Gender Equality and Women Business of Framework 5Ms in Kazakhstan: Analysis and Basic Directions

Abstract

This study aims to analyze of existing concepts of female entrepreneurship, evaluation of women's entrepreneurship in Kazakhstan and development of recommendations for its development in the country. This paper begins by reviewing research on female entrepreneurship. In this research, authors proposed the methodological tools based on systematic approach using economic and statistic methods and 5Ms concept. Analysis algorithm consists of four stages: evaluation of women entrepreneurship scale and business directions, analysis of employment in women's enterprises and business environment in Kazakhstan. The main limitation of this study was the lack of some gender-related indicators on the development of entrepreneurship. Further, the obtained results showed strong and weak points of female entrepreneurship in Kazakhstan. According to the results, there has observed increase in contribution of women in social-economic development of the republic, women's entrepreneurial activity is increasing, and the number of enterprises headed by them is growing. However, the growth of female entrepreneurship occurs while maintaining their insignificance in terms of turnover and number of employees. There is a pronounced industry specificity of female entrepreneurship: the service sector. In accordance with this, there were identified priority areas and there were developed recommendations for the development of female entrepreneurship in Kazakhstan.

Full text

Zaira T. SATPAYEVA, Anel A. KIREYEVA, Gaukhar KENZHEGULOVA, Dinara YERMEKBAYEVA
/ Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business Vol 7 No 3 (2020) 253-263 253
Print ISSN: 2288-4637 / Online ISSN 2288-4645
doi:10.13106/jafeb.2020.vol7.no3.253
Gender Equality and Women Business of Framework 5Ms in Kazakhstan:
Analysis and Basic Directions
Zaira T. SATPAYEVA*, Anel A. KIREYEVA**, Gaukhar KENZHEGULOVA***, Dinara YERMEKBAYEVA****
Received: January 11, 2019 Revised: February 02, 2020 Accepted: February 06, 2020.
Abstract
This study aims to analyze of existing concepts of female entrepreneurship, evaluation of women’s entrepreneurship in Kazakhstan and
development of recommendations for its development in the country. This paper begins by reviewing research on female entrepreneurship. In this
research, authors proposed the methodological tools based on systematic approach using economic and statistic methods and 5Ms concept.
Analysis algorithm consists of four stages: evaluation of women entrepreneurship scale and business directions, analysis of employment in
women's enterprises and business environment in Kazakhstan. The main limitation of this study was the lack of some gender-related indicators on
the development of entrepreneurship. Further, the obtained results showed strong and weak points of female entrepreneurship in Kazakhstan.
According to the results, there has observed increase in contribution of women in social-economic development of the republic, women's
entrepreneurial activity is increasing, and the number of enterprises headed by them is growing. However, the growth of female entrepreneurship
occurs while maintaining their insignificance in terms of turnover and number of employees. There is a pronounced industry specificity of female
entrepreneurship: the service sector. In accordance with this, there were identified priority areas and there were developed recommendations for
the development of female entrepreneurship in Kazakhstan.
Keywords : Gender, Gender Economics, Gender Policy, Business, Female Entrepreneurship, Kazakhstan
JEL Classification Code: J16, J22, J31.
1. Introduction 5
6
Many scientists emphasis the increasing impact of
economic potential of women and their contribution in
social and economic development of the country (ABD,
2013). Expansion of women’s economic empowerment is
central to gender equality achievement, fight against
*First Author. Senior Researcher, Institute of Economics of the
Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan,
Kazakhstan. Email: szt_kz@mail.ru
**Corresponding Author. Chief Researcher, Institute of Economics
of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of
Kazakhstan [Postal Address: 29 Kurmangazy Street, Almaty,
050010, Kazakhstan] Tel: +7-701-690-0466
Email: anele19@mail.ru
***PhD Student, Narxoz University, Kazakhstan.
Email: gaukhar.kenzhegulova@gmail.com
****Head of Department, University of International Business,
Kazakhstan. Email: ermekbaevad@mail.ru
© Copyright: The Author(s)
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-
Commercial License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits unrestricted non-
commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
poverty among women and the solution of women
unemployment. Development of women economic rights
and possibilities does not eliminate gender inequality, but it
holds much significance. Generally, empowerment of
women and has been explored from the standpoint of such
indicators as education, capability of women to render a
decision, social gender equality, social support, working
load and hours autonomy and control over income and
other resources and funds. The concept of empowerment
centers around three interconnected dimensions: resources,
actions and achievements (Gupta, Pingali, & Pinstrup-
Andersen, 2017).
Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development has classified women empowerment issues
into three “E”: education, employment and
entrepreneurship (OECD, 2014). Staging directions of
strategic objective of Kazakhstan becoming one of the 30
most developed countries in the world, the indicators of
OECD countries have become fundamental to the
development of the republic. For this reason, ensuring of
gender equality in education, employment and in

254 Zaira T. SATPAYEVA, Anel A. KIREYEVA, Gaukhar KENZHEGULOVA, Dinara YERMEKBAYEVA
/ Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business Vol 7 No 3 (2020) 253-263
entrepreneurship activity has become of urgent matter for
Kazakhstan. Today Kazakhstan is pursuing a positive
policy on ensuring gender equality in the country,
including entrepreneurship field (Kireyeva & Satybaldin,
2019). For improvement of women entrepreneurship in the
republic and determining of priority directions for further
development a deep study of all aspects of women business
is necessary.
An objective study of the processes of formation and
functioning of enterprises headed by women will allow us
to substantiate accurately the key areas in improving the
efficiency of business in the country. This has contributed
to the creation of a certain theoretical base of the research.
However, there are issues that remain a constant subject of
discussion, in particular, the definition of women's
entrepreneurship, the definition of guidelines for its
analysis and evaluation. Therefore, a significant number of
scientific developments in Kazakhstan on female
entrepreneurship are reduced to description of the results of
sociological studies. At the same time, studies that
address theoretical and methodological issues, as well as
the statistical measurement of female entrepreneurship,
algorithms and methods for its analysis are still poorly
developed. Notwithstanding in many studies there have
been provided constructive study of individual aspects of
female entrepreneurship, however there has not been done
a holistic and consistent review. Thus far, the degree of
the research of current field in the context of Kazakhstan is
extremely low.
The purpose of this research is to analyze of existing
concepts of female entrepreneurship, to evaluate female
entrepreneurship activities in Kazakhstan, as well as
elaboration of recommendations on women
entrepreneurship development within a country. This paper
is among the scientific works, which identify factors of
women entrepreneurship development and analyze current
state and development of female entrepreneurship.
Therefore, in accordance with the goal we have identified
the following tasks:
Firstly, to explore existing concepts of female
entrepreneurship.
Secondly, to analyze female entrepreneurship activity in
Kazakhstan.
Thirdly, to determine priority guidelines and develop
recommendations on female entrepreneurship development
in Kazakhstan.
The work is framed in the following way. The first
section includes literature review of current foreign
literature on women entrepreneurship. The second
section introduces methodology and data used in this paper.
The third section presents the results of the research. The
fourth section contains conclusion and proposals for future
research on this topic in Kazakhstan.
2. Literature Review
2.1. Theoretical Background on the Women
Entrepreneurship
In the context of the formation of the modern type of
social relations, the role of women in society is changing in
a certain way, and her social functions are defined
differently. Women are involved in different new kinds of
activities including entrepreneurship. Gender aspect of
modern economic affairs has attained a special female
meaning. In the market economy conditions, women more
actively take part in the system of entrepreneurial relations,
form typically “gender niches” of modern economic
activity of the population. Therefore, the study of the
formation and modern development of female
entrepreneurship has not only scientific, but also practical
and applied meaning.
Women's entrepreneurship, as a form of women's
economic rights and opportunities, has been the subject of
research in the last quarter of the 20th century. The
emergence of research on women's entrepreneurship in that
period was a response to the results of the “quiet revolution
on the global scale” (Parker, 2010). Opportunities for
women in entrepreneurship activity and female
entrepreneurship are the subject of study of many studies
of foreign and local authors of different subjects, including
practitioners of government agencies and international
organizations (Andriuta & Kartašova, 2013).
The influence of women in business has taken attention
of many scientists. However, some experts believe that
entrepreneurship does not have a special tender dimension,
and that a business can be female or male (Fayolle & Kyrö,
2008). Initial studies in entrepreneurship suggested that
male and female entrepreneurs were generally the same,
and there was little need for a separate study (Yordanova &
Tarrazon, 2010). While modern research raises the
importance of women entrepreneurship and its
development opportunities. In particular, many scientific
works have been devoted to women's business and the
experience of women, where there has been an increase in
interest in this topic and a significant increase in research
on women's entrepreneurship (Carlsson, Braunerhjelm,
McKelvey, Olofsson, Persson, & Ylinenpaa, 2013;
Jennings & Brush, 2013; Yadav & Unni, 2016).
