Gender Discrimination in Top Executive Positions in Kazakhstan: Survey of Female Bank and Government Office Workers

Gender Discrimination in Top Executive Positions in Kazakhstan: Survey of Female Bank and Government Office Workers

 

Kazakhstan Institute of Management, Economics, and Strategic Research

 

Gender Discrimination in Top Executive Positions in Kazakhstan: Survey of Female Bank and Government Office Workers

 

 
Nuguzhinova Assel 

ID 20111166

 

Academic Reading & Writing 2 – GEN 1121

 

Juldyz Smagulova

 

Almaty, Spring Semester 2012

 

Introduction

Nowadays, Kazakhstan is considered to be a country with fast economic growth that can easily be counted as one of the leading Central Asian countries in terms of development. However, some social issues are still current and are not investigated properly. Women discrimination in workplaces is a bright example. According to Khassanova (2000), men often discriminate women at workplaces and do not allow them to occupy top executive positions. Very little research has been made in order to look into this issue, however, it is a crucial point that needs to be considered carefully in order to bring equality for both genders and give everyone equal opportunities for career growth and development.

The main reason why women face these issues cannot be easily identified; in fact, women face a number of barriers that prevent them from occupying top executive positions. One of the major barriers is prejudices and gender biases, as well as the pressure to combine family with work. This research paper’s primary focus is identifying, first of all, the degree of discrimination that women feel in their workplace, and then analyzing the reasons why women do not occupy as many top leadership positions as men, and determining what could be done in order to assess this issue properly (Lune, 2008).

This is a very current problem because in the pursuit for democracy and international acknowledgement, it is very important to provide equal opportunities for development to all Kazakhstani citizens, both for women and men. People should be judged by their knowledge, experience, and skills, and not according to their gender. According to Lune (2008), the percentage of women at top positions in Kazakhstan is lesser than 10%, and their salaries are lower than those of men by 35-55%, which makes a significant difference. Women in Kazakhstan should be given the right to be able to climb up their career ladders as quickly and effectively as men, this in the end would be beneficial for the society as a whole. For example, it would enable organization to diversify their employee staff which would allow them to be more open to new perspectives and opportunities, because different views and ideas allow of a grasp of a wider picture. In order to look into this issue closely, the following research questions have been developed:

• To what extent do women face discrimination at workplaces such as banks and governmental organization in Almaty?
• Is it easier for men than for women to climb up the career path and occupy a top executive position?
• What are the main reasons behind it in the eyes of the female office workers in banks and government organizations?

For this research paper, surveys have been chosen as a quantitative research tool. The reason behind this is because surveys enables for a fast and precise information collection for any research topic. Moreover, surveys allow for inclusion of both close-ended and open-ended questions, which makes the results and the outcome of the research more diverse and gives a lot of details. In addition, the information taken from surveys can be easily managed and organized, which allows for a faster analysis of the results. The surveys will be distributed both electronically and physically amongst women aged from 25 to 40, who occupy various positions in banks and governmental bodies in Almaty. The sample size is 25-30 people, this number was chosen because it is reasonable enough for considering the physical limitations of conducting a research, but at the same time it is large enough to analyze the data and to make certain conclusions. This age group was chosen in order to address the problem from different perspectives, both from those women who have just started their careers and do not have significant working experience, and both from women who have been working in organization for a long time and who can assess their career path and growth over the years.

This research paper starts with an introduction to the problem of why women occupy fewer executive positions in organization compared to men, and gives explanation of why this issue is current. Additionally, it explains the research methodology and addresses the key factors that would be investigated in the research. It is followed by literature review which analyzes the trends, the situation worldwide and what is already being done in order to eliminate the described problem. Afterwards, the study will focus on field research based on conducted surveys and analysis of the outcome. First the results of the conducted survey will be presented in numbers supported by pie charts, and then the results will be analyzed and summarized in order to critically assess the issues discussed in this paper. Finally, the report ends with a conclusion that summarizes the main points discussed and reviews the outcomes of the research identified.

 

Literature Review

Women have fought for decades for equal opportunities and equal treatment as men. According to Henrekson and Stenkula (2009), during the twentieth century, the situation has changed dramatically and the world has embraced the idea of gender equality. They continue with saying that only two-three generations ago women in most countries were forced to occupy only low-paid jobs and were not allowed to occupy any administrative positions. Over the past few years the women’s share in highly-paid professions has increased drastically and the women’s labor force today is comparable to men’s. However, despite these improvements, women’s presence in certain key economic sectors is still low. The brightest example is the top executive management in firms (Henrekson and Stenkula, 2009). Henrekson and Stenkula (2009) suggest that this is due to the fact that women still face discrimination in workplaces and are not treated equally as men.

