Current and Emerging Issues in Gender Equality in Education: What Does the Data Tell Us?

Abstract

This chapter identifies current and emerging issues related to gender equality in education, providing a comparative analysis of education-related gender equality indicators across Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Using data from UNESCO, the World Bank Gender Data Portal, the United Nations Development Programme’s Gender Inequality Index, country-level data, and other sources, the chapter is organized into four sections. First, the gendered educational landscape is examined, encompassing educational participation and attainment in compulsory and post-compulsory education across the countries. Second, the chapter explores gender differences in fields of study in higher education to understand patterns of gendered behaviour in education. Third, the chapter examines the role of female educators—teachers and researchers, and fourth, the chapter explores whether educational achievements for women are translating into societal leadership gains. The chapter concludes with brief country summaries highlighting key issues for gender equality in education. Despite presenting some statistics for the first time, caution is warranted due to the subjective nature of data and its limitations in capturing root causes and structural effects of gender inequality.

Introduction

The use of quantitative data is becoming increasingly widespread in the ongoing struggle for gender equality, accelerated with the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) in 2015. As part of this global agenda, gender cuts across all 17 SDGs and is the specific focus of SDG 5 on gender equality. Even prior to the SDGs, the importance of statistics on gender had been highlighted with the development of the UN Gender Inequality Index (operational since 2010) and the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap report (available since 2006) (Eden & Wagstaff, 2021). The logic behind initiatives and databases such as these is to increase understanding of gendered challenges in societies, provide data that can be used to inform policymaking and change, and offer benchmarks for countries to compare progress towards reducing gender gaps.

Aligned with these objectives, this chapter examines the available statistical data for Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. It presents descriptive statistics that identify current and emerging issues related to gender equality in education and provides a comparative analysis of the Central Asian region. While gender issues affect everyone, the data in this chapter focuses primarily on the situation of girls and women, given the overall levels of structural and societal discrimination they experience in Central Asia. The methodology section points out some of the limitations of using statistics in gender studies.

Before focussing on education more specifically, it is instructive to compare the countries’ current position in terms of gender equality. The 2021 Gender Inequality Index (explained in the next section) produces a world average score of 0.465, where 0 represents gender equality and 1 is the most gender-unequal result. In comparison (see Fig. 3.1), Kazakhstan’s index value of 0.161 ranks it first in the region and 41st in the world. Uzbekistan has a value of 0.227 (world ranking of 56), followed by Tajikistan at 0.285 (world ranking of 68) and Kyrgyzstan at 0.370 (world ranking of 87). As a starting point, the results of this index help to situate the findings that follow within the broader socio-economic context in Central Asia. The results also show that Central Asian countries are relatively more gender equal than the world average and that the regional scenario is quite divergent. This may have some connection to the countries’ shared recent history in the Soviet Union. While the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 was more than a generation ago, the legacies of gender equality (on paper, if not in practice) and high female participation in education are still visible.

Fig. 3.1

Central Asian countries in the gender inequality index, 2021

To unpack the data on education, the chapter is organized as follows. The next section discusses the methodology, explaining the data sources that were used and the limitations that this presented. The findings of the statistical data collection are then presented in four sections. First, the gendered educational landscape is examined, encompassing educational participation and attainment in compulsory and post-compulsory education across the countries. Second, the chapter explores gender differences in fields of study in higher education to understand patterns of gendered behaviour in education. Third, the chapter examines the role of female educators—teachers and researchers, and fourth, the chapter explores whether educational achievements for women are translating into societal leadership gains. The chapter concludes with brief country summaries highlighting key issues for gender equality in education. Despite presenting some statistics for the first time, caution is warranted due to the subjective nature of data and its limitations in capturing the root causes and structural effects of gender inequality.

Methodology

This chapter takes a quantitative approach to capture current and emerging issues in gender equality in education, using publicly available statistical data that is disaggregated by sex. The findings are presented as descriptive statistics, the purpose of which is to summarize key information and display it visually in a meaningful way for a non-specialist readership alongside written analysis. A key data source was UNESCO Institute for Statistics database UIS.Stat¹ and related UNESCO World Inequality Database on Education.² UIS.Stat, with which both authors have previous professional experience, is a widely used and trusted source of a wide range of indicators covering UNESCO’s areas of competence: education, science, culture, communication, as well as data relating to demographics and socio-economic factors. UIS.Stat receives data from national governments and covers all countries. We also used the World Bank’s Gender Data Portal³ which collates gender data on education, employment, leadership, and other sectors from a range of sources, and the Gender Inequality Index⁴ published by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), which includes data on reproductive health, empowerment, and the labour market.

