As more countries in Central Asia transition to market economies, women are being left behind in the workforce despite high levels of education and employment. Jildyz Urbaeva, an assistant professor in the School of Social Welfare, has conducted a study on how opportunity structures and social mobility influence women's views on gender roles in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
As more countries in Central Asia transition to market economies, women are being left behind in the workforce despite high levels of education and employment. Jildyz Urbaeva, an assistant professor in the School of Social Welfare, has conducted a study on how opportunity structures and social mobility influence women's views on gender roles in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
The study, involving 4,000 participants, used a national representative survey in each of the four countries that was administered and funded by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
The UAlbany News Podcast is hosted and produced by Sarah O'Carroll, a Communications Specialist at the University at Albany, State University of New York, with production assistance by Patrick Dodson and Scott Freedman.
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Sarah O'Carroll:
Welcome to the UAlbany News Podcast. I'm your host, Sarah O'Carroll. I have with me Jildyz Urbaeva, an assistant professor in the School of Social Welfare at UAlbany. She has researched women's views on gender roles in Central Asia and how opportunity structures and social mobility have influenced these perspectives.
Sarah O'Carroll:
So to start off, I want to get a better idea of who or what you've been researching specifically. So will you first share which Central Asian countries you focused on and why you chose them?
Jildyz Urbaeva:
Well, that's a really good question. I've been studying Central Asian countries for a while now, and that is the primary focus in my research agenda in general. And in this specific study, I included Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. So four countries were included in the study, and the reasons for including them in the same study were a few actually. So the first reason is that these countries have a lot of cultural similarities. So a lot of ethnic groups in the region, they speak Turkic languages.
Jildyz Urbaeva:
The majority of the population is Muslim, and also the family structure is very similar across the region. Is what we call patrilocal family. So a lot of young couples, they move in with the husband's parents, and stay with them for a few years before moving out to their own apartment or house. And then these countries, they're also what we call our transitional economists. When the Soviet Union kind of broke down almost 30 years ago, these republics, which were members of the Soviet union, they became independent countries. And so they started on their journey of transformations, social, political and economical. And that's what is making them similar in some ways.
Sarah O'Carroll:
Okay.
Jildyz Urbaeva:
And last but not least is what I call extreme patriarchal practices in Central Asia. There are instances, and I'm not saying that's a majority of cases, but there are instances of forced marriage. There is a perception of widespread violence against women, so I thought that is a very important context for studying women's situation involving.
Sarah O'Carroll:
Okay. So if we're taking a look back to the past few decades, and you had mentioned the collapse of the Soviet Union. Can you share a little bit more about the historical context that would give us a clearer picture of this portion of the world in terms of its socioeconomic condition, as we're trying to understand how women's roles and status all intersect?
Jildyz Urbaeva:
Sure. So historically several factors influenced women and their families in Central Asia. So the first I would say would be women's emancipation agenda, which was brought by Soviet rule in the 1920s. So the Soviet government wanted women to become visible in a public domain. That was their first objective. But the second objective was to bring women in the labor force. And actually, the Soviet government achieved remarkable success in this regard. Just within a span of just a few decades, women in Central Asia, they transformed from being an illiterate population to women who were competitive in the labor force. For example, 50% of university students and employees were represented by women. And another factor historically that had a huge influence on women in the region was the comprehensive welfare system, which was implemented by the Soviet state.
Jildyz Urbaeva:
And particularly, there was universal access to health care and education. Families, they received cash benefits for children. And virtually every family had access to some kind of recreational or developmental activity for their children. It could be a sports club or scientific club, or arts and culture club. So a lot of Soviet children, they went to those clubs that affected positively their wellbeing and development. And finally, motherhood was viewed as a very important function for women. And the Soviet state supported this motherhood prenatal culture, not just ideologically, but also with funded policies. So women could take a maternity leave for up to three years.
Sarah O'Carroll:
That sounds wonderful.
Jildyz Urbaeva:
Yes! It was paid for and they still maintain their workplace. So, there was a lot of support for family and these investment's really in human capital created a very well endowed population by the time when the Soviet union collapsed. So these countries, they entered the transition period well-prepared in terms of human capital with a relatively healthy population, highly educated women, and which is still very young demographically.
Sarah O'Carroll:
That's really interesting, and a lot of transformations that have been taking place. But what can you tell us about the women you've been looking at now, and can you familiarize us with what their livelihood looks like?
Jildyz Urbaeva:
Well, I could say that the experiences of women on the labor market are highly gendered. So it is a definitively gender experience being employed, which means that women lag behind in terms of income, opportunity and advancing in the workplace. But in general, looking at women, I was prepared to look at any kind of characteristics of women in Central Asia.
