Education, employment, and ethnic-specific transition to marriage in Kyrgyzstan

Lesia Nedoluzhko, Kyrgyz-Russian Slavic University

The connections between educational attainment and enrollment and employment, on the one hand, and men’s and women’s entry into marriage, on the other, have been widely researched in both western and non-western settings. However, the reality of dramatic societal transformations in post-Soviet nations may introduce unique features to these connections. Moreover, in post-Soviet settings where individual economic and cultural opportunities are greatly influenced by one’s ethnicity, these connections may be ethnic-specific. We apply event-history approach to retrospective data from a recent survey of Kyrgyz youths to examine monthly probabilities of entry into marriage conditional on education and employment. We also look at how education and employment shape marriage expectations and aspirations among unmarried respondents. The results point to considerable ethnic-gender variations in both retrospective and prospective analyses, which are interpreted within the socioeconomic, cultural, and political context of Kyrgyzstan.