In cases where we were unable to identify data from UNESCO, the Gender Data Portal, or the Gender Inequality Index, or where the country-level data in these databases was lacking or out of date, we also referred directly to the National Agency for Statistics (as named in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan), Bureau of National Statistics (Kazakhstan) or National Statistical Committee (Kyrgyz Republic). In addition to these primary sources, we also searched for secondary sources that included data pertaining to education and gender in Central Asia. These were typically reports by national or international organizations that included the Central Asian states as part of their global approach. Examples of such sources include the UNESCO Science Report (UNESCO, 2021), the UN Human Development Report (UNDP, 2022), and country assessments by international financial institutions (e.g., Asian Development Bank, 2016). Despite this multi-pronged strategy, it was not possible to identify data on all indicators for all countries.

Gender refers to socially constructed roles and understandings and is a different construct from sex, which refers to a human or animal’s biological attributes (Canadian Institutes of Health Research, 2014). In this chapter, we refer to ‘girls’ and ‘boys’ where data pertains to females/males under the age of 18, and ‘women’ and ‘men’ for their adult counterparts. While neither is constrained to female/woman and male/man, a limitation of this chapter (and in the use of statistics in gender studies more generally) is the reliance on data sources that only collect and report information using these two categorizations. That said, it is very rare to find data on gender or sex and education that considers the true variation that exists both biologically and socially. Furthermore, such data is not collected by any Central Asian countries. Governments in the region are often outwardly hostile when it comes to gender—some of the states outlaw same-sex relationships, for example—and this perpetuates discrimination, repression, and exclusion of people who do not identify with the designations of female or male (ADC Memorial, 2020).

The Gendered Educational Landscape

This foundational section presents data on some of the key equality-based indicators in education. It covers compulsory (school) and post-compulsory (higher/tertiary) education in four areas. First, we start by asking a key question about how much education girls and women receive. This is examined by expected years and mean years of schooling. Second, data on participation in education at different levels is presented. Third, the outcomes of education in terms of completion/graduation rates are discussed. Fourth, the landscape is studied geographically with data on urban and rural differences in educational attainment.

How Much Education Do Girls and Women Receive?

Expected years of schooling provide a projection of the average number of years a child entering school can expect to receive if current enrolment patterns persist (see Fig. 3.2). On the other hand, mean years of schooling represent the average number of completed years of education for a population. All four countries—Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan—exhibit relatively high expected years of schooling for both girls and boys (see Fig. 3.3) (UNDP, 2022). This suggests a commitment to providing a substantial duration of formal education. The mean years of schooling, while lower than expected years, especially in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, still indicate a considerable average level of educational attainment in each country. On average, individuals in these countries are completing a significant portion of their expected schooling. In Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, in contrast to Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, girls, on average, study longer than boys and have a higher average expected years of schooling. This pattern holds true not only for the actual mean years of schooling but also aligns with the expected length of schooling.

Fig. 3.2

Expected years of schooling, 2021

Fig. 3.3

Mean years of schooling, 2021

Participation in School Education

In Central Asia, primary school enrolment is almost universal (Doby, 2018). Gender parity has almost been attained at the primary level across all four nations, with net enrolment rates higher than 95% for both girls and boys. In Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, fewer boys than girls are progressing to upper secondary level, while Uzbekistan demonstrates relative gender parity at all school levels. Although upper secondary education is compulsory and tuition-free in Central Asia, except in Tajikistan, there is still a significant decline in enrolment observed at this level (grades 10–11, ages 16–17) for both genders. In the case of Tajikistan, education is compulsory only up to grade 9, which adversely affects girls’ participation and attainment. Another possible explanation might be that students are opting to pursue college study with the aim of swiftly acquiring a profession and entering the workforce. Additionally, uncertainty about the outcomes of mandatory standardized tests at the end of upper secondary education, which serve as prerequisites for university admission, also impacts the decision to leave school.

