Women’s Educational Attainment and Gender Empowerment in Uzbekistan Kamila Khamidova kk1841a@american.edu http://eagle1.american.edu/~kk1841a/ American University School of International Service SIS-600-5: Int'l Affairs Stats & Methods – Dr. Assen Assenov

Research Question & Hypothesis Research Question: What is the impact of educational attainment on women’s empowerment in economic sphere in Uzbekistan? Research Hypothesis: Controlling for educational attainment, type of residence, religion, and ethnicity I expect women who attained higher level of education to be more empowered in economic sphere

Literature Review Belinda Cooper and Isabel Traugottt (2003) “Women’s Rights and Security in Central Asia” Theory: Worsening economic conditions have a negative impact on the position of women in Uzbekistan Findings : In Uzbekistan, as well as in other Central Asian countries women were the first to lose their jobs as the economy collapsed in early 1990’s Economic necessity was found to be an important reason for the increasing marriages of fifteen-sixteen year old girls especially in rural areas Wendy Mee (2001) “Women in the Republic of Uzbekistan” Theory: Stereotypes about women’s role is a barrier to women who seek self-realization through professional development Employers prefer to hire men because hiring women is more expensive due to “special privileges”, such as maternity leave and paid vacation to take care of sick children guaranteed under the Labor Code Due to a tight job market and fierce competition, men are given preference on the basis of gender ideology that sees men as the main provider for the family

Data Source of the data: Uzbekistan Health Examination Survey 2002 Fieldwork was conducted from September to December 2002. Carried out by: Ministry of Health and Ministry of Macroeconomics and Statistics, Republic of Uzbekistan Data provided by: Measure DHS: Demographic & Health Surveys Reliability of the data: nationally representative survey of 7,796 respondents 5,463 women age 15-49 2,333 men age 15-59. The data used in my research is from UHES provided by Measure DHS: Demographic and Health Surveys. The survey was conducted in 2002 by Ministry of Health and Ministry of Macroecon and Stats of the Rep. of Uzbekistan. The survey included 7, 796 respondents which is nationally representative sample by accepted standards. 5,463 of the respondent were women aged 15 through 49 and 2, 333 were men aged 15 through 59. For the purpose of my research I used women’s sample only

Data (cont) Unit of Analysis: Individual Dependent variable Women’s Empowerment in Economic Sphere Level of Measurement is nominal Independent Variables Educational Attainment (LOM is Nominal) Type of Residence (LOM is Nominal) Ethnicity (LOM is Nominal) Religion (LOM is Nominal)

Descriptive Statistics (Dependent Variable) Women’s Empowerment in Economic Sphere (Q: Who decides on woman’s work?) Recoded : 0= Respondent/Jointly; 1= Someone else Unimodal; Mode= 0 Respondent; (52.97%) Missing Data: 387 Responses out of 5,076 To determine women’s empowerment in economic sphere respondents were asked “Who decides on woman’s work ?” In my original dependent variable I had many categories which I then recoded first into three categories that included respondent, respondent jointly with someone else in the family, and someone else. The mode in my first recoded variable variable was 3, meaning in 47.3% of the cases the decision on woman’s work was made by someone, other than a woman. My second recoded variable has only two categories which includes: respondent and joint decision with someone else together as one category and someone else. The mode in my second recoded variable is 0 meaning in 52.97% of the cases the decision on woman’s work was made by woman herself or with someone jointly.

Descriptive Statistics (Independent Variables) Here are the descriptive statistics of my Ind. Variables. The first one is type of residence, ether Urban or Rural. The mode is rural as we can see 59.73% of women live in rural areas. The second variable is educational attainment. The choices respondents had include: completed high school, PTU or vocational school, technikum which corresponds to 2-year college degree, and university. The mode was high school completion. The third variable was Religion and the mode of this variable was Muslim. The last one is Ethnicity and the mode here was Uzbek

Independent Variables Bivariate Analysis Dependent Variable: Women’s Empowerment in Economic Sphere (Respondent/Jointly with someone else = 0; Someone else=1) Independent Variables Gamma/Lambda/F Chi-Squared Research Hypothesis Educational Attainment (Nominal) L =.030 (0.012) N=5067 χ2=119.499 (0.000) Reject the H0. Educational Attainment and Economic Empowerment are associated Type of Residence L =.047 N=5076 χ2=125.304 Ethnicity L =.014 (0.459) N=5074 χ2=212.146 Do not reject the Ho. Chi-Squared is significant but Lambda is not Religion L =.000 (.000) N=5075 χ2= 129.714 Do not Reject the H0 Chi squared is significant, but Lambda is.000

Probit Regression Analysis, Marginal Effects The Dependent Variable: Women’s Empowerment in Economic Sphere (Respondent/Jointly =0; Someone else =1) Independent Variables Model 1 Model 2 Model 3 Model 4 Educational Attainment (Nominal) .0678147 (.000) .0518075 .0505381 .0505281 Type of Residence (Nominal; Urban=0,Rural=1) -.1280772 - .1246766 -.12336274 Ethnicity Uzbek=0, Other=1) .0401483 (.040) .0377462 (.055) Religion (Nominal; Muslim=0,Other=1) -.1392382 (.103) N Adj. R^2 5067 0.0162 0.0264 5065 0.0271 0.0274 Coefficients are all significant is model 1,2,3. In model 4, religion is insignificant. As educational attainment increases by one unit i.e. from 2-year college to university level the women’s economic empowerment is increasing by 6.7%. Adj. Rsq means that educational attainment explains only 1.6% of variance in economic empowerment. Statistically significant As type of residence changes from Urban to Rural, economic empowerment decreases by 13% . The result is statistically significant. As we add type of residence in model 2, educational attainment variable decreases, thus reducing bias of the first model and R2 increases to 2.6% Next, as ethnicity moves from Uzbek to other, economic empowerment of women increases by 4%. Statistical sig is still less than .05 meaning it is significant. Values of two other variables continue to decrease thus reducing bias even further. R Sq increases to 2.7% . Religion is statistically insignificant

Findings & Policy Implications Based on bivariate and probit analysis, religion had to be omitted, due to its statistical insignificance. After omitting religion, I accept the research hypothesis that controlling for educational attainment, type of residence, ethnicity I expect women who attained higher level of education to be more empowered in economic sphere Policy Implications Efforts should be concentrated on increasing educational attainment of women Public diplomacy efforts should be geared towards families in rural areas and those of Uzbek ethnicity