During recent years, there have appeared several
research works dedicated directly to either women
entrepreneurship, or affecting some of its aspects,
including career, employment and labor market (Ács,
Szerb, & Lloyd, 2017; Estrin & Mickiewicz, 2011;
Kireyeva & Satybaldin, 2019). Researches focused on the
study of female entrepreneurship and women entrepreneurs
differ in the level of study of the problem: micro (at the

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individual level), meso (at the firm level) and macro (at the
country, region, and culture) level (Chandrashekhar, 2011;
Adachi & Hisada, 2017; Xie & Lv, 2018; Verheul et al.,
2006). They addressed various issues, including
entrepreneurial orientation, self-efficacy, motivation,
decision-making models, growth strategies, financing,
social capital, productivity and growth, resources and
limitations in a female startup. It should be noted that the
phenomenon of women entrepreneurship is inextricably
linked and is based on the phenomenon of entrepreneurship
in general (Aidis & Weeks, 2016). In addition, the females,
it was observed that they placed more emphasis on the
relational factors between themselves and the service that
was provided (Kim & Yang, 2020).
Scientific views in the field of women's business were
developed in the studies of classics and modern authorities
of economic and sociological science (Ebner, 2005; Gupta
et al., 2016). In the works of these authors, here have been
analyzed general patterns of entrepreneurship development,
there have been studied the characteristic features of
business evolution, there have been comprehended some of
the latest trends in the development of entrepreneurial
relations. Recognizing the significant contribution of the
work of social science authors to the study of the
phenomenon of entrepreneurship, it should be noted that
they have a more general methodological significance, not
always adequately reflecting various aspects of the
development of entrepreneurship in the conditions of
transformation of society, and practically do not touch
upon important and specifically complex problems of
modern business in digitalization (Poggesi et al., 2015;
Kireyeva et. al., 2018; Dos Santos et al., 2019).
Principally, in the process of organizing and doing
business there interact both genders regardless of whether
what membership is dominating or who is the direct
entrepreneur (Jennings & Brush, 2013). Assuming that
female entrepreneurship is an individual development of
socio economic advancement.
2.2. Concept that Affecting for Female
Entrepreneurship
The theoretical foundations for the study of gender and
entrepreneurship are laid in feminist theory. Feminist
theories recognize that submission, inequality or
oppression of women is unethical and that women deserve
equal political, economic and legal rights. Evolving from
feminist theories, the deprivation argument says that public
views deprive women of education, industry experience,
networking, and access to capital. Deprivation of these
opportunities may affect the success of women in business
(Sospeter et al., 2014). The main objective of feminist
research and politics is to achieve a state of women similar
to that of men by eliminating explicit or systemic forms of
discrimination, mainly directed against women (Okafor &
Amalu, 2010).
There are radical, liberal, social feminist approaches.
Representatives of the first approach associate innate
biological differences with the existence of patriarchy and
female oppression. The reproductive roles and experiences
of women and men evoke various traits of women and men.
The second approach assumes that both sexes are equally
rational. However, society remains structured around
patriarchal norms, which puts women at a disadvantage in
order to compete for power, money, and prestige.
According to the third approach, men and women are not
essentially the same. Men and women demonstrate
fundamentally different worldviews due to differences in
their experience, needs, competencies and values. (Yadav
& Unni, 2016). The existence of market failures that
contribute to gender discrimination in the field of
entrepreneurship, the predominance of men over women in
this area indicates the existence of gender inequality in a
fairly serious amount, which in turn requires serious
practical measures in this direction (OECD, 2004).
The initial basis for the development of male and female
entrepreneurship in the most general terms is one. This is
economic freedom, a competitive environment, the
presence of a legal framework governing entrepreneurial
activity. At the same time, women and men entrepreneurs
differ in their personal and business profiles: they start and
manage enterprises in different sectors, develop different
products, pursue different goals and structure their business
in a different way (Verheul, van Stel, & Thurik, 2006). This
is largely determined by their personality and social roles.
Thus, theory of social roles emphasizes the significance of
such factors as cultural norms, gender stereotypes and
gender roles. The theory of social construction emphasizes
individual differences and suggests that they are larger than
gender differences (Pines, Lerner, & Schwartz, 2010).
Consideration of women's entrepreneurship is also
possible within the framework of the biological theory of
entrepreneurship, which offers explanations based on
deeply rooted cultural or even biological differences
between men and women. For instance, risk is a major
factor in entrepreneurial activity. Moreover, when making
business decisions, women prefer lower risks than men,
especially in financial matters. Accordingly, they are less
likely to engage in high-risk activities (Bula, 2012).
Institutional theory will determine the “hidden”
institutional constraints: labor market institutions, the
female roles that society ascribes to, and the difficulties
women entrepreneurs face when entering into
entrepreneurial activity and developing their business (De
Bruin, Brush, & Welter, 2007).
Thereby, emerging literature suggests that women can

256 Zaira T. SATPAYEVA, Anel A. KIREYEVA, Gaukhar KENZHEGULOVA, Dinara YERMEKBAYEVA
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play a significant role in the broader phenomenon of
entrepreneurship and economic development (Sarfaraz,
Faghih, & Majd, 2014). In the result, there is a necessity in
the study of different aspects of women entrepreneurship
activity. Literature review has shown that there are
different theories and concepts of entrepreneurship on
women entrepreneurship. However, there has not been an
agreement of opinion regarding the need for a separate
theory of female entrepreneurship.
