female candidates are expected to have almost equal chances to be appointed or elected to the leading position in the economic sector.
The voters are also more likely to support the female candidate at the age of 37 than the younger (33 y.o.) or the older (45 y.o) female candidates. This happens due to the respect for age that is widely spread in Central Asia. While 45-years-old women are considered as old and are discriminated by the society, employees and even when they want to take a loan from the banks (The Village 2020), 33-years-old women are considered to be not experienced enough. Thus, the appropriate age for the female politician to be evaluated as competent for work is from 35 to 40 years, whereas for their male colleagues it is much longer lifetime period.
The findings also demonstrate that Russian male politicians are evaluated more positively for the field of security. This output demonstrates that there is a basis for further studies on ethnic trait stereotypes about the politicians in Kazakhstan. For instance, several Western scholars demonstrated that Black politicians are believed to be more liberal and more competent in such issues as unemployment and poverty.
Regarding the voter’s gender preferences, I found out that the voter’s level of gender stereotypes is a key variable that has significant influence on the voter’s choice. At the same time, gender baseline preference expression varies depending on the voter’s language of preference. For instance, Russian-speaking voters are more likely to express gender baseline preference. They also evaluate the male candidates more positively, while Kazakh-speaking voters almost do not express certain gender preferences over the candidates. Such behavior of Kazakh speaking voters may be explained in two different ways: 1) The results are relevant for local elections only and, in the case of Presidential elections, we will not observe the same results. According to Fox and Oaxley (2003), the voters believe that women tend to deal with local issues better than men, women are also believed to be more honest than men. 2) The
experiment was conducted within the students who are considered as the representatives of the most liberal universities in Kazakhstan (Bigozhin (2019). Thus, the results obtained from other universities, that are not that exposed to the Western education and post-modern values, may demonstrate less positive evaluation of the female politicians.
This study is significant not only for Kazakhstani society, but it also contributes to the existing studies on perception of the female politicians. This study shows how the Nazarbayev generation’s constructed gender roles influenced their perception of women in politics. It also provides valuable data about the political attitudes of the young generation in Kazakhstan and aims to demonstrate how its perception of the female politicians has changed during the years of independence.
The proposed research contributes to knowledge building on the perception of the female politicians in non-Western countries, under authoritarian rule. It demonstrates that many findings explored by the Western scholars before are applicable to the case of Kazakhstani voters as well. At the same time, we observe that the revival of traditional gender roles and patriarchic values in the years of independence affected the construction of the attitudes to the female politicians in a unique case of Kazakhstani society (Tatkeyeva 2018). Although we observe significant improvements of women engagement in politics in contrast to the study conducted in 1998 (Herrick and Sapieva), gender stereotypes about women in politics still exist in Kazakhstani society and become a barrier for the engagement of the female politicians in decision-making processes.
There is very limited amount of the studies on the differences in political attitudes of Kazakh-speaking and Russian-speaking voters in Kazakhstan. This research demonstrates that the sphere of ethnic stereotypes and language-based preferences of the voters can be studied in the context of Kazakhstan. Language politics has always been a significant
component of nation-building process in Kazakhstan. Thus, we observe that it has affected the construction of political attitudes of the Kazakhstani electorate.
7.1 Limitations of the research and recommendations for further studies
In this section, I will discuss several limitations of this study. First of all, the implications of this survey experiment need to be confirmed through further research. This study also may provide valuable data for further studies not only on gender and ethnic stereotypes, but also on political marketing in Kazakhstan. Although the young generation in Kazakhstan grew up under the rule of authoritarian leader Nursultan Nazarbayev, they have some preferences over the certain types of the politicians in different policy domains. For instance, there are several hypothetical politicians, which are more attractive for the respondent than the other candidates. Further studies of ethnic trait stereotypes regarding the policy domains are also prospective in the context of Kazakhstan. To sum up, further studies might be conducted on the ethnicity, language, age, ideology and appearance of the hypothetical candidates.
Secondly, my study was conducted within a population which is not representative of the nation as a whole. First of all, the results of the research are relevant for the young generation only. Secondly, the representative sample of the Kazakh-speaking respondents is relatively small (25%) and requires further studies on Kazakh-speaking voters’ attitudes toward the female politicians. Thirdly, the sample of the respondents from the minority ethnic groups including Russians is less than 10%. This does not allow to make any conclusions about the perception of the female politicians by the minority groups in Kazakhstan.
Moreover, the sample is mostly represented with the students from more cosmopolitan and liberal cities and universities of Kazakhstan. The respondents are more likely to share post- modern values and are more exposed to the Western education. Thus, I expect that in other
universities and regions, the results may demonstrate less positive attitude toward the female politicians due to the higher level of gender stereotypes.
