Abstract
This chapter deals with the influence of gender relations on transition to motherhood in Kyrgyzstan. Although a shift of fertility towards older age was dominant in the post-Soviet space during the recent decades, some post-Soviet countries with mainly Muslim population showed stability of age patterns, with the peak of women’s fertility remaining below 25. Kyrgyzstan is one of those countries, and the authors investigate whether the parameters of gender relations are at least partly “responsible” for the lack of fertility postponement there. It is shown that among the Muslim peoples of Kyrgyzstan, first marriage hazards are positively related to low education of a woman, approval of husband’s violence towards wife, and others and are declining from elder to younger birth cohorts. Meanwhile, first birth hazards among married women demonstrate no relation to gender asymmetries. The analysis has shown that the lowering of first marriage hazards for younger cohorts can be due to certain modernization of gender relations and loosening of the traditional norm that prescribes early marriage for women. This is accompanied by a low social acceptability of out-of-marriage fertility. Under these conditions, younger women are likely to enter the first marriage mainly after they have consciously chosen to have children. This supports the relatively early timing of first births in Kyrgyzstan.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
The total fertility rate indicates the number of children who would have been born per woman (or per 1,000 women) if she/they were to pass through the reproductive period bearing children according to a current schedule of age-specific fertility rates.
- 2.
Fig. 1 only includes countries whose population statistics are treated as relatively reliable. Georgia is not included as data on fertility in that country could be debatable because of abrupt changes in official TFR estimates after the census in 2014 and 2002 (this indirectly demonstrates problems with migration statistics), and because data from this country does not include breakaway Abkhazia and South Ossetia (see Sulaberidze et al. 2019). The reliability of the TFR for Moldova is also debatable due to the possibly low accuracy of migration statistics (see Penina et al. 2015). The TFR for Ukraine could be underestimated due to problematic quality of statistics in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions after separatists took power there in 2014 and due to difficulties in estimating internal and external migration at the country level (Romaniuk and Gladun 2015). The data from Tajikistan are unreliable because of poor migration statistics quality (Chudinovskikh 2006) that leads to strange fluctuations in TFR. Finally, for Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, TFRs are calculated only on administrative statistics, which cannot be compared to census data. For instance, in post-Soviet Uzbekistan no census was ever held between 1991 and 2019, and census results for Turkmenistan are not public. However, without a comparison with census results, the reliability of administrative statistics is questionable.
- 3.
This does not mean that the relation between strict gender asymmetries and early timing is restricted to Muslim societies. In some post-Soviet countries with a different religious composition of population retaining or revival of traditional gender relations was considered as one of the possible reasons for certain changes in fertility (see Klüsener et al. 2019 for Belarus).
- 4.
In 2018 the proportion of ethnic Kyrgyz was about 73.3% according to the National Statistical Committee of Kyrgyz Republic: Uzbek at 14.7% and Russians at 5.6%. No other ethnicity had a proportion higher than 1% (http://www.stat.kg/ru/opendata/category/312/).
- 5.
Both surveys supply the dates of the actual start of the women’s first marriage, whether registered or not. The MICS questionnaire asked for the date when a respondent “first married or started living with a man as if married,” while the DHS asked about “starting living with the first husband/partner.”
- 6.
Kyrgyz migration survey reported more than 700 thousand Kyrgyz citizens registered in other countries (including 640 thousand in Russia) in 2018 (State migration service of Kyrgyz government 2020). Russian official statistics reported 360–400 thousand labor migrants from Kyrgyzstan (10% of all labor migrants coming to Russia) in 2016 (Zajonchkovskaya et al. 2018, p. 368). Notably, the proportion of women among migrants from Kyrgyzstan to Russia was about 40% in recent years, which is higher than among most of other migration flows targeting Central and Eastern Europe (FIDH 2016).
- 7.
Note that the results of the Russian Census 2010 agree with the suggestion of selectivity of Kyrgyz migrants for lower fertility. That is, the completed fertility of real cohorts of Kyrgyz women living in Russia indicated by Census results (not shown here) is much lower compared with the same cohorts of women Kyrgyzstan.
- 8.
See Sect. 2.6 for further discussion.
- 9.
Note that models estimated for the MICS2014 sample in Kazenin and Kozlov (2020) give slightly different results for inter-cohort hazard ratios. There models are run for the whole sample of the MICS2014, unlike models only for the two biggest indigenous ethnicities in the present chapter.
- 10.
See Denissenko et al. (2012) for a detailed discussion of out-of-marriage fertility in Kyrgyzstan.
