WEF Gender Gap Report 2024: Kazakhstan's mixed results highlight areas for improvement in gender equality
Kazakhstan is ranked 76th out of 146 nations in the World Economic Forum's (WEF) Gender Gap Report 2024, with a score of 0.710. The WEF's yearly evaluation of the status and advancement of gender equality published in the Global Gender Gap Report was first released in 2006 and focuses on four important areas—health, education, economy, and politics. Iceland is number one on the list once more, followed by Finland, Norway, and New Zealand, Kazinform News Agency correspondent reports.
Kazakhstan holds a notable position in the Eurasia and Central Asia area, ranking 76th with a parity rate of 71%. The top three performing nations in the area were Kazakhstan (71%), Georgia (71.6%), and Armenia (72.1%), ranked 64th and 69th, respectively. Kazakhstan received the best possible score in the "level of education" category, 0.999 out of 1. The nation scored highly in the area of survival and health as well, with 0.976, though it did not do as well in the areas of "political empowerment" and "economic participation and opportunity”.
There has been progress in closing the gender wage gap, UNDP Kazakhstan reports that in 2021, the gender wage gap shrank from 34.2% in 2018 to 21.7%, but in 2022, the disparity rose to 25.2% once more. According to statistics from the Bureau of National Statistics, Kazakhstan's gender disparity index has changed recently with a score of 0.357 in 2022, which was better than it was in prior years. The measure was higher in 2021 (0.441) than in 2020 (0.426), 2019 saw the lowest degree of inequality in the previous four years, with an index of 0.351.
Over 10 million women now live in Kazakhstan, accounting for 52% of the nation's total population. The percentage of women in the population has changed over the last several years, going from 51.62% in 2017 to 51.43% in 2022. The regions with the greatest concentration of women are Turkistan, Almaty, and Almaty, while the region in North Kazakhstan has the lowest concentration of women. Kostanay (52.4%), Pavlodar (52.5%), and Almaty (54.2%) have the highest proportion of female residents.
Until 2030, Kazakhstan will continue to actively implement the Concept of Family and Gender Policy, legislation with a goal to ensure equal rights and opportunities for men and women was passed in Kazakhstan in 2009. The Concept of Family and Gender Policy until 2030 was authorized by the previous President in 2016, with the goal of achieving parity and doing away with gender discrimination in all aspects of society in order to further support and advance women's rights and opportunities, current efforts are concentrated on modernizing this idea.
