President Nursultan Nazarbayev also received a progress report by Minister of Labour and Social Security and Chairman of the National Commission for Women Affairs, Family and Demographic Policy under the President of Kazakhstan Gulshara Abdykalikova.
According to Gulshara Abdykalikova, women’s authority has grown in the country thanks to the effective policy in protecting the rights of mothers and children, as well as implementing the initiatives put forward by the President at the Congress of Women of Kazakhstan. In particular, the country is successfully implementing a program for the development of women entrepreneurship and there is a growing number of companies with female executives. The number of women among the members of the Lower House of Parliament, the Majilis, reached 24% for the first time in the country’s history. In local councils, the Maslikhats, there is also quite a wide representation of women, where leading positions belong to Kostanai with 31%, Aktobe with 28%, and Pavlodar with 23%. The report features results of a survey conducted by Social Watch international organization, according to which the index of women’s activity in Kazakhstan has grown significantly in recent years and today Kazakhstan is ranked 33rd among 156 countries in this respect.