Lyudmila Kim, Uzbekistan

 GENDER STEREOTYPES IN EMPLOYMENT IN UZBEKISTAN

Paper presented at the:
CESS 4th Annual Conference
Cambridge, Mass., USA
4 October 2003

Lyudmila Kim

Lecturer
National University of Uzbekistan
Dept. of Social Psychology
Vuzgorodok, city of Tashkent,

700147, Uzbekistan.

Not for citation or distribution without permission of the author.

Introduction

The purpose of this report is to analyze the situation, related with gender aspects in employment in modern Uzbekistan, i.e.  to track the influence of gender stereotypes from two points of view: the one of employers and the one of the simple people as being the real and potential workers.

The paper is supposed to present certain results from the data of two researches.

1. The first research project, conducted by myself and entitled “Influence of Social factors on Understanding of Gender Roles“ supported by CARI (Central-Asian Reaserch Initiatives Programme of the Open Society Institute, Budapest (2001-2003). That project’s goal is to identify and conceptualize mass perceptions of the gender roles and to reveal gender stereotypes prevalent in public mind. The study consists of two stages: carrying out the focus groups and interviewing. About 50 participants took part in the focus groups in the first stage. During the second stage of the study 300 Russian- and Uzbek-speaking respondents of different sex, age, place of residence, educational background, marital and social status were interviewed according to the extensive questionnaire containing more than 60 open and closed questions.

 2. The second research project entitled “Gender aspects of participation of the citizens in political and economic life of Uzbekistan”, supported and conducted by Winrock International and Tashkent Center of Gender Research[1].

The purpose of the research was to study the situation related to gender segregation at the enterprises of the Republic of Uzbekistan; search for reasons leading to gender discrimination at the work place. More than 100 managers from the enterprises of different kind of ownership, from different segments of economy, from the regional towns of the Republic and from Tashkent, took part at the study.

Gender segregation in the professional sphere in Uzbekistan

         In many respects gender segregation in employment begins from the segregation in the educational system. So let us consider gender aspects of educational system in Uzbekistan.

         Considering distribution in industry specialization in educational system  we observe prevalence of men’s share in the specialties related with industry and building (67,0 % to 33,0 %), agriculture (77,8 % to 22,2 %), transport and communication (85,5 % to 14,5 %). The prevalence of men-students is also observed in the specialties of Economy and Law (60,3 % to 39,7 %), Arts and Cinematography (59,2 % to 40,8 %). Women dominate in the field of public health services and educational system (54,3 %).

In the statistical edition “The men and the women of Uzbekistan” it is noted about this, “the choice of specialties in educational institutions differs considerably among women and men. As a rule, women-students prefer such branches as education and public health, while men go for industry, agriculture, building and education”[2]. The figures show that the distribution in professional specialization of men and women goes exactly this way in reality. But the conclusion that women-students “prefer” the mentioned branches must be examined closely. Is it always a deliberate and voluntary choice, and why we have such a situation? In the same publication we find the brief explanation to the fact: “the choice of specialties by women and men is influenced primarily by existing stereotypes, i.e. dividing the labor on “female” and “male”, family traditions and also economic factors”[3].

How does the stereotyped choice of occupations and specialties further affect the employment?

Considering employment in different branches of economy, we can see the following distribution. The women are engaged mainly in public health services and social security and in education, culture, art and science (more than 70 %). As for the other branches the men’s share is higher. This is especially true in construction, transportation and management, where the share on male participation is more than 80 %. Besides, having a rather high proportion in terms of higher education (the share of the women here is 18 %, and the men - 17,3 %) the women are less presented in the economic management (the women’s share in the managing staff is only 29, 4 %, the men’s 70, 6 %)[4].

Thus, the adduced statistical data prove existence of both horizontal and vertical gender segregation in employment.

In my opinion, the basic determinant of gender segregation in employment is the influence of stereotyped mass notions about gender roles and gender differences, which are actual behavioral patterns of conduct for men and women in public and private life.

The concept “gender stereotypes” includes the following: the qualities and characteristics used to describe men and women; normative samples of conducts assigned traditionally to men or women; generalized judgments, opinions, notions of sex differences. Gender stereotypes depend on a cultural context and the environment in which they function.

All gender stereotypes can be divided into three groups.

The first group includes stereotypes of masculinity / femininity.

The second group of gender stereotypes is related to assigning particular social roles in the family, professional and other spheres.

The third group of gender stereotypes mirrors differences between men and women in particular kinds of labor. In this way, men are associated with the occupations and professions of instrumental nature and, as a rule, of creative nature. Women are associated with the occupations and professions of expressive sphere or of servicing nature. This provides grounds for notions of existence of so-called “male” and “female” occupations.

In my view, the study of the third group of gender stereotypes must be performed with taking into their relationship with the two other groups of gender stereotypes which describes notions of gender roles and qualities of femininity and masculinity. I believe that these stereotypes define the presence and the nature of the stereotypes which being discussed here, and related with differences in female and male labor.