While girls’ net enrolment rate in Tajikistan has improved over the past 20 years, it still remains at under 50% for upper secondary school (48.1%) (see Fig. 3.4). This could be influenced by various factors in addition to the shorter duration of compulsory schooling, such as cultural expectations and traditional gender roles; societal norms related to early marriage and parenthood (Central Asian Bureau for Analytical Reporting, 2019); economic considerations when families prioritize allocating resources differently for boys and girls; geographic location and access to educational resources. By the same token, investing in girls’ education is crucial for societal advancement and serves as the cornerstone for their empowerment, fostering increased participation in societal roles (Odinaev, 2020). It is recognized that the gender gap is much larger in Tajikistan than officially reported (Asian Development Bank, 2016) and the available school population data does not monitor absenteeism or attendance. Furthermore, determining the overall count of school-age children is challenging, as births are typically not registered until children commence school, particularly in families where marriage is not officially recorded (Asian Development Bank, 2016).

Fig. 3.4

Girls’ net enrolment rate in school, by level (%), 2023

Despite gains in enrolment, figures show that up to 37.3% of girls are out-of-school in the region (see Fig. 3.5). Mostly, the number of out-of-school girls is increasing along with the education level. While out-of-school rates for girls in primary and lower secondary schools are up to 6.9%, the situation worsens at the upper secondary school level, with the exception of Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan exhibited the lowest rate of out-of-school girls at the upper secondary level (4.4%) among Central Asian countries. In Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, 28.9% and 26.3% of girls, respectively, did not attend upper secondary school in 2023. In Tajikistan, the out-of-school rate highlights a notable disparity in upper secondary education access, with twice as many girls (37.3%) as boys (18%) out-of-school (UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 2023a).

Fig. 3.5

Girls’ out-of-school rate (%), 2017–23

Participation in Tertiary Education

Since gaining independence in 1991, and as a legacy of a shared past in the Soviet Union, patterns in female enrolment in tertiary education have remained consistent: both Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan recorded higher enrolments of women in comparison to Uzbekistan and Tajikistan (Sabzalieva, 2016). This trend has endured in the present context (see Fig. 3.6).

Fig. 3.6

Enrolment in tertiary education (%)

While the enrolment of women in tertiary education has traditionally been higher in Kazakhstan compared to other countries in the region, there was a 7.1% decrease in the number of women enrolled in tertiary education between 2010 and 2020 (see Fig. 3.7). In contrast, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan saw increases in the number of women enrolled in tertiary education over the last decade (see Fig. 3.7). Despite a 66.3% increase in the number of women enrolled in tertiary education from 2010 to 2017 in Tajikistan, gender disparity has persisted, with women comprising 42% of the enrolled population compared to 58% for men in 2017. In Uzbekistan, there has been a remarkable growth of 4.7 times in the number of females enrolled in tertiary education since 2010. The gender gap has also narrowed markedly from 37.4% in 2010 to 9.6% in 2023 (UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 2023a). This can be attributed, to some extent, to the increase in university admission quotas, the emergence of new higher education institutions (HEIs) in the country and additional state grants for undergraduate studies for women without previous higher education since 2022 (President of the Republic of Uzbekistan, 2023). The number of universities in the country has also grown significantly, increasing from 77 in 2016 to 213 in 2023 (Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Innovation of the Republic of Uzbekistan, 2023).

Fig. 3.7

Enrolment in tertiary education, all programmes, female, 2010–23

Educational Outcomes

Educational outcomes can be measured quantitatively in terms of completion rates. At all school levels, girls hold a slight edge in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, whereas boys have the advantage in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Overall, all countries have almost reached gender parity in the completion of primary education; in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan, the gender gap is less than 0.3% (UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 2023b). In these countries, girls’ completion rates range from 94.2 to 98.3% at the upper secondary level. There has been a positive global trend in the percentage of the population aged 25 and older with at least some secondary education⁵ since 2000 (see Fig. 3.8) and Central Asian countries are well above the world average figures (UNDP, 2022). Notably, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan show consistently high percentages for both females and males, reaching almost gender parity in 2021 (99–100%).

