How actively do women participate in the political and public life of the Republic of Kazakhstan?

Postdoctoral fellow of the Department of Political Science, scientific director of the project "Increasing the role and participation of women in the political life of Kazakhstan" Serikzhanova Aigerim organized a webinar through the platform ZOOM. The topic of the webinar was "Women's participation in political and public life of the Republic of Kazakhstan". The webinar was also attended by young scientists, representatives of NGOs, activists.

Moderator of the webinar was Aigerim Serikzhanova, who in turn shared the interim results of the study, as well as talked about the results of the conducted sociological survey among experts including.

Speakers of the webinar were Zhanar Sankhayeva, Head of the Political Research Department of KISI under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, who spoke on "Women's Participation in Elections"; Elena Shvetsova, Executive Director, co-founder of the Public Foundation "Erkindik qanaty" - "Women's Political Rights"; Zarina Gusman, entrepreneur, founder of the Body Pro network - "Women in Business".

Zhanar Sankhayeva spoke about the participation of women in the elections of rural akims, and also noted that foreign studies show that currently there is a trend around the world, when women have low political ambitions, in connection with which they decide not to run for office.

Elena Shvetsova shared the research of the Public Foundation "Erkindik qanaty", also noted that "traditional values that exist in the country prevent girls, women from fully participating in the management of state affairs", and spoke about the legal provision of women's participation in the political life of the country, both national and international norms. Also according to E. Shvetsova, despite the fact that from the legal point of view all political rights are guaranteed, however, in fact, "the representation of women in state and political bodies in our country is quite low".

According to Zarina Gusman, the representation of women in politics is growing every year, and "the situation in business is much better. According to the speaker, the country is implementing special programs aimed at the development of women's entrepreneurship. However, Z. Gusman noted that in the world "90% of male investors are still inclined to invest exclusively in male companies", also in Kazakhstan.