According to the Russian social magazine "Ogonyok," every third leader in Kyrgyzstan is a woman. Kyrgyz culture is known for its famous women leaders of the past. One such female leader, Kurmanjan Datka, refused to live with the husband she was forced to marry and ruled the country alone when her second husband died. In October 1999, a joint project initiated by American University in Kyrgyzstan, Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE), and Scranton University in Pennsylvania began. The objectives of the project are to conduct comparative analyses of women leadership roles in Kyrgyzstan and the USA in the past and future. The project will also increase the effectiveness of women’s activism and competency in the economic sphere, teach leadership skills and concepts of gender, and spread notions of new roles for women in the world.

On a highly competitive basis, 64 women from throughout Kyrgyzstan representing over 50 female NGOs, including the widely known "Gender in Development" and "Women’s Forum," were selected to participate. The project will last for one year and include training seminars and a conference. Fourteen women from Kyrgyzstan will travel to Scranton, Pennsylvania, for two weeks to visit local women’s groups and other places of their professional interest. Jen Kelly and Shirley Adams, representatives from Scranton University, came to Kyrgyzstan to conduct training seminars in November 1999 and March 2000.

The training seminars offered in November and this past March each lasted five days long. The first three days were devoted to discussing various leadership techniques and ways to reach more women. The last two days were devoted to training eighteen selected trainers who then went to the villages and applied what they had learned, teaching skills such as communication, listening, tolerance, all skills that are essential for strong leaders. Participants had to give a presentation in front of a camera and then their presentation skills were discussed and critiqued and improvement techniques were proposed. The project publishes a monthly newsletter about the success stories of its participants.

The participants applied the knowledge gained by the participants in widely varied ways. They conducted workshops and surveys, wrote articles for the media, held roundtable discussions and debates with women governmental candidates, helped establish new women NGOs and even supported women painters. It is estimated that each women who went through the training seminar will affect at least 300 other women. The seminars between November and March reached over 2000 women from all over Kyrgyzstan who are now aware of the concepts of gender and women’s leadership. A concluding conference will take place on June 10-11, 2000 in Bishkek. Governmental authorities, representatives of various NGOs and businesswomen will participate to discuss various ways to spread notions of women’s rights, gender, and equality throughout Kyrgyzstan.

Anna Kirey, Journalism Undergraduate, American University, Kyrgyzstan.