In Tajikistan, gender disparity increases in line with the educational level, with girls being left behind. At the primary and lower secondary levels, the gender gaps are 0.5% and 2.1% respectively, reaching 15.9% at the upper secondary level. While 98.5% of girls completed primary school, only 69% finished upper secondary school in 2020 (UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 2023b). This means that one in three girls in Tajikistan do not complete upper secondary school. Yet, per Fig. 3.8, Tajikistan also demonstrates a significant increase and closing of the gender gap over the past two decades, although slightly lower compared to other Central Asian countries.

Fig. 3.8

Population with at least some secondary education (age 25 and older) (%), 2000, 2021

In Central Asia, the gross graduation ratio from Bachelor’s and Master’s level degree programmes is higher for women (30.8%) compared to both the global female population (28.4%) and men (23.3%) (UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 2023a). The highest gross graduation ratio for women in the region is 71.6%, observed in Kazakhstan in 2020 (UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 2023a). Regarding the tertiary completion rate, there are more women aged 25–29 who have completed at least four years of higher education than men in Kazakhstan (50%) and Kyrgyzstan (40%) (see Fig. 3.9). In Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, a very low percentage of women aged 25–29 have at least four years of higher education: only 17% of women in Tajikistan, which is half the percentage of men, and just 9% in Uzbekistan. In Uzbekistan, this may connect to historical restrictions on participation in higher education, particularly annual admissions quotas allocated to universities that only began to be lifted in the late 2010s. As recently as 2019–2020, for example, over 1 million applicants applied for undergraduate programmes while state universities were given only 110,095 places, almost 10 times less than the number of applicants (Chuyanova & Zokirova, 2019).

Fig. 3.9

Tertiary completion rate, by gender (%)

Regional Differences in Educational Attainment

Given the varied environmental terrain of the region, with vast rural areas of steppe and mountains, we also examined the differences between the urban and rural educational landscape. At the upper secondary level, the completion rate drops in all four countries, often not in favour of girls in rural areas, except for Kazakhstan (see Fig. 3.10). In Tajikistan specifically, the completion rate for girls at the upper secondary level in rural areas is a point of concern, reported at only 61.5%. Mostly, urban areas tend to have slightly higher completion rates than rural areas, which may reflect differences in educational infrastructure and access.

Fig. 3.10

Upper secondary school completion rates (%) by location and gender

However, in Tajikistan, there are noteworthy educational indicators at the upper secondary school level in the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast’ (Region), or GBAO. GBAO had the lowest rate of out-of-school for both genders at 4%, coupled with the highest completion rate at 95%, while the national average is 2% and 72%, respectively (UNESCO, n.d.). In contrast to this remote and mountainous region, the Regions of Republican Subordination, geographically adjacent to the capital city Dushanbe, have the lowest level of upper secondary level completion (59%), and the highest out-of-school rate (22%) (UNESCO, n.d.). This pattern is also evident at the tertiary education level, where the highest percentage of women aged 25–29 who have completed at least four years of higher education is found in GBAO (55%), while the lowest percentage is observed in the Regions of Republican Subordination (21%) (UNESCO, n.d.).

Gender Differences in Fields of Study

We were unable to source data on Tajikistan for this section.

This section examines gender differences based on fields of study to understand patterns of gendered behaviour in education. To do so, we examine available data on enrolment by field of study in higher education. In line with global data, we appear to find the same two basic gender differences in Central Asian higher education: first, the predominance of females in education fields and second, the overall predominance of males in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). While the STEM gender gap has been well documented globally in relation to the lack of females (e.g., Alam, 2020), less attention has been given to the equally large but reversed sex disparities in subjects related to education, although this has significant implications for the teaching profession as well as broader social discourses on education and schooling.

Using the ten subject areas defined by UNESCO (UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 2015), the most recent data available at the time of writing (see Fig. 3.11) show that across Central Asian countries, the subject area with the highest proportion of female graduates is Education (66–87% female). There are equally high proportions of female graduates in the area of Health and Welfare (74–77%) when focussing on Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. This field of study includes nursing and midwifery, child and elder care, social work, pharmacy, alongside dental studies and medicine. By contrast, there is a large under-representation of female compared to male graduates in Engineering, Manufacturing, and Construction (17.7–28.5% female); and Agriculture, Forestry, Fisheries, and Veterinary (25.9–37.5% female). These subject areas are all areas closely related to STEM, appearing to demonstrate that the global female STEM gap also exists in Central Asia.

