Abstract
Technological modernization of the economy depends not only on the volume of investments in research and development, but also on the quality of human capital and the degree of its gender-inclusive use. The purpose of the study is to assess the relationship between gender-inclusive human capital and innovation performance in Kazakhstan. The information base consists of annual data for Kazakhstan for 2015-2024, obtained from the materials of the World Bank, the World Intellectual Property Organization, the Bureau of National Statistics of Kazakhstan, the United Nations and the World Economic Forum. Methods of descriptive statistics, correlation and multiple regression analysis, as well as a panel model with fixed effects are applied. The results of the national regression showed a positive and statistically significant relationship between the Gender Human Capital Index and the Global Innovation Index. The explanatory power of the model was R2 = 0.986, adjusted R2 = 0.980. The coefficients of the total Human Capital Index and research and development expenditures did not reach statistical significance at the level of 5%. The results of the regional model also confirmed a positive relationship between gender-inclusive human capital and patent activity: the coefficient of the regional index was 2.34 at p = 0.009, and the coefficient of the gross regional product per capita was 0.67 at p = 0.035. The results show that a more complete inclusion of women's human capital in education, employment, entrepreneurship, and technology industries is associated with an increase in Kazakhstan's innovation performance.