Gender Discrimination and Tendencies towards Change

Gender based discrimination is the different action or different treatment of a person which would not occur if the person was of a different gender (Manohar, 2012). There are several forms of gender discrimination that occur at workplaces. Manohar (2012) defines them as direct, indirect, harassment, and victimization. Direct discrimination occurs when a person is treated differently at workplaces based on their gender; it includes cases when there are obvious differences in salaries for people that are doing the same work but who are of different genders, or when someone gets promoted based on their gender when there is another person with equal set of skills and experience. Indirect discrimination is the act of indirectly implying that representatives of a particular gender cannot engage in certain activities. Harassment at workplaces is the kind of discrimination that can cause emotional or psychological trauma and causes the most harm to a person. It includes sexual or verbal harassment or inferior treatment. Finally, the last type of gender discrimination is victimization, which is the unfair or biased treatment of a particular person based on their gender (Manohar, 2012). All four types of discrimination are still faced by women in the modern society.

Most of the time, the disparity between men and women are reflected in the salaries, as states Godbole (2011). According to the statistics provided by the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics, women working 41-44 hours per week own around 85% of what men earn when working in the same conditions and similar hours. The numbers get worse when it comes to women working up to 60 hours per week, as they earn only 78% of what men earn under same conditions (Wiley-Blackwell, 2009).

Wolfe (2008) claims that even though women are not starting and running more businesses than men, and are the majority of degree-holders, women still dominate only in the areas or business that are traditionally considered to be “female”: teaching, nursing, retail, office administration etc. This is supported by the statistics provided by CNN Money (2011), which showed that in 2011, there were only 12 female executives running Fortune 500 companies. This number has not changed drastically during the course of the past 5-6 years and the number of female executives always varied between 10-15 (CNN Money, 2011).

 

Policies and Social Factors that Affect Female Discrimination Globally

In order to adequately assess the problem of female discrimination in workplaces, it is important to consider all of the aspects of discrimination that women face in various other public institutions such as education and labor force. This section of the paper also looks into the policies and legislation acts that have been passed in order to protect women’s rights for equal job opportunities as men.

Gender Discrimination in Education

Wolfe (2008) believes that women face challenged since childhood, by being brought up in an environment when they are told that they are only fit for certain types of professions and they cannot be successful by occupying a “male” profession. Wolfe (2008) also believes that the lines between male and female professions are drawn through childhood to adulthood, and the constant messages that women receive throughout their lives forces them to think that they are not fit for the top executives world. As women go through stages in their lives, as Wolfe (2008) claims, they are constantly being discriminated and even pressured to pursue only a certain type of careers.

It could be argued that women do not get promoted to top executive positions because they are less educated or less qualified than men. However, women today earn more degrees than men on any level, moreover, they show better performance and receive higher grades, claims Wolfe (2008). Godbole (2011) supports this by citing the Glass Ceiling Commission, a government-funded group, which stated the “Over half of all Master’s Degrees are now awarded to women”, however, they also add that: “yet 95% of senior-level managers, of the top Fortune 1000 industrial and 500 service companies are men”. This proves that women in the modern world have equal opportunities to receive a degree and to study in universities; however, it does not allow them to climb up their career paths and occupy top management positions.

Labor Force Discrimination

As NetCent Communications (2010) state, women are underrepresented in executive positions and overrepresented in low-paid manual jobs. According to Psychology Help (1999), the main reason behind this is the choices that women make when they choose a profession. There are six main reasons why women do not occupy top management positions and have lower salaries compared to men:

 a) women request more holidays and they more frequently drop out of work to take care of their children, thus they work lesser hours in general and it affects the salary level statistics;

b) men tend to show more of workaholic behavior than women, and this kind of behavior is common for the top managers;

c) women choose jobs that does not require a lot of manual work, however, some airline companies tried to hire women for jobs like baggage handling while offering high salaries without any success;

d) women very often tend to choose to earn degrees in more advanced and rare specializations that result in lower-paid jobs that concentrate on helping people;

e) in most countries earning power is the priority of men rather than women;

f) and finally, in fields such as private-practice psychotherapist, women, on average, tend to charge less, and thus have lower incomes compared to men (Psychology Help, 1999).

Another issue is that even when a woman manages to climb up to a top executive position, she still continues to face obstacles and other problems. For instance, according to Ibarra and Hanson (2009), the company’s stocks drop after an announcement of a female CEO, whereas it does not face any changes when a new male CEO is announced. In other words, even when a woman achieves success and gets promoted to a top level positions, she still faces challenges because in the eyes of the other companies and shareholders a woman cannot be a successful executive manager (Ibarra and Hanson, 2009).