Fig. 3.11

Female share of tertiary graduates by field of study (%), 2018

Nevertheless, one important finding across the region that counters international trends is that there are more female than male graduates in fields relating to natural sciences, mathematics, and statistics, with females representing 67% of graduates in this field in Kazakhstan, 72.9% in Kyrgyzstan, and 52.3% in Uzbekistan. This grouping includes biology, biochemistry, environmental sciences, natural environments and wildlife, chemistry, earth sciences, physics, mathematics, and statistics. Overall, however, when all graduates in all STEM subjects are aggregated, the proportion of females drops to 32.9% in Kazakhstan, 31.3% in Kyrgyzstan, and 24.6% in Uzbekistan.

Some differences in fields of study between countries are observable. In Kazakhstan, there are a higher proportion of females graduates from social sciences, journalism, and information courses than in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan (71.2% vs 49.6% and 55%, respectively), where graduates are more evenly spread by gender. On the contrary, in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, there are proportionately fewer female graduates from subjects related to Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and Services than in Kyrgyzstan (30.4%/17.8% vs 47.4% for ICT and 35.3%/31.5% vs 58.7% for Services). In addition, less than a quarter (23.1%) of Business, Administration & Law graduates in Uzbekistan are female, compared to just over half in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

Gender Parity in STEM Has Been Reversed in Kyrgyzstan

In Kazakhstan, the proportion of female STEM graduates was relatively stable between 2010 and 2024, averaging 36.2% per year (Bureau of National Statistics, 2023b). However, a different pattern emerges from the data for Kyrgyzstan (see Fig. 3.12).⁶ At the end of the twentieth century, females made up half of all STEM graduates but twenty years later, the proportion of female STEM graduates had dropped to 31.3%. In this way, gender parity in STEM has been reversed in Kyrgyzstan and the current situation is now more typical of global trends, with fewer than one-third of STEM graduates being female. This seemingly counterintuitive display also tells another story, one of the advances made towards (and beyond, in some cases) gender parity during the Soviet period.

Fig. 3.12

Proportion of female STEM graduates in Kyrgyzstan, 1999–2018

Gender-based data by subject of study is not available for this era, but the data for 1988 shows that overall, 48% of students in HEIs in the Kazakh SSR were female, 46% in the Kyrgyz SSR, 43% in the Tajik SSR, and 44% in the Uzbek SSR (USSR State Statistics Agency, 1989). In the same year, 45% of students graduated from STEM-related subjects (USSR State Statistics Agency, 1989). While it is not possible to extrapolate the precise numbers of female STEM graduates for the late Soviet period, it would be reasonable to assume some level of gender parity. In turn, this helps to explain the equal starting point for the post-Soviet-era data on female STEM graduates in Kyrgyzstan.

The Role of Female Educators: Teachers and Researchers

This section continues the examination of gender-based differentiation, moving from fields of study to the workplace. With the book’s focus on gender equality in education, this section highlights two job roles that are pivotal to the successful functioning of the education system: teachers and researchers. Teaching remains a predominantly female profession in the region, although, mirroring global trends (UNESCO IESALC, 2021), there are fewer female teachers at the tertiary level. A positive story emerges when examining researchers, with Central Asia enjoying the highest proportion of female researchers relative to other world regions. This section also breaks down the proportion of female researchers by field of research, providing another way to understand gender differences in the workplace and within employment sectors.

Female Teachers

Traditionally, teaching has been associated with nurturing and caregiving roles, and the popular belief that women are more nurturing than men has established women as the ideal candidates for the teaching profession (Eisenmann, 2017). Teaching is firmly embedded as a female profession in Central Asian societies and to this day remains predominantly female-led. In Central Asia, with the exception of Tajikistan, 9 out of 10 preschool and primary education teachers are women (UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 2023a). In Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan, there have been no noticeable changes at the preschool education level, with rates remaining higher than 95% since 2000. In Kazakhstan, the number of female teachers in secondary schools has increased from 80.4% in 2000–01 to 86.1% in 2021–22 (Bureau of National Statistics, 2023a). Similarly, in Kyrgyzstan, the percentage of female teachers at this level increased by 9.4%, reaching 78.3% of the total in 2022 (UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 2023a).