Jildyz Urbaeva:
And in this particular study, I was guided by Crenshaw's theory of intersectionality, which proposes that women's oppression experiences define their actions and lifestyles. And I was open to the idea that maybe not just oppressive experiences, but experiences in general influence women's views about gender roles. So I thought maybe it's not just education, but also their religion, their ethnic identity. Maybe the social mobility experienced by their parents could affect their views about gender roles.
Sarah O'Carroll:
So even though there was a lot of social support and women were getting a lot of good educational opportunities, were supported at home with the family structure, they were then still seeing a lot of inequality and oppression when going into the workforce and being treated much differently than their male counterparts. Is that what you're saying?
Jildyz Urbaeva:
Absolutely.
Sarah O'Carroll:
Okay.
Jildyz Urbaeva:
Yes, yes. That is the case in Central Asia.
Sarah O'Carroll:
Okay. So what are some of the unknowns that the study addressed? This is my way of asking what were some of your questions going into this project.
Jildyz Urbaeva:
Well, when we talk about gender roles, we tend to rely on a dichotomous thinking. Right? So traditional views or roles versus egalitarian roles of use. But my hunch was that maybe in Central Asia, it's more nuanced. Maybe it's not as binary. So what are the variabilities in women's views about gender roles? Because their experiences are so diverse. How can we detangle those differences in their view?
Jildyz Urbaeva:
So that was my first question. And the second question was how does opportunity structure and social mobility, how do they influence women's views about gender roles? Because we see that it's happening a lot in the region. Women there are kind of left behind in many regards. So I thought, well, there should be a connection about what women think about gender roles and opportunities.
Sarah O'Carroll:
Okay. So can you share a little bit about your data collection process, and how many data points you used in your probability based survey?
Jildyz Urbaeva:
Yes. It was a national representative survey in each of the countries, and it was funded and administered by the European bank for construction and development. And I used just one data point from 2016.
Sarah O'Carroll:
Okay.
Jildyz Urbaeva:
So overall sample was over 4,000 women in the study.
Sarah O'Carroll:
Okay, wow. From all different walks of life, and different areas and different countries?
Jildyz Urbaeva:
Yes.
Sarah O'Carroll:
Okay. So let's go to some of your key findings. What would you say were some of your study's biggest takeaways?
Jildyz Urbaeva:
I found four groups of women, or four groups of women's views about gender roles. The first and the smallest group was women who did not have definitive views about gender roles, and they represented only 2% of the sample. So I decided not to use them in the study. But then there was a group of women with traditional views, who believed that a man should be the primary breadwinner in the family. And there was a group of women with egalitarian views, who believed that women can be leaders everywhere in the family and in the public domain.
Jildyz Urbaeva:
And the most interesting group for me personally was the group of women who has dual views, and actually it was the largest group as well. They represented 40% of the entire sample. And what was interesting about this group was that they believed that women's positions should be advanced in politics, in government, in business, but also they kind of were okay with the idea that a man should be a primary breadwinner or a leader in the family domain.
Jildyz Urbaeva:
So this was the first major takeaway from the study. Speaking of more specific findings, I'm looking at the table in my study. I see that we find that women with traditional views, they were less likely to be employed, and they were less likely to have fathers who went to college.
Sarah O'Carroll:
Okay.
Jildyz Urbaeva:
And they were less likely to be women who reported any intergenerational changes in mobility patterns. So basically these women, they did not advance in life at all.
Sarah O'Carroll:
Okay.
Jildyz Urbaeva:
And then when we look at women with egalitarian views, we find that they are typically employed and are college educated.
Sarah O'Carroll:
Okay.
Jildyz Urbaeva:
So we can safely assume that college and employment, they facilitate egalitarian views of women. And finally, the woman with dual views, again, they had some interesting results. For example, they had fathers who were college educated. They tend to be married, which means that they advance in life both via their family's capital, whether it's social or economic or educational capital. But they also advance in life by a marriage.
Sarah O'Carroll:
Okay.
Jildyz Urbaeva:
And also these women, they tend to be employed and educated. So there are multiple routes for social mobility for this group of women, which I found very interesting.
Sarah O'Carroll:
Okay. A question about the dual category again. Do you see this group as a progression that this is the group that eventually may be more on the egalitarianism side, or is it its own entity that they seem to be consistent ideologically?
Jildyz Urbaeva:
This is a really interesting question. I think we would need to observe, which means that we need to conduct more studies over time.
Sarah O'Carroll:
With a five year follow up or something.
