Why Uzbekistan Is Losing Women Engineers

A young graduate of an energy college in Uzbekistan’s Syrdarya Region spent two years working with Acwa, one of the country’s largest foreign energy companies. When the company offered her a permanent job in Tashkent, her parents were reluctant to let her move to the capital. Company representatives invited the family to see where she would be working and eventually persuaded her parents to change their minds. Stories like this help explain why women with technical training do not always make it to Uzbekistan’s power plants and other energy facilities. A study commissioned by Acwa and the American Chamber of Commerce in Uzbekistan examined the barriers facing women in energy, particularly in the transition from technical education to employment. Gender researcher and legal scholar Kamola Alieva interviewed women and employers in several parts of Uzbekistan, including Tashkent and Karakalpakstan. She told The Times of Central Asia that the aim was to understand why women trained in technical fields often leave their professions or move into other roles. [caption id="attachment_56144" align="aligncenter" width="1280"] Image: Alieva, Acwa[/caption] “We wanted to understand where and why women drop out of the profession, rather than count their numbers,” Alieva said. Two figures appeared in the presentation, around 40% for women in STEM education and around 12% for women in the energy sector. Alieva clarified that the study itself did not calculate either figure. According to the International Labour Organization, 40.2% of female university graduates in Uzbekistan had studied STEM subjects in 2021, up from 32.6% in 2017. The figure represents the share of female graduates who studied STEM, not women’s share of all STEM students. In some engineering programs, the number of women is far lower. At one energy college Alieva visited during the research, only 16 of more than 100 students admitted were women. “Already at the education stage, the number of girls drops significantly,” Alieva said. The reasons often lie outside the college or university. Parents may regard engineering as a male profession or object to their daughters moving to another city. The work itself can involve shift schedules and travel to remote energy facilities. After graduation, some women move into procurement, administrative work, or social projects instead of engineering and operational positions. Employers told researchers that women submit almost no applications for some technical vacancies. Women are particularly scarce in equipment maintenance and plant operations. Few hold managerial positions. This comes amid a significant employment gap between men and women across Uzbekistan’s economy. The World Bank estimated the labor-force participation gap at 28 percentage points in 2021. Unemployment among young women stood at 15.5%, compared with 10% among young men. Women earned 34% less than men on average. At industrial sites, the barriers can be more basic than career policy. “Conditions at industrial sites often make it clear themselves that women are not expected there,” Alieva said. She noted that many sites lacked separate toilets and showers, as well as accommodation for women. Questions about marriage and children, including whether a husband permitted...