Literature review showed that the following features
characterize the problems of female entrepreneurship:
а) the lack of development of theoretical aspects, the
absence of not only generally accepted, but also the
author’s definitions of the basic concept;
b) the lack of summarizing works, the presence of only a
few production articles;
c) the orientation of existing publications only on the
description of business and professional status, on the
analysis of business employment and the volume of
entrepreneurial activity, interaction with negative practices
and the evolution of the entrepreneurial elite, and a
comparative description of foreign experience of women in
business.
All considered models for carrying out this study,
guidelines of the institutional concept of 5Ms were taken as
a basis.
3. Research Methods
Women entrepreneurship research uses a variety of
approaches. Therefore, scientific research differs according
to generalization and system analysis of the existing
methods (Kireyeva, 2016). We used research unit
(individual, at the firm level), the countries covered (one
country, several countries), the selected characteristics of
the sample (type and size of the sample), the source and
method of data (primary, secondary) used analytical
methods (quantitative, qualitative, mixed) (De Bruin et al.,
2007; Bula, 2012; Vial & Richomme-Huet, 2017).
This study was conducted based on a systematic
approach. The main limitation was the lack of some
gender-related indicators on the issue of entrepreneurship
development (for example, data on large business, output,
including data by sex, age, region, industry, and also by
socially vulnerable segments of the population: orphans,
former prisoners , housewives, youth, retirees, people with
disabilities, etc.), as well as the lag of existing indicators
for 1-2 years. As a result, the research methodology was
based on economic and statistical analysis of the available
data.
The information base of this study was the statistics data
of the Committee on Statistics of the Ministry of National
Economy of the Republic of Kazakhstan, analytical reports
of the National Chamber of Entrepreneurs of the Republic
of Kazakhstan, the World Bank, the International Labor
Organization, the Organization for Economic Cooperation
and Development, and the United Nations. The study
examined the change in the level of women’s
entrepreneurial activity in Kazakhstan for the period from
2010 until 2018. Sections 4.2 and 4.3 compare statistics for
January 1, 2017 and January 1, 2018.
Accordingly, the methodological tools proposed by the
authors (determining the scale and level of development of
female entrepreneurship) are performed by algorithm,
which consists of four stages:
First stage – Evaluation of female entrepreneurship scale
in Kazakhstan;
Second stage – Analysis of female entrepreneurship
direction in Kazakhstan;
Third stage – Analysis of employment in women's
enterprises;
Fourth stage - Analysis of the business environment of
Kazakhstan: 5Ms of women entrepreneurship.
Theoretical and methodological background of the study
of business environment in Kazakhstan was the main
provision of the concept of 5Ms. This is an extended
version of the 3Ms institutional theory, according to which
the launch and development of an enterprise requires three
important factors: market, money and management. For
further gender mainstreaming “motherhood” and “meso /
macro environment” factors are added to the existing three
factors. The inclusion of the “motherhood” factor indicates
that the home / family context affects the woman more than
the man, which reinforces the importance of addressing
issues of gender discrimination in business: ownership,
access to resources, and the possibility of realizing one’s
potential.
The central “maternal” aspect influences other factors:
money for women's entrepreneurship, women's
management and market opportunities for women, meso-
and macro environment for the development of women's
entrepreneurship. The factors of the “macro environment”
and “meso environment” reflect the influence of society’s
expectations and cultural norms on women's
entrepreneurship. At the same time, the macro
environment includes national policies, strategies, cultural,
legal and economic impacts, while the meso environment
reflects the influence of regional entrepreneurship support
policies, development institutions, business associations,
professional networks, services and initiatives (Brush, De
Bruin, & Welter, 2009; Salman & Jamil, 2017; Zerwas,
2019). Thus, the algorithm proposed by the authors has a
four-stage gradation, which should be regarded as a set of
assessment indicators that determine the level of
development of women entrepreneurship in Kazakhstan.

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4. Results
4.1. Evaluation of the Scale of Female
Entrepreneurship in Kazakhstan
According to the data of Global Entrepreneurship
Monitor in 2017, 11.3% of women, aged 18-64 in
Kazakhstan were in the process of developing of their
business or have started it recently (GERA, 2018). During
the period from 2010 to 2017 the percentage of enterprises,
managed by women in Kazakhstan has increased from 26,1%
to 27,4% including in the context of dimension of
enterprises (Figure 1). However, women representation in
large business is rather low. Today there are registered 1
540 592 small and medium sized enterprises in Kazakhstan,
of which 1,545,994 are active, i.e. 74,4% (Figure 1).
