Blog – Why policies encouraging women from Kazakhstan to decrease their work hours are at odds with what women want

March 18, 2025 S-P-A-Administrator News, SPA Blog 0

By Dr. Moldir Kabylova, University of Nottingham. Image credit: Moldir Kabylova.

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Being used to hearing nationalistic and misogynistic slogans from members of the Kazakhstan government that would make headlines in local news, I was not taken aback by the deputy Karakat Abden’s policy suggestion to shorten women’s working hours in the country. She believes that this will “help strengthen the institution of family; working women will be able to pay more attention to raising children.” (Tengrinews, 2024).

While men and women alike would like to achieve a better work-life balance internationally, this overtly gendered focus on women as caregivers reflects an unwelcome return to traditional gendered roles and responsibilities. Kazakh women today are still depicted as ‘mistress of the house’ and ‘keepers of domestic fire’ who are responsible for household and childcare, whereas men’s function includes being providers, protectors and engaged in outside business (Naizabayeva, Garifolla and Mukhanbet, 2022).

Karakat Abden’s comments demonstrate that women play one of the key roles in the state agenda for strengthening national identity and ‘going back to roots’ after decades of communism and the domination of Russians during the Soviet Union since 1917. Women are portrayed as caring nurturing mothers taking care of nuclear and extended family members. As mothers, their main responsibility is to sustain a ‘pure’ reputation in order to give children an appropriate upbringing and pass on the national heritage consisting of traditions, language, religion and beliefs (Naizabayeva, Garifolla and Mukhanbet, 2022;  Kudaibergenova, 2018, 2020; Zhussipbek and Nagayeva, 2021).

There is a certain irony that Karakat Abden, who has advocated for reclaiming the traditional role and national identity of Kazakh women, is herself a woman successfully striving for professional growth. She made a career in politics and resides in the Majilis as a deputy, a position equivalent to a member of the Parliament in the United Kingdom. She is an entrepreneur who opened the first educational center for girls in the capital of Kazakhstan in 2014.

Yet somewhat paradoxically, she is also the author of a controversial book; ‘You are a Kazakh woman! Be proud of it!’ published in 2019 that has been critiqued for promoting nationalistic and sexist ideas.

‘Now the whole world assures that your future husband will not care whether you are a virgin or not… He will care’.

‘Kazakh girls never rushed ahead of or dominated a man, as is customary in the West, and we’re not keen on feminism. We don’t need this.’

These and her other recent statements indicate her favouring of women’s lower status in society where they are subservient to men and their families. This is normalised and presented as a superior way of living compared to the alien ‘harmful’ feministic values influenced from the West.

The ‘Women’s Institute of Cultural and Moral Education ‘Kazakh Girl’’ teaches national etiquette, traditions, home economics, sewing, psychology and social skills for girls aged between 8-18 (The Village Kazakhstan, 2019). But the most interesting question is how she managed to achieve those accomplishments while raising 5 children of her own. Based on the cultural and material capital of her husband Bolat Otenov, the son of Atyrau mayor and successful businessman, one can presume that she received support with childcare from her family to climb the career ladder (Tengrinews, 2019). Yet she advocates for reduced paid hours for women to return them to traditional roles as homemakers.

My research findings and lived experience confirm that reducing work hours and reinforcing women’s roles as caregivers is not what many mothers in Khazakstan desire. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, which saw rise of detraditionalization and re-Islamization (Kudaibergenova, 2018, 2020; Zhussipbek and Nagayeva, 2021, 2023; Kabylova, 2022, 2022A), women in Kazakhstan have been increasingly re-domesticated and reinforced on traditional gender roles of wives, daughters-in-law and mothers. Nevertheless, the findings from my PhD show that rising costs of living and lack of support from the state and markets mean it is increasingly necessary for women to become second breadwinners despite their beliefs in sustaining some elements of traditional gender roles. The women in my research are reconsidering their conservative values after seeing benefits that financial independence is bringing to their daily lives such as more decision-making power and professional self-fulfillment.

Yet, mothers continue to face challenges to reconcile motherhood and paid work not only in Kazakhstan, but in the United Kingdom as well due to constrained support from the state and family. When I landed on the British soil as a PhD candidate to research the topic of women reconciling motherhood and paid work, I was full of positive expectations about how working mothers manage and strive in the United Kingdom. Coming from Kazakhstan, a patriarchal, predominantly Muslim by population and developing country located in the heart of Central Asia, I presumed mothers had it easy in the UK because of its more liberal values and developed welfare state system and economy.

After experiencing life of a parent raising children aged under 8 first-hand while studying full-time and working in England, reality hit me hard, which resulted in reconsidering my assumptions about the United Kingdom and reevaluating my critical stance on my home country Kazakhstan. In both countries, state efforts to support families (or not!) might look different but the creation of the need for dual earner households sits at odds with efforts to re-traditionalise work and care, placing unique pressures on women in their attempts to balance both.

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Dr. Moldir Kabylova, University of Nottingham

Dr. Moldir kabylova is an early career researcher interested in family policy broadly, and the interplay of the state, market and family in women’s balancing motherhood and paid work. Her X (former twitter) is @MoldirQabyl and LinkedIn is Moldir Kabylova.