Bulgaria is 22^nd among 142 countries in the World Economic Forum’s report on the global gender gap in the workplace. The top positions are occupied by the Scandinavian countries, bottom of the list come Yemen, Pakistan, Chad and Syria. Figures also indicate a wide gender pay gap. Women in Bulgaria have an average annual income of a little over USD 13,000, men – over USD 19,000. More women (71 percent) graduate university than men (55 percent). Yet in Bulgarian parliament only one quarter of the seats are occupied by women.

In the world of business the results in terms of gender equality are even less rosy - a mere 14 percent of the senior management are women. According to this indicator Bulgaria is close to the average European level (15 percent), indicate data from a survey conducted by the Centre for Economic Development among the top 100 companies in this country. The survey was conducted within a project called Gender Equality in Economic Decision-making, financed under the European PROGRESS prorgamme. The survey respondents are human resource department heads and company CEOs. According to 52 percent, the number of women occupying managerial posts has gone up over the past three years. Ninety percent say they approve of the appointment of women to managerial company structures. But what are the obstacles women have to face as they climb the professional career ladder?

“Our aim was to find out whether the main obstacle to the promotion of women to such posts was lack of qualification,” says Blenika Jelepova from the Centre for Economic Development. “The survey included a series of questions connected with women’s interest in obtaining qualification that would make them competitive on the labour market. We received a good many positive answers, in some cases the ladies were more active then men in their willingness to obtain qualification. Yet what 70 percent of the CEOs and heads of human resources departments stated was an obstacle, was that it is difficult to combine household and parental responsibilities with allocated duties. The lack of a sufficient number of services on offer, the low pay which means women are unable to hire a babysitter so as to carve out a career for themselves, the unwillingness of a great many men of the older generation to take on some of the household chores are evidently an obstacle. We are hoping more young people will see household obligations as something to be divided equally between the two partners.”

What are the strong points of the weaker sex that could boost the development of a given company?

“A number of surveys conducted abroad have proved several things: that women’s flair for marketing is considerably better and boosts the sales of trading and manufacturing companies. At a managerial level – CEOs and company boards – corruption practices among women have been proven to be lower. And last but not least – it is a way to break the male-dominated decision-making model, offering a different point of view, something that is crucial to company policy.”

English Milena Daynova