Gender gaps in Central Asia: A reassessment

Abstract

The article reviews the latest available statistical information on gender inequalities in labor markets and in access to financial institutions, social services, and education. After a general review of agricultural development, household food security and rural poverty, population structure, and labor outmigration in Central Asia, the article examines the women’s role in the labor market, including both formal and informal female employment, the feminization of agriculture in the region, gender gaps in education and wages, and constraints on women’s access to extension services and land ownership. It is observed that women’s asset ownership rights and their access to supply and product markets are constrained by social norms. The article concludes with some conclusions and policy recommendations. This reassessment is designed to strengthen the qualitative approaches of the gender literature with some quantitative approaches from agricultural and development economics.

Women’s Land Rights in the Kyrgyz Republic. Securing Women’s Resource Rights through Gender Transformative Approaches

“…The national economy has rapidly transitioned away from agriculture, constituting 13.5% of GDP and 19% of total formal employment in the country in 2020 (World Bank, 2021). Today, a labour out-migration, primarily by men but also by women, plays an important economic role in Kyrgyzstan; and remittances provide a wage supplement for recipient households and are also used for investment and acquiring land and farm machinery (Lehrmann 2021). However, a large proportion of the population remains dependent on agriculture for subsistence, and agriculture (cultivation of land and tending to livestock) provides an important source of employment, income, and food security for rural people (USAID FTF, 2021).…”

“…In general, work on family farms and household plots is largely performed by women, who also play a key role in selling outputs (Lehrmann 2021). On pastures, livestockraising is traditionally considered a male activity; however, women today play an important role in animal husbandry and care.…”