Women’s Situation in Mongolia of Post-socialism - Increasing high-educatedwomen –Ms. Turmunkh ODONTUYA (Mongolia)
Mongolia is located in central Asia and faces to China and Russia. Its area isapproximately 1.57 million km2, and its population is 3 million (statistics in January 2015).
Mongolia had been maintaining socialist system for 70 years since 1924 as the second socialistic
state, namely “Mongolian People’s Republic” after the Soviet Union. Being affected byPerestroika of the Soviet Union and the fall of Berlin Wall, however, democratization movement
spread in Mongolia as well in early 1920’s. In 1990 the first election was held with multi-party
system, the Mongolian Constitution was stipulated in 1992 and the nation was renamed as“Mongolia.” The state system has changed into capitalism from socialism and started to pursue
market economy.
A series of economic difficulties were found during the transition period of market
economy. There arose serious social issues which gave several influence on people’s life,
especially on women’s. Unemployment rate elevated, divorce rate as well as the number ofhousehold headed by women increased. Domestic violence and violence against women also
became serious problem. But on the other hand, there has been such good impact that women’seducation level has been improved, women’s career as specialists has advanced and women
have become economically independent.
I would like to mention about the enhancement of Mongolian women’s education duringtransition period of market economy. Women’s ratio to the population of Mongolia is 51.7% andto the labor force is 50.4%. In socialism era, the ideology included gender equality and that both
men and women work outside, so women’s social participation was common and both ofmarried couple work outside. Women’s education level was rapidly improved after shifting tomarket economy. According to the statistics, 70% of university students are women; 64% ofuniversity graduates and 66% of diploma acquisition are women. Furthermore, in society, forexample, women’s ratio working in education sector is: 95.7% of kindergarten and nurseryteachers; 80.3% of elementary and secondary school teachers; 62.5% of college teachers and53.4% of university professors. Other statistics show that 33.1% of women earn more than theirhusbands do and 25.6% of women earn as much as their husbands.
It is believed that women’s high education is partly due to the nomadic lifestyle and wayof thinking. Many male Mongolians easily live with various jobs including physical labor, but inorder for women to gain economic stability and opportunities, it is believed that high educationis only one solution. That is why parents attach greater importance on girls’ education thanboys’ and send girls to higher school. Furthermore, based on the deep-rooted perception that“men’s job is nomadism,” parents train their sons nomadism and let them remain local,
meanwhile give higher education to daughters so as to allow them to work other than nomadism.
This background accelerate women’s higher education, but the problem is men’s low awarenessof education. This has caused decreasing marriage rate. More number of women do not get
married, because they are not able to find a partner who had received same level of education,
while increasing number of women go for international marriage.