Jildyz Urbaeva:
Yes. Ideally, we would conduct longitudinal studies with the same group of women, to see how their life circumstances or life changes or significant events influenced their viewpoints. But unfortunately, we do not have resources. So one way to address this would be to repeat the same study using a different data point. So let's say I could do a similar study using data from 2020.
Sarah O'Carroll:
Okay.
Jildyz Urbaeva:
It would not be the same group of women, but it would be the same population. So, we could see how thinking of women has been changing or stayed the same over the years.
Sarah O'Carroll:
And you looked at 4,000 women, is that correct? So that is a large population to go back to, even if it's not the same people. If it's that broad, it sounds like you could still get some meaningful takeaways from a similar study.
Jildyz Urbaeva:
Right. It's still a representative sample for each country.
Sarah O'Carroll:
Okay, so that's one question that seems to remain for you. But if you did have unlimited time and resources, what would you want to go explore more beyond doing perhaps a longitudinal study?
Jildyz Urbaeva:
Well, for my own research agenda, I would like to explore the dyadic relationships between daughters-in-law and mothers-in-law, because what we see from reports of international development organizations and research that mothers-in-law actually are involved in abusing women in the family. It's not just husbands that abuse women. So I would be interested in doing a study about that.
Jildyz Urbaeva:
But speaking more broadly, we are lacking any significant knowledge about the class structure in Central Asia. So just like in the US, we measure income and education in order to identify someone's socioeconomic status. But in Central Asia, income and education do not necessarily correlate directly. So a person can be a professional like a doctor or university professor and still be paid very little, and someone without necessarily higher education could have a very high income. So I think that it is high time for us to really engage in understanding the class structure of the region. It would make our studies much, much easier and more meaningful.
Sarah O'Carroll:
So this research was primarily germane to these four Central Asian countries, but are there any takeaways that we might apply to gender roles in the United States?
Jildyz Urbaeva:
Sure. Well, first of all, we should know there are enormous differences, right?
Sarah O'Carroll
Yes.
Jildyz Urbaeva:
Social, cultural, political, et cetera, between the United States and Central Asia. That's a given. However, some experiences of women I think are similar or even universal. For example, a lack of opportunity. So when we talk about inequality, we usually imply economic inequality, right? But there is also an inequality of opportunity. So is there enough opportunity in the society structure for young women to advance in life, regardless of their socioeconomic status, family background and so forth?
Jildyz Urbaeva:
And what we see that women are still lagging behind in the US and Central Asia because there are not enough childcare arrangements. We do not have policies that support maternity leave. So basically family is the responsibility of family, and I'm a strong proponent of policies to support women's empowerment and advancement. So for us, to implement a motto that women's rights are human rights, we should all work together at different levels. It should not be shouldered just by women individually. I think it's the responsibility of the entire society, both in the US and Central Asian states.
Sarah O'Carroll:
And you're finding that a college education makes a big impact as far as a woman thinking of the kinds of opportunities that are attainable in life. I thought that might also apply to here. Because when you are in college, although of course it's a privilege to be here, it then seems to show, okay. You can move on and do these other things as well, and you're not just going to be stuck.
Jildyz Urbaeva:
Right. Absolutely. College education becomes really important. Obviously in the US, but thankfully we're at the point where college females represent half of the college population in the US. I think there is a similar trend in Central Asia. Maybe there are even more females in Central Asia. However, we should also look beyond the college. Once they're out of college, do they have enough opportunities?
Sarah O'Carroll:
Yes. Okay, so my last question is how might other social workers use these findings to better serve their communities? That could apply for both here if it's possible to make those kinds of applications, or for in Central Asia.
Jildyz Urbaeva:
Well, in Central Asia, I think it's important for social workers to remember about the centrality of family as a social institution. The second factor, both in the US and Central Asia for social workers working with either immigrants from central Asia, or local populations in the region would be acknowledging the growing influence of Islam. So, as a social institution. More families, individuals, they choose to follow in Islamic tradition. So I think it's something that we should educate ourselves about. And finally, I would suggest looking at multilevel factors that affect women's wellbeing. Micro, meso, and macro.
Sarah O'Carroll:
Okay. Jil, thanks so much for being here.
Jildyz Urbaeva:
Thank you so much, Sarah, for having me.
Sarah O'Carroll:
Thank you for listening to the UAlbany news podcast. I'm your host, Sarah O'Carroll, and that was Jildyz Urbaeva. If you're interested in learning more about research on social welfare, you might be interested in a recent episode we did with Wonhyung Lee. She's looked at the role of business improvement districts and addressing social issues in the US. You can let us know what you thought of the episode or who we should speak to next by emailing us. We're at mediarelations@albany.edu, or you can find us on Twitter @UAlbanyNews.