Abstract
Women's entrepreneurship in rural areas is an important factor in diversifying the regional economy, increasing employment and reducing gender inequality, but its development in Kazakhstan is hampered by financial, institutional, infrastructural and social constraints. The aim of this study is to identify and assess the key institutional, financial, infrastructural, and human capital determinants of women’s entrepreneurship development in rural Kazakhstan using regional panel data. The research methodology includes descriptive and correlational analyses, the construction of an integrated index of women's entrepreneurship, content analysis of regulatory and strategic documents, and the evaluation of panel regression models. The initial information base consisted of official statistical data for 17 regions of Kazakhstan for 2019-2024, including 102 panel observations, as well as materials from international organisations and 45 regulatory and strategic documents. The results showed that the average value of the integral index of women's entrepreneurship increased from 0.42 in 2019 to 0.58 in 2024. In the fixed-effects model, government support has a positive and statistically significant impact on the proportion of female managers of small and medium-sized businesses. A positive impact was also found for the proportion of women with higher education (coefficient: 0.523) and the infrastructure index (coefficient: 2.891). At the same time, the gross regional product per capita has lost statistical significance after accounting for regional fixed effects. The results obtained substantiate the need to develop gender-oriented financial instruments, digital infrastructure, entrepreneurial education, and regionally differentiated government support measures.