Figure 1: Number of registered enterprises headed by women,
2011-2017
Among existing 492,166 SMEs, which is 42,5% of the
total are managed by women. In contrast with the same
period of the last year the number of operating enterprises,
managed run by women has decreased for 4,1%. However,
structurally the situation has not changed: in 2017 the
number of operation enterprises of SMEs, run by women
made up 43,25%. The majority of enterprises lead by
women are in Almaty city, former South Kazakhstan,
current Turkestan and Almaty regions. While in the North
Kazakhstan, West Kazakhstan and Kyzylorda regions,
there is low entrepreneurial activity among women.
4.2. Analysis of Directions of Entrepreneurial
Activity of Women in Kazakhstan
Researchers emphasize that in Kazakhstan the share of
women in high-tech enterprises is 52,1% and 49,1% - in
low-tech (Zbierowski, 2017). Among operating enterprises
managed by women, the majority of enterprises involved
with wholesale and retail distribution (incl. auto and motor
bike service) – 232 405 units (in 2017 – 257 667 units),
providing other types of service – 65 165 units (in 2017 –
68 733 units), agricultural sector, forestry and fish farms –
48 755 units (in 2017 – 44 448 units), real estate operations
– 47 209 units (in 2017 – 42 296 units). In total only 23
enterprises out of 76, which are in public administration and
defense, compulsory social security, are managed by
women
Over half of Kazakhstani small and medium-sized
enterprises related to education; real estate operations;
accommodation and food services; Wholesale and retail
trade, car and motorcycle repair, healthcare and social
services are headed by women. The smallest female SMEs
are in areas such as mining and quarrying; electricity, gas,
steam and air conditioning; construction; construction;
transport and storage; agriculture, forestry and fisheries;
water supply; sewer system, control over the collection and
distribution of waste. Compared with a year earlier, the
situation in the distribution of women's enterprises by type
of economic activity is not observed (see Table 1).
Table 1: The share of small and medium-sized enterprises headed
by women in Kazakhstan by type of economic activity, 2017-
2018, %
Activity category 2017 2018
Agricultural sector, forestry and fish farms 20,80 21,94
Industry 31,21 30,70
Mining and quarrying 12,17 12,19
Manufacturing industry 32,71 32,83
Construction 17,63 18,63
Wholesale and retail trade; car and
motorcycle repair 58,38 56,93
Transport and storage 14,42 16,02
Accommodation and food services 61,33 60,46
Information and Communication 31,70 30,84
Financial and insurance 42,45 42,57
Real estate operations 59,52 61,14
Professional, scientific and technical
activities 42,17 42,11
Education 67,50 68,04
Health and social services 53,42 53,29
Art, entertainment and leisure 42,18 42,89
The provision of other types of services 48,12 48,10
There is a specialization of female business in
Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan businesswomen mainly conduct
entrepreneurial activities in the tertiary sector of the
economy, which is not distinguished by a high level of
501,791
557,748
640,521
697,355
647,082 630,919 648,128
0
100,000
200,000
300,000
400,000
500,000
600,000
700,000
800,000
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

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profitability. It should be noted that the main share of the
shadow economy of Kazakhstan falls on the “female”
sectors: trade, real estate operations, transport and
agriculture, which are also leaders in the share of the
shadow sector within the industry itself.
4.3. Analysis of Employment in Women's
Enterprises
During the period from 2001 to 2018 the share of
women employers has increased from 0,5% to 0,8%, as
well as among urban population - from 0,7% to 0,9%, in
rural area from 0,3% to 0,8%. High share of female
employers is observed in North Kazakhstan (2,3%) and in
Karaganda (1,5%) regions. In 2008, 30,41% of those
employed in small and medium-sized enterprises
accounted for SMEs headed by women, in absolute amount
- this is 969 987 workplaces. In 2017, this indicator
amounted to 31,38% (964,958 workplaces). In 2018, 60%
of those employed in small and medium-sized enterprises
in the field of health and social services accounted for
SMEs headed by women (see Table 2).
