ASYNCHRONOUS MODERNIZATION OF FAMILY ROLES IN KAZAKHSTAN: GENDER NORMS AND EVERYDAY PRACTICES

Abstract

The article presents a sociological analysis of the discrepancy between normative gender attitudes and actual role practices within Kazakhstani families. The theoretical framework draws on the conceptualization of gender as a routinely reproduced social practice (doing gender) and on the concept of the “second shift,” which describes the unequal distribution of domestic labour. The empirical basis of the study comprises data from three surveys: Kazakhstani Families (N = 3,000), Gender Stereotypes in Various Spheres of Society in Kazakhstan (N = 2,400), and The Kazakhstani Family in the System of Social Relations (N = 802). Using cross-tabulation to analyse the findings of the three studies, the authors establish that perceptions of power and leadership within the family, as well as the actual division of domestic labour, continue to reproduce a patriarchal model. By contrast, declared values and normative expectations regarding household responsibilities tend towards an egalitarian ideal. Differences in attitudes are primarily associated with respondents’ gender rather than their age. Men are approximately twice as likely as women to believe that the husband should be the head of the family and are also more likely to agree that men perform leadership roles more effectively. A comparison of the three studies makes it possible to characterise the modernisation of the family institution in Kazakhstan as an asynchronous process in which changes in declared attitudes precede transformations in everyday practices. The identified pattern is broadly comparable to the transformations observed in other post-socialist and non-Western societies.