NUR-SULTAN — Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev emphasized the importance of ensuring women’s rights and creating conditions for female empowerment at the experts’ meeting on Measures and Tools to Expand the Economic Opportunities of Women on March 3, reported Tokayev’s spokesperson Berik Uali.
Photo credits: Berik Uali.
“The women’s share employed in small and medium-sized businesses in Kazakhstan has exceeded 43 percent. Due to the women’s entrepreneurship, more than 1 million citizens are provided with permanent jobs,” Tokayev said.
The country’s progress depends mostly on ensuring the rights of women, creating the necessary conditions for the full realization of their potential, he added.
Over the 30 years of its independence, Kazakhstan has achieved key results in this area. Kazakhstan ranked 51st in the UN Gender Development Index in 2019. It is a good indicator in the existing classification. Kazakhstan ranked 37th out of 153 countries in the 2019 World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap Index in 2019, as Tokayev himself noted.
Tokayev said that supporting motherhood and childhood as well as strengthening family and traditions are the long-term priorities of Kazakhstan’s social policy.
“Women in Kazakhstan are getting more involved in social and political life, participating in public administration and decision-making. It is a positive trend. Last year, a gender quota was introduced in the electoral lists of political parties,” he added.
Women’s contribution in the development of the social sphere is key. Women who occupy positions as doctors, teachers, social workers, were at the frontlines during the most challenging times of the pandemic, Tokayev added.
