Title: Gender in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan - results of a survey of households

Authors: Eckhard Dittrich; Heiko Schrader

Addresses: Department of Sociology, Otto-von-Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany ' Department of Sociology, Otto-von-Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany

Abstract: The authors investigated households in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, and within them, gender relations as a contested terrain between tradition, post-soviet labour policy, modernisations, and the resurgence of religiousness. Empirically, we studied gender relations mainly through in-depth explorations of how the household members take decisions, resolve conflicts and divide labour. An outcome of the study is that - in spite of modernisation of life on the macro level of the societies, strong traditional believes are maintained, but negotiations about assets, positions and decisions occur. Thus, some households display more egalitarian gender relations by often maintaining a patriarchal façade on the front-stage but replacing it by democratic regulations on the backstage

Keywords: Kazakhstan; Kyrgyzstan; household; gender; livelihoods.

DOI: 10.1504/IJGSDS.2018.093306

International Journal of Gender Studies in Developing Societies, 2018 Vol.2 No.4, pp.316 - 335

Received: 22 Aug 2017
Accepted: 24 Mar 2018
Published online: 24 Jul 2018 *

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