From near gender parity among secondary school teachers in Uzbekistan in 2000 (56.6% female), the profession is now dominated by women, with two out of every three secondary school teachers being women (68.3%) (UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 2023a). According to available UIS data, in Tajikistan, female teachers make up 98.3% in pre-primary, 76% in primary school, further declining to 46% in secondary, and 37.3% at tertiary education levels (UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 2023a). Despite this, the proportion of women in the teaching profession has increased over the past two decades, especially at the primary education level, rising from 59.1% in 2000 to 76% in 2017.

Unlike the primary and secondary school levels, women are less represented in tertiary education in Central Asia. Apart from Kazakhstan, female teachers constituted less than 40% of the total in the region in 2000 (see Fig. 3.13). In Kazakhstan, the percentage of female teachers in tertiary education has shown a generally stable trend, starting from 58.3% in 2000 and reaching 65.7% in 2022. The proportion of female teachers in Kyrgyzstan has doubled over the past 20 years, reaching 65.6% in 2022. In Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, female teachers are the minority in tertiary education, and the data indicate a modest increase since 2000, with their percentages not exceeding 37.3% (2017) and 44.6% (2022) respectively.

Fig. 3.13

Female teachers as proportion of all teachers in tertiary education (%), 2000–2022

Female Researchers

Data on the participation of females and males by field of research should be understood within a global context where women are in the minority (UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 2019). Based on the total number of researchers (full-time and part-time) employed in research and development in the public and private sectors, only 29.3% of researchers globally are female (see Fig. 3.14). This figure is lowest for South and West Asia (18.5%) and highest for Central Asia (48.2%). Within the countries of Central Asia, this ranges from gender parity to more unequal representation: 52.8% of researchers in Kazakhstan are female, 46.5% in Kyrgyzstan, 37.5% in Tajikistan, and 40.8% in Uzbekistan (UNESCO, 2021, pp. 122–123). Despite this variation, all four countries have well over the world average for the number of female researchers, which is a very positive finding. According to UNESCO, this may connect with the countries’ recent past: ‘the persistently high ratio of women researchers in many European and Asian countries is a legacy of the Soviet Union, which valued gender equality’ (UNESCO, 2021, p. 117).

Fig. 3.14

Share of female researchers by world region

Within this context, the data for female researchers by field (see Fig. 3.15) demonstrates a mixed picture. Across the five fields of research used by UNESCO (agricultural sciences; engineering and technology; health and welfare; natural sciences; social sciences and humanities), there is no single field where gender parity has been achieved in all countries. The closest is health and welfare, with 49.1% (Kyrgyzstan), 54.3% (Uzbekistan), 61.4% (Tajikistan), and 65.3% (Kazakhstan) of female researchers. This aligns with the general outcome of higher education based on fields of study, where women mainly dominate in this field. In social sciences and humanities research, women are in the majority in Kazakhstan (60.2%) and Kyrgyzstan (54.5%) and gender parity is close in Uzbekistan (47.5%). Uniquely, Kazakhstan has also a female majority in the field of natural sciences, where 53.4% of researchers are female, mirroring the national average (52.8%). The field with fewest female researchers is engineering and technology, ranging from 24.1% in Tajikistan to 44% in Kazakhstan. Again, this mirrors the outcome of higher education where there are fewer female than male graduates in the corresponding fields (Engineering, Manufacturing and Construction, and ICT). In Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, female researchers are in the minority in all fields except health and welfare; in Kyrgyzstan, the only field with more female researchers is social sciences and humanities.

Fig. 3.15

Female researchers as a share of total researchers by field (%), 2018

Translating Female Educational Achievements into Societal Leadership

In this section, we investigate the extent to which educational achievements by women in Central Asia are translating into societal leadership. In theoretical terms, the greater the number of highly educated women, the more gender-balanced society becomes, as women are better equipped to take up leadership roles. In practice, this is not the case—not in Central Asia and not in any other world region—due to macro-level structural sexism that entrenches sex-based discrimination into societal frameworks and results ‘in fairly predictable disparities in social outcomes related to power, resources, and opportunities’ (Javidan, 2021, p. 1). Female participation in the labour force in Kazakhstan is quite high (63.3%), although Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan exhibit notable gender gaps in labour force participation, indicating disparities in economic engagement between genders. Female participation figures drop to 44.9% in Uzbekistan, 42.1% in Kyrgyzstan, and 30.2% in Tajikistan (UNDP, 2022). Of the three macro job sectors—services, agriculture, and industry—the majority of Central Asian women who work are in the services industry (73.8% in Kazakhstan, 67.3% in Kyrgyzstan, and 64.3% in Uzbekistan) and in Tajikistan, the majority of women work in agriculture (59.5%) (World Bank, 2022).

