Bulgaria Among Leaders in Gender Equality, Still Room for Improvement

Sofia, Sept 13 – (BTA/GNA) – Priorities for public policies to treat women more fairly were outlined at the roundtable on “Women and leadership in professional higher education, in business and in the public spheres”, organised by the Higher School of Telecommunications and Post (HSTP), the school said on Tuesday.

The forum, attended by the President’s wife, Mrs. Desislava Radeva, brought together representatives of academia, business, state administration, the Bulgarian National Bank, members of the last National Assembly, and the media.

The participants concurred that Bulgaria is one of the positive examples of women’s involvement in business and science, but there is room for further improvement of gender equality.

This year, Bulgaria ranked 42nd out of 146 countries in the Global Gender Gap index. “On the one hand, it is good to see countries like Italy, Poland and Greece behind us. But on the other hand, last year we were in 38th position, which means that there is a deterioration in our performance and that there is more to be done,” said Desislava Radeva in her opening speech. In her words, the man as a leader is a stereotype imposed over the centuries. That is why it will take years until such a template is irreversibly broken, which requires consistent efforts. Because leadership is not about gender, age, or race. It has to do with qualities like morality, empathy, intuition.

“Bulgaria has a lot to be proud of. We rank first in the world in terms of women’s participation in the communication and information technology sector with a 28% representation. In science, the share of women is 49%. In Bulgarian legislation, the obligation of equality is enshrined everywhere, but despite this, there are differences in the conditions offered to women and men,” said the Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Policy.

BTA/GNA