Policies and Legislations that Protect Women’s Rights in Workplaces

Governments around the world try to support working women and help them combine family and work by introducing policies that allow them to take a leave for giving birth and taking care of their children without being punished for it.

For instance, in 1993, the United States Department of Labor passed The Family and Medical Leave Act that allowed women to successfully return to their job after taking a leave, claims Shamoon (2011). The act protects the right of the mother to get back to their previous position under same conditions and salary. However, the maternity leave does not force the employer to keep paying the mother (Shamoon, 2011). In Kazakhstan, according to Zakon (2012), the Labour Code allows women to take a leave for a period of up to 126 days, 70 days before and 56 days after giving birth. The employer has to pay for the leave in full amount and is forced to provide the mother with the same or equal position with same conditions.

There are also various legislations around the world that fight women discrimination and protect the rights women in workplaces. The United States has the following legislations: Equal Pay Act of 1963 that prohibits any salary discrimination based on gender; Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, prohibits discrimination in workplaces, including firing, hiring, sexual harassment, and benefits terms; Pregnancy Discrimination Act – focuses on discrimination based on pregnancy in organizations (Godbole, 2011). Other legislations include the Australian Sex Discrimination Act of 1984, Canadian Ontario Human Rights Code of 1962 and Canadian Human Rights Act of 1977, the Sex Discrimination Ordinance of 1996 in Hong Kong, the Equal Pay Act of 1970, Sex Discrimination Act of 1975 and Human Rights Act of 1998 in United Kingdom (Godbole, 2011).

Situation in Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan has also taken some major steps towards providing gender equality in workplaces. According to Lune (2008), modern Kazakhstan is a diverse multinational country with more than 100 ethnicities living together, and the government tries to offer equal opportunities for everyone, no matter of which gender or nationality they are. However, the stereotypes and beliefs of the past that women cannot occupy leadership positions and their role is to take care of their families are still deeply rooted in the minds of the society and it causes various issues regarding women representation in the labor market (Lune, 2008).

Women in Kazakhstan face a lot of pressures that prevent them from achieving success in their professional lives that result in the following statistics: higher unemployment compared to men - the difference is around 3%, lower salaries – the difference is around 35-40%, and less influential power and thus lower rate of executive position occupancy (Lune, 2008). As Lune (2008) suggests, this is mainly due to the fact that women in Kazakhstan are pressured to take care of their families and are not expected to be the breadwinners. Those women who try to look after their families and provide for them are often forced to work less than men, thus receive lower salaries, because from the employer’s perspective the amount of work done should directly reflect the salary as well (Lune, 2008).

However, as Lune (2008) states, this exclusion from top management positions has resulted in the growth of the number of female entrepreneurs. In fact, in Kazakhstan almost 40% of the women are entrepreneurs. As Lune (2008) suggests, this trend can be explained by the fact that women are seeking new ways of providing for their families and generating income, but keeping a flexible schedule at the same time. Moreover, it allows women to be part of the social life and have a bigger influence on various developing industries and sectors in Kazakhstan.

Despite the statistics and numbers that show that the unemployment rate amongst women is higher compared to men, that women receive lower salaries and that the top executive positions occupancy is much lower than of men, Kazakhstan is proven to be doing fairly good in providing equal employment rights for both men and women (Lune, 2008). Lune (2008) writes that when compared to other Central Asian countries such as Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, Kazakhstan has the highest percentage of women working in top executive positions. This can be explained by the fact that Kazakhstan is developing quite fast due to its rich natural resources and economic stability. To support this, Lune (2008) refers to the Human Development Report for the years 2007 and 2008, which shows the relationship between Gender-Related Development Index and the Human Development Index for Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, as seen on Table 1. The table shows that the Gender-Related Development Index is lower than the Human Development Index in all of the countries presented. However, Kazakhstan has the highest values compared to the other two countries, which again proves that Kazakhstan is in the right direction of providing gender empowerment.