Table 2: Share of employees in small and medium-sized
enterprises headed by women in Kazakhstan, 2017-2018
Type
of activity
Share of emp
loyees in SM
Es headed by
women
The share ofe
mployees atS
ME
enterprise
Share of em
ployers at S
MEs headed
by
women
2017 2018 2017 2018 2017 2018
Agricultural sec
tor, forestry and
fish farms
17,37 16,64 1,9 1,9 1,6 1,4
Industry 17,42 17,00 7,3 7,6 4,1 4,2
Mining and
quarrying 5,38 5,13 12,1 12,1 5,4 5,1
Manufacturing
industry 20,46 20,01 6,3 6,9 3,9 4,2
Construction 15,59 14,98 5,2 5,5 4,6 4,4
Wholesale and
retail trade; car
and motorcycle
repair
44,94 44,31 2,1 2,3 1,6 1,8
Transport and
storage 16,44 16,18 2,3 2,6 2,6 2,6
Accommodatio
n and food
services
40,53 36,83 3,8 4,2 2,5 2,6
Information and
Communication 27,85 27,05 3,4 3,5 3,0 3,1
Financial and
insurance 43,94 44,38 3,4 3,6 3,5 3,7
Real estate
operations 37,34 37,44 2,4 2,3 1,5 1,4
Professional,
scientific and
technical
activities
31,38 29,86 4,1 4,3 3,0 3,0
Education 38,26 38,12 5,7 6,0 3,2 3,4
Health and
social services 64,70 60,01 6,9 7,3 8,3 8,3
Art,
entertainment
and leisure
9,17 9,35 6,0 5,9 1,3 1,3
The provision
of other types of
services
40,88 38,60 1,6 1,7 1,3 1,4
As it is shown in the table, on average, fewer workers
are employed at women enterprises than the national
average. As it is shown in the table, on average, fewer
workers are employed at women's enterprises than the
national average. Therefore, in such fields as art,
entertainment and recreation; water supply; sewer system,
control over the collection and distribution of waste;
mining and quarrying, the average number of employees at
an SME in the country exceeds the level of women by
more than two times. Similar excess of this indicator, but
by a smaller amount, is observed in other sectors, with the
exception of such areas as financial and insurance activities,
transportation and warehousing, where the indicators are
the same. Provided analysis of entrepreneurial activity of
women in Kazakhstan indicates the need for the qualitative
development of female entrepreneurship in the country
namely, changing the vector of "specialization" of female
business with a focus on large and highly profitable
business, ensuring the entry of a businessperson in the
primary and secondary sectors of the economy. This
approach requires expanding of economic opportunities for
women in Kazakhstan in entrepreneurship.
4.4. Kazakhstan Business Environment Analysis:
5Ms of Female Entrepreneurship
In 2018, Kazakhstan was ranked 64th among 137
countries in the global entrepreneurship index (GEI = 29.7),
however it lost 2 positions compared to previous year when
GEI =30. According to this index, the strongest
component of the entrepreneurial ecosystem of Kazakhstan
is human capital, the weakest are technology development
and risk taking.
Macro Environment. Today Kazakhstan is pursuing an
active policy on ensuring gender equality, including in

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259
business. In 1997 there was issued the Decree of the
President of the Republic of Kazakhstan “On the
development of entrepreneurship among women”. In 2000
there was issued the Decree of the Republic of Kazakhstan
“On measures to support women's entrepreneurship”. In
2006, the Strategy of Gender Equality in the Republic of
Kazakhstan for 2006 - 2016 was adopted. Numerous
government programs have been developed to promote
women's economic empowerment, such as the 2020
Business Roadmap, 2020 Employment Roadmap, Women's
Entrepreneurship Development Program for 2009-2015,
Women's Entrepreneurship Micro crediting Program for
2009-2015. This trend is maintained in the Concept of
Family and Gender Policy in the Republic of Kazakhstan
until 2030, according to which the government committed
to expand the participation of women in sectors of the
economy traditionally occupied by men and in new sectors
(for example, information technology, communications,
tourism, entertainment).
In Kazakhstan, there are various institutions for the
development of entrepreneurship, including women. One
of them is Damu Entrepreneurship Development Fund JSC.
The goal of this national development institute is to
promote the quality development of private enterprise in
the Republic of Kazakhstan by providing financial support.
The services and products for entrepreneurs include
financing under business lending programs through
second-tier banks, microfinance organizations and leasing
guarantees for business loans to second-tier banks, as well
as consulting support and dissemination of information and
analytical materials. The foundation is represented in all
regions of Kazakhstan in 204 cities and regions of
Kazakhstan.
Mezo Environment. Involvement of women leaders in
the activities of associations of professional organizations
makes a big difference in strengthening of women
entrepreneurship, which is carried through wide
dissemination among women of information on their
activities in order to develop institutional infrastructure the
development of informational support of female
entrepreneurship is of a high importance, which is creation
of specialized information center of personnel reserve
based on free provision of public information on the lists of
women entrepreneurs and gender-specific business
practices
Non-governmental organizations take on the role of
intermediaries between citizens and the state, undertake
many of the functions of social transformation and work in
society, make a very significant contribution to solving
various problems to increase the role of women in society.
