan, this happened (albeit only marginally) due to the slight increase in the male participation rate without the accompanying increase in the female rate. The widening of the gap was much more pronounced in Kyrgyzstan because women’s rate fell from 64.5 percent in 1991 to 59.6 percent in 2013 while men’s participation rate increased from 78.1 percent to 82.5 percent during the same period (the World BanK Gender Statistics Database). The gender wage gap widens as women enter prime child-bearing years. This is to a large degree due to their domestic and care burdens (Maltseva 2007). In fact, as many as 61 percent of TajiK women not in the labour force cite domestic responsibilities as the reason for their inactivity (Figure 13). At 11 percent, this share is much lower in KazaKhstan, possibly due to the better state of social infrastructure provisioning. Notably, the youth female labour force participation rate declined in Kazakhstan from 48.9 percent in 1991 to 44.4 percent in 2013 even as it increased among worKing-age females. However, this could be partly attributed to more women going for higher education: the decrease was accompanied by a rise in the ratio of female to male tertiary enrollment from 114.1 in 1999 to 129.5 in 2013. On the other hand in UzbeKistan the ratio of female to male tertiary enrollment fell from 82.4 in 1999 to 64.7 in 2011. 3 Source: WB Gender Statistics, series SL_TLF_ACTI_MA_ZS 6 In the environment with low labor force participation rates, low unemployment rates are commonly interpreted with caution because the low rates may simply be a reflection of a large portion of inactive population. However, in the Central Asian region, this is not the case: countries with higher labor force participation rates tend to have lower unemployment rates. Moreover, in these countries, considerable gender gaps in the unemployment rates benefitting men are present, unliKe the gaps in labor force participation rates, which are small in these countries. This is the case in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan (Figure 4). On the other hand, in UzbeKistan and TurKmenistan, where female labour force participation rates are very low, the gender gap in the unemployment rate is less than one percentage point. Hence, in stronger labor marKets proportionately fewer men than