 Researches’ results

The results of the research have shown that the traditional notions of family relations between the man and the woman are still dominating. More than 90 % of the respondents agreed to the statements reflecting traditional family models, namely “The main calling of a woman is to be a good wife and mother” and “A man is a breadwinner and head of the family”.

What is the further influence of the traditional notions of family roles? Probably, the   answer to the question can be found in the employed respondents views, when in our study they answer to a question: would you like to grow professionally, to make career? 42,5 % of the men and only 21,1 % of the women answered positively, choosing of several alternatives the answer “yes, and I do it”. An option “it is of no interest to me” was chosen by 44,4 % of the women and 23 % of the men. To our opinion, these figures mirror functioning of traditional gender stereotypes in practice, according to which the basic sphere of self-realization for a woman is the family, and professional activity is secondary for her.

It is interesting that the women have demonstrated major satisfaction with their jobs as contrasted to men. 76,1 % of the women of the reported sampling has stated, that they are satisfied with their jobs, whereas among the men those were only 57,4 %. And 27,8 % of the men and 12,5 % of the women were not satisfied with their jobs. It is too early, however, to make conclusions based on these data. It was interesting to see the reasons of satisfaction with jobs. It turned out to be that men, in most cases, are satisfied with their jobs due to the following reasons: “interesting job” (54,5 %), “quite good earnings” (28,8 %), “public benefit” (25,8 %), “high qualification” (15,2 %). The ranking of reasons of satisfaction with the jobs among the interviewed women presented as follows. A lot of them, as well as the men, have chosen “interesting job”, “public benefit”.  However, 36,8 % of the women, satisfied with their jobs, have chosen an option “have got used to and that’s why continue working”.

Thus, the obtained parameters of aiming to professional growth and satisfactions with the jobs (and also reasons for that) give rise to a question, whether, or not women need professional self-realization at all. Maybe the problem of women’s discrimination in employment is a far-fetched one?

We were also investigating opinions of the respondents on real and desirable influencing of men and women in three spheres - business, politics and family. The respondents were asked to rank the subject using a 5-mark scale. The obtained data shows that the highest degree of real influencing of women is observed in the family (average ball 3.93), and the least one in the realm of politics, where the influence of women is two times as less than that of men. The figure is less for business; however, here again influencing of women is much lower than that of men.

At the same time, an ideal degree of desirable influencing of women in these spheres (in questions “What should be influencing …”) is augmented in the family sphere (up to 4,5 balls), and it is insignificant in two other spheres: in business - up to 3,2, and in politics to 3.08 balls. It proves that in ideal notions of the respondents business and politics do not correspond with traditional female role, and the only sphere where the influencing of women should be high enough is the family. That corresponds to normative notions about gender roles.

What types of stereotypes related to employment exist in notions of people? Let's start considering of this question with analysis of the opinions of the participants of focus groups in our study.

In the group interviews, the participants were asked whether there are male and female spheres of labor, and if yes, what the differences between them are.

Practically all the participants have admitted the existence of gender marked spheres of labor and occupations. In some participants’ opinion, the differences between male and female labor are conditioned by physiological and psychological differences between sexes. They think that the male labor requires “brute physical power” or “analytical mind”, therefore a number of specialties from industrial, technical, building, military, agricultural and other spheres are included into male labor, as for science, men are considered to dominate reasonably in technical and natural sciences. Women are considered to fit the professions in education, medicine, public service that require particular “female” qualities, i.e. ability to empathize, industriousness and others. In the fields of science women are considered to take the niche in humanitarian disciplines.

Along with described “horizontal” division of labor on male and female, many participants of the interviewing have pointed the existence of vertical distribution of positions depending on sex. Here is the opinion of one of the female respondents.

“I do not divide work on males and female. But in each job there are two levels: preparatory and main. In most cases women do not raise above the preparatory level. For example, in a design work women basically do all the calculations and usually the superior is a male. Any occupation is an example of this. Let’s take medical field. Women do basic preparatory work in lab work and men take the final decisions. Surgeons are mostly men. The same is true about education... The teachers are women; the managers in schools are men” (Z., woman. 30 year olds, teacher, single).

As a whole, in opinion of the interviewed participants of the group interviews, male and female spheres and professions are specific, and are defined by sexual differences. Some of the interviewed people stated that the reasons of gender segregation in employment are related with existing stereotypes. As an example, let's see some opinions by younger respondents.

“The professional distribution takes place in a stereotyped way. I work at school and I test pupils on their choosing the professions. It’s often when their choice is done on the base of what is generally accepted. Not because one likes the profession, but in according to stereotypes. Though in many specialties, which are considered to be female, men get greater success, and vice versa” (J., female respondent. 4^th year student).   

”Women are often afraid of the high levels they could reach. It has been accepted for a long time, that a woman is a gentle creature, so they go working as a teacher, a nurse in the hospital, etc. The fear of going further; the fear that she can become a doctor, teacher at university, not waitress but maybe even an owner of the restaurant. From here stereotypes arise, created by ourselves” (А, female respondent, 2^nd year student).