Furthermore, during the experiment, some of the participants refused to participate due to limited information provided about the hypothetical candidates. They mentioned that it is important for them to know about the politicians’ previous work experience and education.
This means that some of the students cannot use information about gender and ethnicity as a source of information for evaluation of the candidate. Despite the explanation in the beginning of the survey that the candidates are not real politicians, some of the respondent tried to find them on the Internet in order to evaluate them basing on some additional information. This means that in the future researches, the biography of the hypothetical candidates might be replaced by the speech or photo of the politician in order to avoid such misunderstanding.
Appendix Methodology
Geography: 2 cities, Almaty and Nur-Sultan
Universities: International IT University (Almaty); Nazarbayev University (Nur-Sultan) Total amount of observations: 372 observations
Form of survey: Online survey experiment
Amount of questions: 14 socio-economic questions + 4 candidates for evaluation The survey was provided in Russian, Kazakh and English languages.
The length of the survey: 10-15 minutes
Dates: October 2019 in IT University (Almaty); January-March 2020 in Nazarbayev University (Nur-Sultan)
Questions
1. Please indicate your gender o Male (1)
o Female (0)
2. Please indicate your age
3. Please, indicate the degree you are pursuing to obtain o Undergraduate School
o College
o Graduate School
4. Please indicate the region or city in Kazakhstan where you have spent the most part of your life.
o Almaty o Nur-Sultan o East Kazakhstan o West Kazakstan o Central Kazakhstan o North Kazakhstan o South Kazakhstan
5. The member of which ethnic group do you consider yourself to be part of?
o Kazakh o Russian
o _____________
6. How much income does your household expected to receive per month? (Include income of all of your family members: salaries, pensions, and other payments from other sources)
o < 150 000 (1)
o Between 150 000 and 300 000 (2) o Between 300 000 and 450 000 (3) o Between 450 000 and 600 000 (4) o More than 600 000 (5)
7. How do you rate your household's economic situation today?
o Very bad (1) o Somewhat bad (2) o Somewhat good (3) o Very good (4)
8. How much do you agree with the following statement: “Men make better political leaders
than women do”?
o Strongly disagree (1) o Disagree (2)
o Agree (3)
o Strongly agree (4)
9. How much do you agree with the following statement: “A job is alright but what most women really want is a home and children”
o Strongly disagree (1) o Disagree (2)
o Agree (3)
o Strongly agree (4)
10. How much do you agree with the following statement: “A university education is more important for a boy than for a girl”
o Strongly disagree (1) o Disagree (2)
o Agree (3)
o Strongly agree (4)
11. How much do you agree with the following statement “a woman has to have children in order to be fulfilled?”
o Strongly disagree (1) o Disagree (2)
o Agree (3)
o Strongly agree (4)
13. People sometimes describe themselves as belonging to the working class, the middle class, or the upper or lower class. Would you describe yourself as belonging to the:
o Lower class (1)
o Lower middle class (2) o Upper middle class (3) o Upper class (4)
14. Which language is more convenient for you?
o Kazakh (1) o Russian (0)
Survey Experiment:
We suggest you to read the following biographies of the politicians, evaluate the competence of each candidate with the help of 0 to 100 scale for certain positions. (0 = not competent at all;
25 = not competent enough; 75 = competent enough; 100 = very competent)
Kadyrova Zaure Zhussupovna/ Kelemseiyt Ermek Abilmazhinuly is a 37-year-old
politician. Imagine that s/he was appointed to the position of akim, married, has 2 children.
How competent is this candidate for the position of akim at your hometown in a near future?
Evaluate the candidate’s issue competence to handle three following policy areas:
Security Economics Education Labor and Social Protection
Kotovich Valeriya Nikolayevna / Yegorov Viktor Nikolaevich is a 45-year-old politician.
Imagine that s/he was appointed to the position of akim, married, no children.
How competent is this candidate for the position of akim at your hometown in a near future?
Evaluate the candidate’s issue competence to handle three following policy areas:
Security Economics Education Labor and Social Protection
Alimzhanov Isakhan Moldakhanovich/ Kaldygulova Saniya Mussaevna is a 33-year-old politican. Imagine that s/he was appointed to the position of akim. Not married, no children.
How competent is this candidate for the position of akim at your hometown in a near future?
Evaluate the candidate’s issue competence to handle three following policy areas:
Security Economics Education Labor and Social Protection
Ryabova Tatyana Grigoriyevna / Ivanov Viktor Mikhailovich is a 56-year-old politician.
Imagine that s/he was appointed to the position of akim. Divorced, has three children.
How competent is this candidate for the position of akim at your hometown in a near future?
Evaluate the candidate’s issue competence to handle three following policy areas:
Security Economics Education Labor and Social Protection
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