In Kazakhstan, there are various organizations that promote
the development of women entrepreneurship in the
country: the Association of Business Women of
Kazakhstan, the Union of Women Entrepreneurs of
Kazakhstan, the Association of Women of Kazakhstan
“Moldir”, the Feminist League, the Federation of Women
“Status”, the Women's Leadership Fund, the Republican
Council of Women, the Women's Association development
and adaptation, Business Association of Women
Entrepreneurs “ASIA”, etc.
Money Policy. The development of female
entrepreneurship through the provision of wide access to
financial resources takes place within the framework of the
Unified Business Support and Development Program
“Employment Roadmap 2020”, as well as through various
programs of development institutions and international
financial institutions. Since 2010, as part of a micro
crediting program for women entrepreneurship, “Damu
Entrepreneurship Development Fund” JSC has been
involved in the conditional placement of financial
resources in partner banks. Under this program,
Kazakhstani businesswomen can apply to these credit
organizations to receive microloans on favorable terms.
Figure 2:
The number of loans issued to women entrepreneurs
under the conditional placement programs, Kazakhstan, 2012-
2017, units
During the period from 2012 to 2017, 16 642 loans were
issued in the total amount of 126,978 billion KZT. For the
period under review, 63,6% of all loans fell to the subjects

260 Zaira T. SATPAYEVA, Anel A. KIREYEVA, Gaukhar KENZHEGULOVA, Dinara YERMEKBAYEVA
/ Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business Vol 7 No 3 (2020) 253-263
of female entrepreneurship in the South-Kazakhstan,
Zhambyl, Kyzylorda and Almaty regions, the total amount
of which amounted to 26,425 billion KZT (Figure 2).
Among the priority areas for the development of
women's entrepreneurship in the rural sector are the
procurement, processing and storage of agricultural
products, provision of veterinary services, as well as the
production of clothing, knitwear, services and more. In
2017, subsidiaries of KazAgro National Management
Holding JSC issued 4652 loans totaling 31,02 billion KZT
(see Table 3).
Table 3: Credits issued to women entrepreneurs, subsidiaries of
KazAgro National Management Holding JSC in 2017, million
KZT
Region of
Kazakhstan
JSC
"KazAgroFi
nance"
JSC “Fund for
financial
support of
agriculture”
JSC Agrarian
Credit
Corporation
Akmola 887,0 15 562,0 10 619,6
Aktobe 27,2 623,0 809,8
Almaty 100,8 1 483,0 819,7
Atyrau 24,0 1 746,0 945,0
West-
Kazakhstan 98,6 602,0 1 600,9
Zhambyl 14,9 1 142,0 357,7
Karaganda 244,9 1 989,0 256,0
Kostanay 187,6 1 587,0 379,0
Kyzylorda - 727,0 237,0
Mangystau 486,0 1 656,0 998,0
South-
Kazakhstan 37,8 224,0 -
Pavlodar 40,7 1 558,0 2 589,6
North-
Kazakhstan 61,4 625,0 273,7
East-
Kazakhstan 353,3 882,0 571,5
Nur-Sultan c. - 719,0 781,4
Almaty c. 2 276,3 - -
In the framework of the “Business Roadmap 2020”
program, 1,021 projects were subsidized in 2017, of which
349 are related to female entrepreneurship entities. Over
the entire period of the implementation of this program,
9920 projects were subsidized, of which 3043, representing
30,6% of the total number of projects, belong to women
entrepreneurs. Partial guarantee of loans was received by
3103 projects, of which 1081 projects relate to the subjects
of female entrepreneurship. In 2017, 506 project received
partial guarantee of loans, 155 of them are “female”
projects. By industry, the largest number of loans were
issued for projects in the areas of trade, manufacturing,
transportation and warehousing, and the provision of
services.
Motherhood. This factor is especially significant under
the conditions of Kazakhstan realities. In Kazakhstan, the
patriarchal system of values dominates and Muslim
traditions are strong. Kazakhstani society is inclined to
traditional image of women and men roles with a rigid
distribution of responsibilities in families. Thereat,
Kazakhstani women face a double burden of work due to
domestic duties and employment in the workplace or doing
business. Early marriages among girls are openly
undisguised in Kazakhstan, cases of bride kidnapping are
extremely common, especially among ethnic groups such
as Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Kurds, Turks and Azerbaijanis. An
attempt to find a good balance between work and home is a
limiting factor for expanding the scale of the enterprise by
the insignificant “age” of women-headed enterprises. Low
turnover and small number of employees in female
business show a high share of small enterprises - a
consequence of the fact that women entrepreneurs are
mainly concentrated in industries which does not pretend
to be large in number of employees and the fact that they
are more focused on controlling their time than on profit
growth.