In the quoted opinions the problem of negative consequences of the stereotyped approach to female employment is articulated, and also responsibility of people for creation and maintaining gender stereotypes is emphasized.

Those were the judgments of “simple people”, and what is the attitude of the employers?

The similar situation and results were repeated in carried out interviews of the managers of the enterprises on the theme: “Gender aspects of participation of the citizens in political and economic life of Uzbekistan”[5]. In opinion of the respondents, the definite male occupations are the following:  transportations (92,3 % of all the respondents), construction (88,5 %), management (82,7 %), production (80,8 %), sports (76,9 %), science (69,2 %), agriculture (67,3 %). Typical female spheres are those of public health, education and public service (88,2 %), social security (84,3 %), culture and art (82,4 %), communications and both housing-municipal and household service (more than 60 %). As one may see, the opinions of the interviewed managers correspond to accepted stereotypes concerning the particulars of male and female employment, which well correspond to real male-female distribution in mentioned sectors of the economy. The same conformity to the established patterns was observed in the judgments of the managers concerning separation of professions and specialties on female and male. Unconditionally, females consider jobs of librarian, a teacher in kindergarten, secretary, and employee in archives, housemaids, nurses, cashiers and others. The male professions are those of a driver, in military, of a mechanical engineer, sanitary engineer, electrician, engineer, surgeon, etc. Besides, the “male” positions where those of the directors and managers in firms and enterprises, and the deans at universities.

          When interviewing the managers of the enterprises, the respondents were asked to make a choice in favor of one employee, a man or a woman, in the situations of hiring for work, promotion and sending an employee to training. They were offered situations concerned with the choice of specialties and professions traditionally related with man's employment. In the first situation, the chief was to employ a man or a woman to fill the position of the safety engineer. Both candidates had approximately equal qualification, education and working and experiences. The choice in favor of the man- candidate was quite expected (64 % of choices for man and 21 % for woman). We were mostly interested to know the reasons of the respondents’ choices. For this purpose after each situation, in the questionnaire there was an open question - Why? The analysis of the answers has shown the following. All the answers can be divided into two sections: “the particulars of man's job” and “males’ qualities”. The part of the respondents attempted to motive their solutions proceeding from specific character of the job, which, to their mind, was absolutely “male’s” one. They argued, for example, that the job of the safety engineer requires “a man who has gone through special military training”. Some respondents referred to the external factors accompanying such a job:  overtime working, business trips, necessity of going to different places, sites etc. They pointed that men have more time (for overtime working); they are relatively autonomous of family and family matters. The absence of the above noted possibilities for women, in opinion of those respondents, does not allow women to take this position. Alongside with that, the considerable share of motives for the choice in favor of the man was depicted according to the qualities, traditionally attributed to men (so-called stereotypes of masculinity), such as technical-thinking capacities, responsibility and reliability, physical power and endurance, determination, independence and an interest for the job.

It is interesting to note that among those who preferred the woman-candidate, the grounding for the choices were also traditional qualities, but female ones (stereotypes of femininity), such as accuracy, honesty, carefulness, absence of harmful habits.

The similar results were observed in the two other situations. Turning down the woman-candidate, the respondents in most cases justify their choices by the circumstances related with the possible or existing marriage of the young employee, her childbearing age.

To the closed question in the questionnaire, “what advantages do you find in female labor as contrasted to male one?”, 72 % of the respondents answered, that “women are more accurate and more responsible for their jobs”, 42,7 % of the respondents argued that “women are more flexible and better get along with people” and “have fewer harmful habits”, 40 % of the respondents said that “women are good performers”. Among the shortcomings of female labor, in answer to a question “What disadvantages do you see with women-employees?”, most of opinions were as follows: “women have a lot of family functions” (73.3 %), “women more often ask for leave” (69.3 %),  “women more often take extra vacations” and “women are too emotional and sensitive” (34.7 %). The most popular answer to the question about reasons for the choice in favor of the man was that “men take less sick time and don’t have to stay at home caring after ill children” (53.5 %). Besides, the respondents consider it important that “the man must support the family” (39.6 %).

As a whole, one may draw a conclusion that the necessity of fulfillment of reproductive functions makes women less attractive employees for the employers. Also, the necessity of fulfillment by the man of his traditional role, as the family provider often causes the choice in his favor by the employers.

Conclusion

The above presented are the results of the two studies, in which we have attempted to consider the problem of gender stereotypes in the sphere of labor from the two perspectives: the one of the employees and the one of the employers - concerning specificity of male and female spheres of labor. The presented data have demonstrated the relationship of all three groups of gender stereotypes: stereotypes of gender roles, qualities of femininity and masculinity and stereotypes of male and female occupations. In our opinion, the stereotypes of the third group related to the nature of male and female labor differences, reflected in gender segregation in employment. They are the derivatives from the first two groups of gender stereotypes. Traditional notions about roles of the man and the woman in society influence both professional preferences of the employees, as well as demands of employers to the workers. At the same time, stereotypes of femininity and masculinity exert influence when making a choice in favor of a particular employee, male or female candidate, according to which one accesses both advantages and shortcomings of male and female occupations.