Female political participation and barriers that women face in politics: lessons from post-soviet Kazakstan and Belarus

Abstract

Women’s participation in politics has increased across the globe in the last 50 years, and this trend is not limited to Western democracies. For example, post-Soviet Belarus and Kazakhstan, both presidential autocracies and signatories to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), have seen women’s political participation increase in recent years. However, there are more women in politics in Belarus than in Kazakhstan. What can explain this variation? Comparing the number of women in the parliaments of Belarus and Kazakhstan over time, I find that the demand for domestic or international support, the extent to which a country is politically and socially linked with other states in the world, and presidential goals jointly influence female political participation. An increase in women in parliament are not evidence of promoting democratization and democratic representation, but rather deliberate authoritarian strategies to bolster regime resilience and presidential power. Importantly, these findings help advance our understanding of female political participation beyond the western world and beyond the democratization paradigm.