Management. It was previously noted that one of the
barriers to the development of women entrepreneurship is
either a low level of knowledge on management theory and
practice, or their absence. It is very common that small
women enterprises do not use strategic management. Given
that there is a positive relationship between strategic
planning and company performance efficacy, Kazakhstani
women entrepreneurs are offered the services of business
consultants. In the framework of the “Business Roadmap
2020” program service support was provided to 118.7
thousand women entrepreneurs, within the framework of
which specialized business services were provided free of
charge to support business processes, to teach business
fundamentals and professional development. The
implementation of the Business Advisor Program was
launched by “Damu” Foundation, in the framework of
which two-day training courses for the population with
entrepreneurial initiative and existing entrepreneurs were
organized and conducted. In 2009, 11,603 people were
trained, where women made up 60%. In 2012, as part of a
project to support start-up entrepreneurs (start-up projects),
10,002 women were trained, which is 58.3% of all
audience. Thus, it can be concluded that Kazakhstan has a
rather different level of security of 5Ms factors for
women's business, which ultimately leads to an unstable

Zaira T. SATPAYEVA, Anel A. KIREYEVA, Gaukhar KENZHEGULOVA, Dinara YERMEKBAYEVA
/ Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business Vol 7 No 3 (2020) 253-263 261
model of women's entrepreneurship in the country and a
slow pace of its qualitative development.
5. Conclusions
In general, the analysis of women entrepreneurship in
Kazakhstan has led to the following conclusions. Firstly,
lack of theoretical content on women entrepreneurship in
Kazakhstani studies suggests that to this date there are
currently no platforms for discussing the theoretical
problems of women entrepreneurship in the country. At the
same time there is a small number of studies on business
environment of businesswomen, including special factors
related to doing business in regions (for example,
villages and cities) and business area (for example,
industry and service). While as study of female
entrepreneurship is possible in the context of the influence
of such factors as legislation, social norms, economic
policy, the structure of the labor market, income and
education levels.
Secondly, in Kazakhstan, there appears growth of
women's contribution to the socio-economic development
of the republic. There is increase in entrepreneurship
activity among women, increase in the number of
enterprises headed by them. However, the growth of
women's enterprises occurs while maintaining the
insignificance of their size in terms of turnover and number
of employees. Thus, Kazakhstani women are most
represented in the sector of small and medium-sized
businesses. In the northern and eastern regions of the
country, there is a high percentage of enterprises headed by
women, in the south - low. At the same time, the situation
with large and medium-sized enterprises is opposite.
Women entrepreneurs of Kazakhstan provide a third of
jobs in the SME sector of the republic. There is a
prominent industry characteristic of women
entrepreneurship. Women's business is concentrated mainly
in the service sector. The sectors where female enterprises
now predominate are mainly related to solving social
problems that a woman often encounters when conducting
her household life; they do not require technical education,
a large number of employees and large capital. The ethno
cultural specificity of Kazakhstani society also leaves its
mark on the development of women's business; women
have been entrusted with the need for housekeeping and
taking care of family members.
Thirdly, today women have variety of economic
opportunities for self-realization in entrepreneurial activity.
At the same time, there is low level of gender
discrimination when considering social institutions. The
results of the Global Monitoring of Entrepreneurship
confirm that in Kazakhstan there is a new wave of female
entrepreneurship, where women are engaged in
entrepreneurial activities by virtue of realizing their
potential and finding new opportunities. At the same time,
the first wave of female entrepreneurship occurred during
the collapse of the Soviet Union and the declaration of
independence of Kazakhstan, when the people faced many
political and socio-economic problems. Due to the
unemployment, the need and necessity to provide for their
families, women took up small business and the
development of their subsidiary plots. It was then that
women shuttles appeared who stood at the origins of
female entrepreneurship in the country.
Fourthly, Kazakhstan has a rather different level of
security for 5Ms factors for women’s business, in particular,
a high level of development of the macro- and meso-
infrastructure factor, medium - money and management,
low - market and money. This leads to the instability of the
model of women entrepreneurship in the country and the
slow pace of its qualitative development.
Fifthly, the analysis of environmental factors and
internal characteristics of female entrepreneurship in
Kazakhstan allows us to justify the set of strategic actions
for its development: export support for women
entrepreneurs; development of the high-tech sector of
women's business; development of a system of social
support for motherhood; development of business
education among girls; development of infrastructure to
support women's entrepreneurship; development of a
system of indicators for monitoring and development of
women's entrepreneurship. The proposed set of strategic
actions requires priority attention. The selected strategies
do not negate the importance of moving forward in other
areas.
The scientific results obtained during the study may be
subjective. However, due to the lack of methodological and
statistical basis for quality monitoring, analysis, evaluation
and forecasting of the development of female
entrepreneurship, they can be taken into account to
determine the status and priority directions of its
development.
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