References
Agadjanian V (1999) Post-Soviet demographic paradoxes: Ethnic differences in marriage and fertility in Kazakhstan. Sociol Forum 14(3): 425–446
Agadjanian V, Dommaraju P, Nedoluzhko L (2013) Economic fortunes, ethnic divides, and marriage and fertility in Central Asia: Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan compared. Journal of Population Research 30(3): 197–211
Billingsley S, Duntava A (2017) Putting the pieces together: 40 years of fertility trends across 19 post-socialist countries. Post-Sov Aff 33(5): 389–410
Bongaarts J, Mensch BS, Blanc AK (2017) Trends in the age of reproductive transitions in the developing world: the role of education. Population Studies 71(2): 139–154
Chudinovskikh O (2006) Statistics of international migration in the CIS countries. UNICEF Workshop on international migration statistics for countries of CIS and SEE
Constantine EA (2007) Practical consequences of Soviet policy and ideology for gender in Central Asia and contemporary reversal. 115. In: Sahadeo J, Zanca R (eds.) Everyday Life in Central Asia: Past and Present. Indiana University Press, Bloomington and Indianapolis, pp 115–126
Coontz S (2004) The world historical transformation of marriage. J Marriage Fam 66(4): 974–979
Demko GJ, Ioffe G, Zaionchkovskaya ZH (eds.) (2018) Population Under duress: Geodemography of post-Soviet Russia. Routledge, London
Denissenko M, Kalmykova N, Nedoluzhko L (2012) Nuptiality and fertility in Kyrgyzstan. Demoscope Weekly, 493–494, 1–22 January 2012 (in Russian)
Education (2018) Education and science in the Republic of Kyrgyzstan, 2013–2017. Bishkek. (in Russian) http://www.stat.kg/ru/publications/sbornik-obrazovanie-i-nauka-v-kyrgyzskoj-respublike/
Edgar A (2006) Bolshevism, patriarchy, and the nation: The Soviet “emancipation” of Muslim women in Pan-Islamic perspective. Slav Rev 65(2): 252–272
FIDH (2016) Women and children from Kyrgyzstan affected by migration. September 2016: 675a. https://www.fidh.org/IMG/pdf/rapport_kyrgyzstan_uk-2-web2.pdf (addressed 25.06.2020)
Florinskaya J, Mkrtchyan N, Maleva T, Kirillova M (2015) Migration and labor market. Delo, Moscow (in Russian)
Frejka T, Gietel–Basten S, Abolina L, Abuladze L et al. (2016) Fertility and family policies in Central and Eastern Europe after 1990. Comparative Population Studies 41(1): 3–56
Funk N, Mueller M (eds) (2018) Gender politics and post-communism: Reflections from Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Routledge, London
Gore DL, Carlson E (2010) Ethnicity, education, and the non-proportional hazard of first marriage in Turkey. Popul Stud 64(2): 179–191
Gruber S, Szołtysek M (2012) Quantifying patriarchy: An explorative comparison of two joint family societies. Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research Working Paper 17: 1–33
Hull TH, Hartanto W (2009) Resolving contradictions in Indonesian fertility estimates. Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies 45(1): 61–71
Ikamari L (2005) The effect of education on the timing of marriage in Kenya. Demographic Research 12: 1–28
Inglehart RF, Ponarin E, Inglehart RC (2017) Cultural change, slow and fast: The distinctive trajectory of norms governing gender equality and sexual orientation. Social Forces 95(4): 1313–1340
Ishkanian A (2003) Gendered transitions: The impact of the post-Soviet transition on women in Central Asia and the Caucasus. Perspect Glob Dev Technol 2(3): 475–496
Jejeebhoy SJ (1995) Women’s education, autonomy, and reproductive behaviour: experience from developing countries. Clarendon Press, Oxford
Karabchuk T, Kumo K, Selezneva E (2017) Demography of Russia. From the Past to the Present. Palgrave Macmillan
Kasenov U (2017) Post-Soviet modernization in Central Asia: realities and prospects. In: Rumer B, Zhukov S (eds.) Central Asia: Challenges of Independence. Routledge, New York, pp 28–53
Kazenin K, Kozlov V (2016). Rejuvenation of motherhood in Daghestan: A tendency or an artifact? (Preliminary results of a survey of rural population). Demograficheskoe obozrenie [Demogr Rev] 3(3): 100–123
Kazenin K, Kozlov V (2020) What factors support the early age patterns of fertility in a developing country: The case of Kyrgyzstan. To appear in Vienna Yearbook for Population Research 2020
Klüsener S, Jasilioniene A, Yuodeshko V (2019) Retraditionalization as a pathway to escape lowest-low fertility? Characteristics and prospects of the Eastern European “Baby boom.” MPIDR Working Paper WP 2019–014
Knight CR, Brinton MC (2017) One egalitarianism or several? Two decades of gender-role attitude change in Europe. Am J Sociol 122(5): 1485–1532
Kyrgyzstan Population Census (2009) URL: https://data.humdata.org/dataset/kyrgyzstan-population-census-2009 (addressed 25.06.2020)
Kyrgyzstan Yearbook (2019) Demographic Yearbook of Kyrgyz Republic, 2014–2018. Bishkek, National Statistic Office of Kyrgyz Republic http://www.stat.kg/ru/publications/demograficheskij-ezhegodnik-kyrgyzskoj-respubliki/
Lerch M (2013) Patriarchy and fertility in Albania. Demogr Res 29: 133–166
