Enlargement, Gender and Governance (EGG)
EU Framework 5, Project No: HPSE-CT-2002-00115
Work Package 2: Analysing Female Visibility
Executive Summary
BULGARIA
Nelly Videva, University of Sofia
In order to analyse statistical data about women’s participation in the public sphere in
Bulgaria during the last twenty-four years (1979-2003), it is necessary to follow a suitable
conceptual framework. This period includes two different ways of organising society, both
politically and economically. One should recognise the difference in the concepts that are
used to describe the field in order to obtain adequate information about what has happened
and what is happening now in Bulgaria.
The theoretical and ideological premises that grounded party decisions, as well as research
on women’s problems during the Socialist period, inevitably fall within the framework of a
socio-political order that was built in accordance with the Marxist-Leninist theory of the
state and of democracy. All concrete parameters describing women’s status in the given
period (1979-1989) were a direct consequence of party decisions taken at different levels of
the hierarchy. One of the most important political events from the beginning of the 1970s
was a special Decision of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Socialist
Party, which underlined women’s role in building the developed socialist society. What
might be observed in this decision is the consequent differentiation of the population by
gender. We must also be aware of the specifics of the conceptual apparatus that were
exploited by the sociological research in the given period. There are three main concepts that
describe and interpret the portrait of the Bulgarian woman: social status, social activity, and
social qualities. The content of these terms reveals a very crucial point for the EGG project:
participation in socio-political life is thought as an essential and obligatory element of
women’s lives, thus it is turned into a norm.
A number of changes occurred with respect to women’s participation in the public sphere
after the changes in Bulgaria in 1989. There was a drastic decrease in the number of women
MPs in the National Assembly. The first reason for this situation was that the legacy of
communist National Assemblies with its quota system had ensured around 20% female
1
membership. The second one was the fault of the electoral system itself, which led the
National Assembly to reflect internal party politics rather than the attitudes of society at
large.
As far as the participation of women in the Bulgarian government is concerned, the changes
are clearly visible. Before the changes for the whole period (1944-1989) there were only
three women appointed as ministers. These female ministers were mainly accepted as
representatives of political party structure rather than as members of the government. After
1989, the women who were appointed in Bulgarian governments took a much more active
position in them because of the general democratization of society. Some of them held rather
prominent positions: for the first time in its history, the country had a woman vice-president,
a woman prime minister, and a woman foreign minister. After the recent changes in the
present government, Bulgaria has the largest number of women-ministers in its history: 5
out of 22.
Women’s involvement in the structure of political parties in Bulgaria can also shed light on
the problems that women face when trying to take active part in political life. Before the
changes the participation of women in Bulgarian Communist Party was impressive - 29.7%.
In spite of this great number, the participation of women in the higher governmental
structures remained low. In the period following the changes of ‘89 there was a drastic
decrease of women as representatives of political formations. The legacy of the communist
past created little public awareness of the need to ensure adequate representation of women.
Even though the different parties included women, they tended to place them towards the
end of their electoral lists, which meant that women were elected only rarely. However, the
situation in the current National Assembly is changing with respect to female members of
parliamentary-represented parties. A greater number of women now hold major governing
positions such as leaders of parliamentary groups and vice-chairwomen of parties. The
“Party of Bulgarian Women” did not have much political impact before it became a coalition
partner of the ruling political formation National Movement Simeon II (NDSV).
Although a certain level of women’s participation can be observed in another sphere of
Bulgarian public life – the judiciary – measures could be made for providing greater career
opportunities for female law specialists. The number of women in the Bulgarian
Constitutional Court is relatively small. However, in the four mandates of the court there is
2
an increasing number of women judges who occupy such high hierarchical position in the
juridical power. The situation is similar in the Supreme Juridical Council, where women
come usually from the parliamentarian quota and from the quota of the supreme juridical
institutions but never from the Investigation office quota or the quota of the president. The
number of women in the Bulgarian Supreme Administrative Court is significant – about
75,8 % of female-judges in the whole institution, and there are chairwomen in three of the
five divisions of this court. A reasonable explanation for this can be found in contemporary
gender tendencies, which are connected to the status, prestige, and financial benefits of
certain jobs over others. The high percentage of women in the administrative juridical power
and the low percentage in the other two significant institutions can be viewed in relation to
the “feminization of professions”.
As far as trade unions are concerned, in the socialist times there was one unified body
(Bulgarian Professional Union) that was governed by the Central Committee of the
Professional Union. During the pre-89 period there can be detected a stable tendency of
engaging more women in local and regional governing structures, while at the same time
male members dominated the central governing structures. Another tendency during the
period is the traditional engaging of women as presidents of certain branches (usually the
Syndicate of teachers or the Syndicate of doctors). In the years after 1989 two trade unions
appeared: the Confederation of the Bulgarian Syndicates (CBS) and the Confederation of
Labour “Podkrepa” (CL “Podkrepa”). These unions inherited the structure and hierarchies of
the Bulgarian Professional Union, and preserved the same basic tendencies of engaging
women in the lower governing structures.
With respect to the strategies for increasing women’s participation in Bulgaria, it can be said
that until now there has been a certain negative attitude - inherited from the past and
continuing in the present - regarding the quota principle. However, the project on the Bill of
Equal Opportunities, which was created in accordance with EU legislation, is making its
way to the parliamentary discussions for the second time in the current parliamentary
session. A more detailed and closer interpretation of the possible strategies for change
should be based on the analyses of the interviews from the next work packages of EGG.
3