Choice of field of study (as explored above) and, subsequently, choice of occupation have significant consequences for earning potential, contributing to the gender pay gap which continues to exist despite some improvements over the past two decades (Ortiz-Ospina & Roser, 2019). In global financial terms, the pay gap is stark: according to the UN, women only make 77 cents for every dollar earned by men (UN Women, n.d.). This 77% figure is the same in Kyrgyzstan, although it varies by region, ranging from 62.5% in Talas region to 93.1% in Issyk Kul (United Nations Kyrgyz Republic, 2021). Furthermore, occupations considered to be more ‘female’ such as caregiving, early years teaching, and secretarial work, continue to be devalued, leading to lower prestige and more limited options (conscious or otherwise) for women to occupy or be seen to be belonging to societal power structures (Crawley, 2014). In settings such as the United States, these perceptions have become less biased over time but implicit and intersectional biases persist, perpetuating discrimination (Crawley, 2014). Similarly, in Central Asia, although Soviet-era legislation banning women from certain jobs was finally lifted in 2021 in Kazakhstan, outdated gender stereotypes remain, often in families, and women are still not treated as equals in the workplace (Almukhambetova & Kuzhabekova, 2021; Kamidola, 2021).

With these system-level barriers in mind, we examined data on female leaders in three important societal sectors: HEI leadership, business (private sector), and government to see whether general trends are also reflected in these areas.

HEI Leadership

As establishments at the pinnacle of the formal education system, Rectors (leaders of HEIs) occupy important and visible leadership roles. In Central Asia, Rectors of publicly funded HEIs have been historically appointed directly by the government. Although this practice is being phased out in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, the connection between government and higher education remains close. This connection adds significance to the role of the Rector. This notwithstanding, data on Rectors based on gender has not, to our knowledge, ever been collected before. As such, for this chapter, we collected data from all 407 public and private HEIs⁷ in the region and found that women are in a small minority in all countries (see Fig. 3.16), from just 5.3% of the total in both Tajikistan and Uzbekistan to 26.1% in Kazakhstan. This data demonstrates for the first time the sizeable distance that remains to achieve gender equality in Central Asian higher education, which is ‘problematic both from a social justice and an organizational perspective given the increasing evidence that the more women executives an organization has, the better it performs’ (UNESCO IESALC, 2021, p. 32). Although global data is not systematically collected, evidence from other regions suggests that around 15–20% of Rectors are female (UNESCO IESALC, 2021) and in this light, the figure from Kazakhstan suggests a more positive track from which other countries could learn.

Fig. 3.16

Proportion of female Rectors, 2024

Business Leadership

While there are several metrics to measure female leadership in the private sector, data for most Central Asian countries is lacking (e.g., data on employment in senior and middle management is only available for Kyrgyzstan). The most complete and also longitudinal data relates to firms with female top managers (see Fig. 3.17). This presents a very varied landscape within Central Asia, with Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan having considerably more female-led firms than in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. In Kyrgyzstan, the number of firms with female top managers has increased by almost 10% during the decade under study, from 23% in 2009 to 32.9% in 2019. A small increase in Kazakhstan means that the current figure sits at 26%. Despite significant domestic reform since a change of President in 2016, Uzbekistan has only increased the number of female top managers by 1% for a total of 12.4%. While disappointingly small, this is almost double the figure from Tajikistan, where only 6.6% of firms have a female top manager. Worryingly, this number has decreased from 11.8% over the past decade. Evidently, gains in education are not felt equally in the private sector in Central Asia, least of all in Tajikistan.

