Rector Saule Sagintayeva: 61% of faculty and staff at AUPET are women

On March 3, 2022, the Rector of AUPET named after Gumarbek Daukeyev Saule Sagintaeva took part in the summit-seminar "Women in Energy in Central and Western Asia" remotely. It took place in the city of Manila. Participants shared their opinions and discussed a lot about the situation of women working in the energy industry. Regarding Kazakhstan, the Rector of AUPET Saule Sagintayeva gave a detailed commentary.

- The Central Asian region is characterized by a high quality of education in the field of natural sciences, engineering and other technical disciplines. Why are women not attracted to these professions? Is this the main reason for their limited representation in the energy sector? Can you testify that women overcome the so-called "glass ceiling" effect by reaching leadership positions in energy companies?

- Even in the Soviet years, we did not have a “glass ceiling”. The reason for today's gender imbalance in the sector is very simple. You understand that after the collapse of the USSR, many women who had unique competencies in energy and engineering left the profession due to low wages. They left and stayed to work in the service and sales sectors. Many have realized themselves as excellent leaders and businesswomen. And no one puts barriers in front of young women when entering technical specialties.

I would like to briefly talk about the history of women's education in Kazakhstan. The beginning of women's education was laid with the opening of an elementary school in the village of Khanskaya Stavka, the center of the Bukeevskaya province, in 1883. Later, women's schools were opened in Turgay, Kostanay, Karabutak, Aktobe, Irgiz. In Soviet times, the position of women improved significantly. Many then got the opportunity to master technical specialties and work on an equal basis with men. It can be said that in the Soviet years, the Kazakh female intelligentsia was formed, which made an invaluable contribution to politics, economics, culture, education and science.

Today, in independent Kazakhstan, the level of social development and gender equality is at a fairly high level. This is due to the state policy of modernizing society. Thus, the Constitution of the Republic of Kazakhstan of 1995 recognizes and guarantees the absence of discrimination based on origin, social, official and property status, gender, race, nationality, language, attitude to religion, beliefs, place of residence or any other circumstances. Not only my success story proves this, but also the stories of other leaders. Gulzada Shakulikova is the rector of Non-profit JSC "Atyrau University of Oil and Gas named after Safi Utebaev". Akbope Karabayeva is the director of the Almaty Kazakh-Turkish Humanitarian-Technological College. When choosing a leader, we prioritize experience and strategic thinking.

In AUPET, 61% of faculty and staff are women. The directors of three institutes are women. At least 60% of women work in our Institute of Thermal Power Engineering and Control Systems alone. 8 chairs are headed by women. We have 296 women teaching against 200 men. I would also like to separately note the scientific and teaching activities of Gulmira Akimbek. She recently received the "Best Young Scientist of the CIS" award. It helps Kazakh-speaking students to correctly understand and translate terms from the field of thermal power engineering. In 2021, for the children, she specially developed and created a laboratory stand "Equipment for the study of the abrasiveness of particles of bulk materials of the middle fraction and a method for determining the degree of volatile substances at operating temperatures (20-4000C)". In addition, it is constantly published in journals included in Web of Science and Scopus, as well as those recommended by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

And the number of female students in our university is growing from year to year. This year, more than 1,700 young women are studying at AUPET in bachelor's, master's and doctoral programs. There are 32 women in doctoral studies against 31 men. The above facts speak for themselves.

In Kazakhstan, all roads are open to women!

 

 

 

 

Related news