Malhotra A, Vannemann R, Kisher S (1995) Fertility, dimensions of patriarchy, and development in India. Popul Dev Rev 21(2): 281–305
Martinez PR, Khalil H (2013) Battery and development: Exploring the link between intimate partner violence and modernization. Cross-Cult Res 47(3): 231–267
Mason KO (2001) Gender and family systems in the fertility transition. Popul Dev Rev 27: 160–176
McDonald P (2000) Gender equity in theories of fertility transition. Popul Dev Rev 26(3): 427–439
Mitra A (2014) Son preference in India: Implications for gender development. J Econ Issues 48(4): 1021–1037
Morgan SP, Stash S, Smith HL, Mason KO (2002) Muslim and non‐Muslim differences in female autonomy and fertility: Evidence from four Asian countries. Popul Dev Rev 28(3): 515–537
Nedoluzhko L (2012) Achieved fertility and fertility intentions among ethnic groups in Central Asia: Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan compared. Stockholm Research Reports in Demography 2012: 4
Nedoluzhko L, Agadjanian V (2015) Between tradition and modernity: Marriage dynamics in Kyrgyzstan. Demography 52: 861–882
Penina O, Jdanov D, Grigoriev P (2015) Producing reliable mortality estimates in the context of distorted population statistics: The case of Moldova. Rostock: Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research
Phan L (2013) Women’s empowerment and fertility changes. Int J Sociol Fam 49–75
Poliakov SP, Olcott MB (2016) Everyday Islam: Religion and tradition in rural Central Asia. Routledge, New York
Romaniuk A, Gladun O (2015) Demographic trends in Ukraine: Past, present, and future. Popul Dev Rev 41(2): 315–337
Roussel L (1994) Fertility and family. In: United Nations and Council of Europe. European Population Conference, Proceedings, vol. I, New York and Geneva, pp 35–110
Roy K, Chaudhuri A (2008) Influence of socioeconomic status, wealth and financial empowerment on gender differences in health and healthcare utilization in later life: Evidence from India. Social Science & Medicine 66(9): 1951–1962
Rychtarikova J (1999) Is Eastern Europe experiencing a second demographic transition. In: Workshop on lowest low FERTILITY, MPIDR, vol. 2, Rostock, pp 105–114
Salway SM (2007) Economic activity among UK Bangladeshi and Pakistani women in the 1990s: Evidence for continuity or change in the family resources survey. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 33(5): 825–847. https:// https://doi.org/10.1080/13691830701359256
Spoorenberg T (2015) Explaining recent fertility increase in Central Asia. Asian Popul Stud 11(2): 115–133
Spoorenberg T (2017) The onset of fertility transition in Central Asia. Population 72(3): 473–504
State migration service of Kyrgyz government (2020) URL: http://ssm.gov.kg/en/ (addressed 25.06.2020)
Stonawski M, Potančokova M, Skirbekk V (2016) Fertility patterns of native and migrant Muslims in Europe. Popul, Space Place 8: 552–567
Stromquist NP (1990) Gender inequality in education: Accounting for women’s subordination. Br J Sociol Educ 11(2): 137–153
Sulaberidze A, Archvadze J, Sulaberidze V (2019) The main factors of migration and the structure of migrants in post-communist Georgia. Demographic Rev 6(3): 128–151. https://doi.org/10.17323/demreview.v6i3.9859
Wallach HS, Weingram Z, Avitan O (2010) Attitudes toward domestic violence: A cultural perspective. J Interpers Violence 25(7): 1284–1297
Wei W, Zhu Y, Li H et al. (2018) Spatio-temporal reorganization of cropland development in Central Asia during the post-Soviet era: A sustainable implication in Kazakhstan. Sustainability 10(11): 40–42
Zakharov S (2008) Russian Federation: From the first to second demographic transition. Demographic Res 19(24): 907–972
Zakharov S (2018) Fertility, nuptiality, and family planning in Russia: Problems and prospects. In: Demko GJ, Ioffe G, Zaionchkovskaya Zh (eds.) (2018) Population Under Duress: Geodemography of Post-Soviet Russia. Routledge, London, pp 41–58
Zajonchkovskaya Zh, Florinskaya Ju, Doronina K (2018) International migration: regular observations and results of Microcensus-2015. In: Zakharov S (ed) Population of Russia: the 24th annual demographic report. Moscow: Vysshaja shkola ekonomiki
Acknowledgements
The chapter was written on the basis of the RANEPA state assignment research program and the research project implemented as part of the Basic Research Program at the National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE University).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Kazenin, K., Kozlov, V. (2021). Gender Relations and Transition to Motherhood in the Post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan. In: Karabchuk, T., Kumo, K., Gatskova, K., Skoglund, E. (eds) Gendering Post-Soviet Space. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-9358-1_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-9358-1_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-15-9357-4
Online ISBN: 978-981-15-9358-1
eBook Packages: Economics and FinanceEconomics and Finance (R0)