Fig. 3.17

Firms with female top managers, 2009–19

Government Leadership

If the data on business leadership suggests material changes are much needed to improve the culture and opportunities for women, statistics from government leadership show some promise in terms of change over time. All four countries have seen increases in the proportion of seats held by women in national parliaments since the start of the twenty-first century, although the current rates of between 20 and 35% are similar to that of business leadership (Fig. 3.18). The longer-term prospects for the representation of women may be improved as a result of gender quotas in three of the four countries. Kazakhstan introduced gender quotas in 2020 for the Mazhilis (House of Representatives, the lower of two houses), mandating parties to select at least 30% women; Kyrgyzstan has a similar 30% quota in its parliament, Jogorku Kenesh (Supreme Council), but only for part of the proportional representation system (International IDEA, 2022). Uzbekistan also has a 30% quota applicable to both houses of parliament (the Oliy Majlis or Supreme Assembly and the Senate) (International IDEA, 2022). Tajikistan does not have quotas and while participation in politics is ostensibly gender neutral, in fact, there are ‘excessive requirements for women preventing them from political participation… [that do] not take into account their low economic and educational status compared to men’ (Turakhanova, 2021, no page number).

Fig. 3.18

Proportion of seats held by women in national parliaments, 2000–22

Conclusion

This chapter has presented a wealth of data on current and emerging issues in gender equality in education in Central Asia. Based primarily on data from UNESCO, the Gender Data Portal, the Gender Inequality Index, and national sources, the chapter included statistics on a wide range of indicators. Starting with the gendered educational landscape, the chapter also explored gender difference in fields of study, the role of female educators, and extended the investigation by examining whether educational gains are translating into societal leadership.

Kazakhstan is, by some measure, the most gender-equal country in the region and, in many respects, has stronger rates of educational participation and outcomes for all students. Both male and female students complete more years of education than the other countries in the region and, correspondingly, far fewer girls are out-of-school. Similarly, both female and male students are more likely to complete tertiary education than in the other countries. While Kyrgyzstan leads in female business leadership and Uzbekistan has more females in government leadership, Kazakhstan has an extremely high proportion of female HEI leaders—not only compared to the region, but in global perspective. The figure is far from being gender equal, but is a very promising emerging trend.

Kyrgyzstan presents a contrasting situation. On the one hand, it blends high (and increasing) levels of female participation, e.g., in tertiary education, teaching at school and tertiary levels, and business leadership. On the other hand, there are marked educational differences for females compared to males in urban and rural locations and the lowest rate of female participation in government leadership in the region. Despite the strength of the Soviet legacy in education and science, a more recent trend in Kyrgyzstan has been the reversal of gender parity in STEM, bringing the country more closely in line with global patterns of female under-representation.

Tajikistan has the highest level of gender inequality in education in Central Asia, which is reflected both in lower rates of female participation relative to the other countries in the region as well as lower rates of attainment for females compared to males in the country. With fewer than half of girls enrolling in upper secondary school, the knock-on effects are clearly visible, both in the number as well as the lower proportion of females than males in tertiary education. The exception of the GBAO region notwithstanding, the drop-off of females starting from lower secondary and accelerating beyond that decreases opportunities for women to take up meaningful positions in society and could reinforce existing gender-based discrimination.

Uzbekistan emerges as a country that has made remarkable gains in gender equality in recent years, a testament to what is possible with concerted reform efforts. As a statistical contribution, this chapter cannot demonstrate whether the numeric gains for girls and women in Uzbekistan are being accompanied by structural change, which would be necessary for gender equality to become institutionalized. The astonishing growth in the size of the higher education system in Uzbekistan has led to a nearly five-fold increase in the number of female students since 2010, which is one of the stand-out findings of this chapter. In conjunction with this and other changes, the gender gap has been significantly reduced from almost 40% to under 10% in 2023.

These brief country summaries and comparisons serve to highlight some of the key issues for gender equality in education in Central Asia. While the chapter can be read as a standalone contribution and puts forward some statistics for the first time, we end by sounding a warning note. Data is not neutral: from the (possibly deliberate) lack of collection and/or availability of some indicators to the choice of measurements to be included (or excluded), statistics always reflect a series of decisions and processes that are human-led and therefore inevitably subjective. Furthermore, as noted above in the context of Uzbekistan, data does not capture the root causes or structural effects of gender inequality and can dislocate women’s experiences by reducing complex lives to simple statistics (Fuentes & Cookson, 2020). This is not an argument against using data, but it is a call to be more attentive to the choices that are made even before statistics are published and to be critically conscious of the power that data can convey.