Soft Power and Nation Branding through Socioeconomic Empowerment of Women in Kazakhstan

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between women’s socio-economic status, namely their empowerment, and the improvement of the Kazakhstan’s soft power and nation branding. Building on theoretical frameworks like the soft power theory and Simon Anholt’s Nation Brand Hexagon Model this work aims to assess the ways in which improvements in the women’s socio economic status impact the country’s image and appeal in the global community of nations. The research addresses four critical hypotheses: the impact of empowerment of women on cultural and heritage of nation branding, perceived quality of governance, and potential foreign investors’ interest as well as public diplomacy. The empirical evidence mentioned above testifies that the increased level of socioeconomic empowerment of women greatly contributes to the strengthening of cultural and heritage potential in Kazakhstan through the creation of a new and progressive image of the country. Women representation in governance has also been established to enhance world perception of the quality governance in Kazakhstan. Measures to support female entrepreneurship have helped Kazakhstan to increase the investment attractiveness of the country at the same time, such enduring problems as the lack of financial capital and discriminations in the workplace demand more attention. Although all forms of public diplomacy contribute to enhancing the nation brand as well as increasing the country’s soft power, the emphasis placed on the successes of women in Kazakhstan has a tremendous impact on the nation branding. However, the study reveals that there are still challenges which seem to persist and act as barriers, these are; sustained cultural practices and discrepancies in policy enactment. One way to continue the progress to empower women is thus the strengthening of the policy implementation, supporting activists, supporting civil society, broadening the economic and educational opportunities for women and beginning public campaigning against stereotyped gender roles for women. This research used mixed method approach by employing primary data from online survey and secondary data sources from existing literature and databases.