Table 1: Human Development Index (HDI) and Gender-Related Development Index (GDI)

Country	GDI	HDI
Kazakhstan	0.792	0.794
Kyrgyzstan	0.692	0.696
Tajikistan	0.669	0.673

Source: Lune, 2008 (http://www.pedersenandpartners.com/articles/women-executives-central-asia)

 

Policies for Gender Equality in Kazakhstan

The government of Kazakhstan has paid significant attention to this issue and has introduced programs that support women facing discrimination; however, there is no single act or law that focuses solely on discrimination in workplaces. According to SIGI (2012), Article 14 of the 1995 Constitution of Kazakhstan covers the legal equality for both genders, but does not refer specifically to gender-based discrimination. Apart from that, as Khassanova (2000) states, there is a Gender in Development Bureau in Kazakhstan, which is a project developed by the United Nations on the basis of the Copenhagen Declaration of 1990 and as a solution to the problems raised at the Beijing World Women’s Conference in 1995. Its main purpose is to alter the political will and resources in order to provide an equal status and standards of living for women. The main principles of the program are: gender equality should be exercised and promoted in joint effort with the governments and other strategic and political bodies; during the development, implementation, and monitoring stages of the program, there should be an equal number of men and women participating; the benefits of implementing the program should be equally distributed; and the decision-making processes and levels should require equal level of involvement from both genders (Khassanova, 2000).

While these programs and laws are not directly focused on providing equal opportunities for men and women in workplaces, there are a lot of organizations that offer help for women who face various kind of discrimination – both in workplaces and in everyday life. According to NetCent Communications (2010), there are nearly 150 organizations in Kazakhstan that fight for women’s rights; they include the Feminist League, Women of the East, the Almaty Women's Information Center, the Union of Crisis Centers, and the Businesswomen's Association.

To sum up, it is clearly seen that even though Kazakhstan shows one of the leading results in terms of promoting gender empowerment and providing equal right to both genders when compared to the other Central Asian countries such as Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, there is still a lot to be done, and women are still facing discrimination in workplaces. The road to achieving true gender equality is a long and difficult process. The main aim of this research paper is to measure to which degree women in modern Kazakhstan who working in formal organizations such as bank and governmental institutions feel discriminated and whether or not they think that it is harder for women to get promoted to a top executive position than for men.

 

Analysis of Results

This part of the research paper is dedicated to describing the results attained from the survey that was conducted among the female employees of various banks and governmental organizations in Almaty during the period from March 13, 2012 to March 23, 2012. The survey was taken by thirty two employees from three banks and two governmental organizations in Almaty.

The survey consisted of 15 questions and was divided into three categories (Appendix 1). The first set of questions were designed to find out the demographics and the basic information required for the research and it included questions such as the marital status and the degree that the respondent has attained. The second part mainly focuses on finding out the basic information about the workplace of the participant, such as what position they occupy and how long did it take them to get to this position. The following set of questions were aimed at finding out the situation the respondents have at their workplaces in order to evaluate the level of female discrimination such as “Who occupy the majority of the top executive positions in the organization that you work in”, “Have you ever felt discriminated at your workplace?”, and “Do you think men and women in Kazakhstan have equal chances of being hired for a top executive position in the current marketplace?” and others. Finally, the last part of the survey was designed to identify why women face discrimination from the perspective of the respondents and to find out what are the main reasons behind it.

As mentioned previously, the first set of questions was aimed at identifying the basic information about the participants. As seen on Figure 1, the majority of the respondents had a Bachelor’s Degree, followed by Master’s and PhD. The results also showed that the majority of the respondents work in banks comprising almost sixty percent (60%), and the rest forty percent (40%) work in government bodies, these figures are illustrated in Figure 2.

Figure 1: Question 1. What degree do you currently have?

 

Figure 2: Question 3. In which type of organization do you currently work at?

The second part of the survey, designed to find out the details of the workplaces the respondents worked in showed that the majority of them occupied low and middle management positions and only a few occupied upper-managerial positions, however, none of them occupied a top executive position. Furthermore, the results showed that for most of them (43%) it took around 1-2 years to get to the positions, whereas for twenty-five percent (25%) of the respondents it took 2-3 years. For six percent (6%) of the participants it took less than a year to get to the current position, additionally, fourteen (14%) and twelve (13%) percent of the respondents said that they worked for 5 to 7 years before getting promoted to the position they currently occupy. Finally, only three percent (3%) of the respondents said that they worked for 8-9 years before occupying the current positions. It should be noted that the women who have worked for over 5 years to get to their positions occupy upper-management positions such as deputy director, top manager, regional manager, whereas those who have lesser experience of working in their companies occupy lower level positions such as secretaries and specialists. The results are shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3: Question 5. How long did it take you to get to this position?

 

The next set of questions was added to learn the situation on female discrimination at the workplaces of the respondents. When as the question “Who occupy the majority of the top executive positions in the organization that you work in?”, as Figure 4 shows, most of the participants (1%) replied that males occupy the top executive positions, whereas six (6%) of the respondents answered that equal number of females and males occupy top managerial positions and three percent (3%) that it were females.