In Bulgaria, women's employment is higher than men's, but pay continues to be lower, although the gap has been narrowing in recent years.

It is most significant in the financial sector, healthcare, the ICT sector, manufacturing and in the fields of culture, sports and entertainment, where women's pay is over 30% less than that of men.

These are some of the conclusions in a new study by the Institute for Market Economy, published on the institute's website. 

Women in our country are more affected by inflation, because they work on lower average incomes, warned yesterday the president of KNSB Plamen Dimitrov at the national conference on the Eighth of March. 

On the day when we traditionally take stock of the economic and social achievements of women, in addition to the increasing presence of women in Bulgaria's workforce, it is an achievement that European statistics indicate that our country is among the countries in the European Union that have highest proportion of women in managerial positions.

Bulgaria excels and is among the top three countries in Europe in terms of the number of female researchers, our country is in first place in terms of the presence of women in information and communication technologies. 

The UN theme for International Women's Day this year is "DigitALL: Innovation and Technology for Gender Equality".

The theme highlights how technology is critical to advancing rights, but the widening "digital divide" between the sexes affects everything from women's employment opportunities to online safety. 

In Bulgaria, women who regularly use the Internet - every day or at least once a week - are 78 percent, men - 79.9 percent, according to the data of the National Statistical Institute for 2022.

According to the United Nations, there are 259 million fewer women than men who have access to the Internet.

The organization also warns that women are grossly underrepresented in science, technology, engineering and math careers.

BGN 798 is the average pension for men in March, and BGN 577 for women.

Vihra Naydenova, PhD in psychology, lecturer at Sofia University "St.

Kliment Ohridski" in the field of labor and organizational psychology and human resources management, and Ralitsa Vachkova, head of the "Human Resources" department in an international company in the field of logistics, commented for BTA what is the main thing that drives women in their professional realization and traditional do gender attitudes influence the choice of career path.

What motivates women?

Each person has different values ​​and motivators that drive them.

What I observe, after more than 15 years of working in human resources management and development in Bulgaria, is that for women, factors such as social relationships, a friendly and supportive environment, relationships with the direct supervisor are the driving force, but they are also very important for them the meaning and significance of their work, the contribution, as well as the opportunities for learning and development.

Here it is important to consider both the business sector and generational differences, they also matter, Vihra Naydenova said.

According to Ralitsa Vachkova, what drives every person in successful professional realization is the desire to prove himself.

The desire to prove that they can perform no worse than a man can do in a given profession also motivates women, she noted.

Women are more organized, more responsible, which is due in no small part to the fact that they more often have to balance many tasks in personal and professional terms, the expert believes. 

Asked if there are any specifics in the path of professional realization for women, Vachkova said that purely biologically, the professional path of women is interrupted by moments related to childbirth, raising a child, possibly using sick leave, which sometimes makes it difficult for women.

"But my experience shows that lately more and more men are taking advantage of the opportunity when their child is sick to stay at home and look after it, it's not so much a mother's duty anymore," she added. 

The labor market has already overcome one stigma - that employers refrain from hiring women who are about to become mothers or have small children, Vachkova said.

She specified that it depends on the corporate culture in a company, but these are decisions imposed by the market, it is such that job applicants already set the conditions.

"If a female job applicant is exceptionally good at what she does, it won't matter to an employer that she is of childbearing age.

He will choose the most capable employee," she stated. 

According to Vachkova, there is no difference between the sexes in adapting to a new workplace - people who are more introverted have certain difficulties in adapting, in contrast to the more open, sociable ones who easily come into contact with others. 

Women in leadership positions 

In Bulgaria, women have the opportunity for career development and occupying high managerial positions.

This is what I have been observing for the past twenty years, said Vihra Naydenova.

"Everything is very individual and depends not only on gender, but also on the person himself, the skills developed, the trainings conducted.

It is extremely important, if we are hiring for a managerial position, to consider strategic thinking, communication and negotiation skills, the ability to look "outside the box" and new ideas, analytical thinking, she pointed out. 

According to her, women in Bulgaria make an impression with their desire to develop their skills, their communication, their leadership capacity.

That is precisely why they are desired by employers - because of the desire for improvement and contribution.

But, of course, it doesn't depend only on gender, but also on the individuality of each person and the business they get into, added Vihra Naydenova. 

Within the company where I work, the women of the so-called

senior management positions are a serious percentage, they are not equal to men, but I can make a comparison first with the countries of Eastern Europe and then with Western Europe, commented Ralitsa Vachkova.

"We are in one of the strongest places in the so-called

striving to equalize the number of female and male managers.

We are still far from parity, but at the same time, what we have achieved, we have achieved without artificial quotas, it is entirely based on the qualities of our women leaders.

I am definitely against quotas, I think that what should be decisive in development should be professional qualities," she added. 

March 8 is International Women's Day

Ralitsa Vachkova noted that women in higher positions return to work more quickly after maternity leave.

Asked if this was due to the higher salaries, Vachkova said that there was probably a pay factor to a large extent, but when a woman at the age of 30 goes into motherhood, and has already reached a middle or senior management level, for her a long stay in motherhood would represented a serious departure from the trends in the respective business in which he works, and many ladies cannot afford it.

"This - on the one hand, but on the other - the decision when to return from motherhood largely depends on the dynamism of the person himself.

There are women who think that they would pay more attention to their family if they split their time between work and their family, not concentrating only on looking after the child," Vachkova added.

