Women Politicians in Kazakhstan and Some Other Asian Countries Face Due to Gender Stratification and Inequality
- Submitted by: brabus077
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- Category: Politics
- Date Submitted: 10/02/2011 11:28 PM
- Pages: 19
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I. Introduction
This paper is devoted to the issues that women politicians in Kazakhstan and some other Asian countries face due to gender stratification and inequality. We have chosen this topic because careful examination of gender-based inequality such as underrepresentation of women in decision-making bodies can be useful in our future career as we expect to work in public administration field. Then it is useful because it allows understanding the ways of how to deal with the women in politics.
Our study on the political underrepresentation of Kazakhstani women from an analytical perspective is necessary mainly for three reasons that can be considered as three main objectives of our study. First of all, people are one of the most important resources of Kazakhstan as of any other Asian country and women comprise about half of the population. Secondly, there are not so much studies conducted on this subject. Thus, information is limited. Third, the study will contribute to fuller understanding of Kazakhstani women’s participation in politics.
It is a paradox that women who, as we said before, compose half of the population are so poorly represented in decision-making bodies in Kazakhstan and whole Asia as well. Although there have been a number of improvements in recent decades, only a very small number of women rise to positions of political leadership or attain high levels of political participation. One of the main reasons of such situation is the general cultural stereotypes about gender roles that exist in most Asian societies. According to these stereotypes men are thought to be better leaders, more objective, aggressive, dominant, scientific and unsentimental. On the contrary, women are thought to be followers, rather than leaders. They should hold the responsibility for family and household duties. So, on the one hand, women politicians may be viewed as inattentive wives and mothers, on the other hand, if women are avid family members, then they...
This paper is devoted to the issues that women politicians in Kazakhstan and some other Asian countries face due to gender stratification and inequality. We have chosen this topic because careful examination of gender-based inequality such as underrepresentation of women in decision-making bodies can be useful in our future career as we expect to work in public administration field. Then it is useful because it allows understanding the ways of how to deal with the women in politics.
Our study on the political underrepresentation of Kazakhstani women from an analytical perspective is necessary mainly for three reasons that can be considered as three main objectives of our study. First of all, people are one of the most important resources of Kazakhstan as of any other Asian country and women comprise about half of the population. Secondly, there are not so much studies conducted on this subject. Thus, information is limited. Third, the study will contribute to fuller understanding of Kazakhstani women’s participation in politics.
It is a paradox that women who, as we said before, compose half of the population are so poorly represented in decision-making bodies in Kazakhstan and whole Asia as well. Although there have been a number of improvements in recent decades, only a very small number of women rise to positions of political leadership or attain high levels of political participation. One of the main reasons of such situation is the general cultural stereotypes about gender roles that exist in most Asian societies. According to these stereotypes men are thought to be better leaders, more objective, aggressive, dominant, scientific and unsentimental. On the contrary, women are thought to be followers, rather than leaders. They should hold the responsibility for family and household duties. So, on the one hand, women politicians may be viewed as inattentive wives and mothers, on the other hand, if women are avid family members, then they...