Are there still career areas preferred by women?

More up-to-date research on these attitudes is needed, but overall, women are more likely than men to favor social and support fields, work as teachers, social workers, administrative and medical roles and others that involve care and communication, she said. Vihra Naydenova, asked if there are areas of professional realization preferred by women.

She believes that almost any profession can be successfully performed by both sexes, but women, for example, are much more often chosen and successful as nurses due to the specifics of the profession, and less often in Bulgaria they are professional drivers or locksmiths, as and other more specific manufacturing occupations - which are more suitable for men.

Vihra Naydenova emphasized that more and more women are oriented towards the IT sphere, as well as managerial and strategic positions, in the sphere of politics as well.

We have the highest proportion of women in IT in Europe in recent years, as well as the proportion of women in senior management positions.

This says a lot about the potential and ambitions of the ladies in Bulgaria, she believes. 

The company where Ralitsa Vachkova works also cooperates with vocational schools.

When asked if there are still more boys in such schools, she noted that they predominate in percentage terms, there are much fewer girls oriented in the "forwarder-logistics" profession.

At the same time, in a typically male position, such as the driver of a forklift in a warehouse, which is an extremely responsible job, we have had female colleagues with serious experience who do not just on par with men, but even better, he said Ralitsa Vachkova.

According to her, these are exceptions, single cases, but it is important to emphasize that it is the qualities that determine whether you will be good in the profession or not.

There are certain professional areas in which women predominate, and others in which men predominate, but my experience shows that in a team where the representation of men/women is balanced, the working atmosphere is better, added the expert. 

In response to a question about whether men or women perform better in a job interview, Vachkova said that a person's individual "sales skills" determine performance.

In companies that have built a corporate culture tied to personal achievements, results are sought, the so-called.

gender orientation doesn't matter, she noted. 

Women's pay 

According to Vihra Naydenova, who has experience in large international organizations, the gender pay gap is not that big.

The difference comes not from gender, but from the preparation, skills and contribution of each professional, male or female, she believes.

Ralitsa Vachkova pointed out that for the sector in which she operates - transport and logistics, as well as for Sofia in general, the differences in the remuneration of women and men are not particularly large, but for forwarding positions they are almost equal.

The more serious problem is in the regional determination of remuneration, where the differences can be drastic, including between men and women.

Asked how, in her opinion, this can be overcome, Vachkova said that she is a supporter of the theory of the invisible hand of the market.

When we are in a position,

in which the market determines for one reason or another the behavior of applicants and, accordingly, of employers, this will lead to positive changes in this direction as well.

The truth is that if an employer decides to look for candidates for certain jobs in smaller towns, he encounters greater difficulties than in Sofia or other big cities, she added. 

The 2021 census showed that 2.9 million out of a total of 5.6 million people over the age of 15 were working or offering work (the labor force).

The share of men is significantly higher - 57.1%, while that of women is 48.8 percent, according to the research of the Institute for Market Economy. 

Although a smaller proportion of women are economically active, the proportion of employed women is higher and the proportion of unemployed women is lower.

In 2021, the share of employed women in the labor force is 90.7% (compared to 89.5% for men) and the unemployed - 9.3% (compared to 10.5% for men). 

The share of women between 45 and 64 years of age is the highest - 49.7%.

In the lowest (15-24 years) and in the highest age group (65+ years.) the participation of women is significantly lower.

"This means that the share of women in the labor market is concentrated in the most active age of working life, and their participation in the labor force starts later and ends earlier than that of men," the authors of the analysis point out.

Data by region show that Sofia has the highest percentage of women (60 percent) participating in the labor force (compared to 68% for men), and the lowest is in Kardzhali district (36% participation of women and 43 % - of men).

The districts with the smallest difference in the share of the labor force between the two sexes are Blagoevgrad, Kyustendil and Pernik (less than 6 pp. difference), and with the highest - Dobrich, Targovishte and Shumen (with 11 pp. difference each ).

"A relatively large proportion of women do not participate in the labor force in some areas where the share of the ethnic, rural and relatively less educated population is high", summarize the analysts and add that "the differences in the participation of men and women in the labor market are decreasing with increasing level of education”.

Career choices are heavily influenced by traditional gender roles.

Therefore, the largest number of women are employed in education, health care and social work (over 80%), in other words in sectors related to working with people.

At the other extreme - with less than 20% of employed women - are the traditionally male-dominated sectors, such as construction and the mining industry.

"The data show that in the sectors where personal contact and working with people are necessary, women are mostly employed, and in those where physical strength is required, men predominate", commented Zornitsa Slavova, senior economist at IPI. 

In 2021, the average gross annual salary for women is BGN 16,900, and for men - BGN 20,500.

"Over the past decade, there has been steady and steady growth in wages for both sexes, and the gap is narrowing.

While in 2000, women's remuneration was nearly 25% lower than men's, in 2021 the difference is below 18%", the author of the study points out.

It found that, while for women children in the family lead to a "loss" of employment, for men it is exactly the opposite - they are a factor that increases the employment rate, regardless of education.

"The obvious explanation for the opposite effect of children is in the distribution of roles in the family, as women more often choose to take care of children and the household without seeking formal employment, and vice versa - men need jobs,

so that they can support the household.

Of course, there is another explanation, namely, that working men find it easier to find a partner with whom to create a family and children", commented the IPI.

payment

gender equality