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Do Women Rule Bulgaria?

Women are increasingly powerful in Bulgaria.

Today, one-third of company owners and top managers in Bulgaria are women. According to the (male) minister of economy, women under 30 years old make up about half of those positions. In the last five years, two women - who are also the two Bulgarian EU Commissioners - have been the most popular politicians in the country.

Women hold some of the toughest jobs in the country: ­ regional development minister, responsible for the government's goal to build the country's infrastructure;
mayor of the capital, Sofia;
minister of justice, which reforms the justice system - the target of fierce criticism by the EU;
and the speaker of parliament. One day, a woman might become minister of defence, but for now, a woman holds the position of deputy minister of defence.

Women dominate top positions outside of politics as well. For example, the national television, national radio channel, top private television station and five leading national newspapers are all run by women. In addition, women run most of the public relations and marketing businesses in the country.

The most successful international position held by a Bulgarian - secretary general of UNESCO - is held by a woman. The head of the national bankers' association is a woman, some of Bulgaria's leading bankers are women, and one of them bravely declared in the midst of the economic crisis that she would turn her bank into the first green bank in the country.

It's true that women make up only 23 per cent of Bulgaria's parliament - a higher percentage than in the UK - but they chair 40 per cent of the committees in parliament. It appears that once men are elected, they realise quickly who is up to the task. It's the same with the mayors - most of the small-town mayors are men, but the head of their mayors' association is a woman. The list goes on and on.

Women have to fight, hard

For a Balkan country with a sizeable Muslim population, a clearly recognisable Ottoman past, a complete absence of any feminist movements, no political correctness and a lexicon of rude macho jokes that are even published in the national press, this all looks a little odd. So, what is happening?

Here are three words that might offer an explanation: prejudice, education and crisis.

Prejudice does exist in Bulgaria. If it didn't, women would probably hold two-thirds of the seats in parliament by now. Prejudice against women in Bulgaria is culturally ingrained, but there is not any strong religious or ideological backing to these tendencies. As a result, they crumble relatively easily under the pressure of the other two factors.

First, crisis. Years ago, a politician in Georgia told me that she noticed an intriguing trend in their local elections: whenever an area was in a serious crisis they would elect a woman, and once the crisis was over, the community would elect a man. It seems that there is a type a crisis that requires a woman's resilience and mental strength - the hardship crisis, not the military one. And Georgia, at least at that time, was a country of serious hardship.

Second, education. Looking at all of the countries in the EU, Bulgaria has the largest proportion of women with university education;
most Bulgarians realise that girls are doing better at school. Later in life, women will focus on family, children and a husband's career and pride. Normally, even educated women somehow lag behind because of the pressure of these social stereotypes and practices. In Bulgaria, the women work, run families, look after children, husbands and, increasingly, the country.

This participation is not a result of formal quotas or any form of positive discrimination. Women do have to fight through prejudice and sexism at every level. Occasionally, some suggestions that there should be quotas for women in political parties surface. When they do, people - mostly men but also some women - laugh at such ideas.

'Male woman'

Recently, I was helping a German friend translate the common Bulgarian expression "
male word"
. Do you mean a word that you cannot trust, she asked? It is exactly the opposite. Male word, male job, male person... all mean serious, trustworthy and proper. A male hand means strong governance.

Even the expression "
male woman"
means a woman you can trust;
it is a compliment. So the 30 per cent of top executives (or 50 per cent under 30), top editors, mayor, speaker of parliament, EU commissioners and secretary general of UNESCO are all "
Male Woman"
according to the Bulgarian language. That doesn't refer to any physical ambiguity - only to the fact that they can do the job and you can trust them. These expressions are so natural for Bulgarians that only by writing them in English do I realise how they sound.

Maybe the formula for transforming these male societies is to weaken prejudices, open the universities to women and trigger a slow, long-term economic crisis. Then male dominance will start to crumble by itself.

The Bulgarian case shows something else as well. We may have a simplified misconception of the role of women in semi-oriental communities. However, women might have a hidden power that they manage to exercise and develop in the shadow of their public suppression. Societies where women are suppressed in one way or another (British politics could be an example) are societies of male fear - if you give women more rights, then they might take over.

I am not a psychoanalyst and I am not going to delve deeper into speculation about relations between mothers and sons, or in the case of countries like Bulgaria - grandmothers and grandsons. Children are often raised by their grandparents while the mothers work.

In the last decade or so there is also another phenomenon: loving parents abandon their children and go abroad to earn better salaries and the children are left at home with their grandparents. On one hand, this is a damaging environment;
but on the other hand, this is also an environment in which children are not brought up with traditional family values - and male dominance is one of these values.

Somewhere in those trends, one can search for the explanation for why so many of the top managers under 30 years old are women - this is a generation of abandoned children.

So, this is certainly not a simple, happy picture of a society that openly admits gender equality;
or ethnic or any other equality for that matter. This is not a society where the parliament realised that women should have the same rights as men. It is by no means a society free from domestic violence, or a society with polite policemen and old people jogging in the park. It is simply a society where women fight hard, very hard - and win.

What a lovely article thank you for sharing this with us and it does gives us all hope for the future.

GinaA wrote:

What a lovely article thank you for sharing this with us and it does gives us all hope for the future.

This could develope into a very interesting topic, and now that it has been bought to our attention it's made me realise that the whole of our property fraud case which we won was conducted by women. Four different Judges all women, the Prosecutor a woman, the lawyers for both sides women, and as my wife once said when we were going on holiday in an airplane, captained by a woman. Now who's lives are in the hands of a woman, and if God made good men drivers SHE was only joking

Back to Bulgaria, as I drifted a bit off course there, so why do we not see any women police officers, or women bus and trolly-bus drivers, or women taxi drivers etc etc

Quote :

Back to Bulgaria, as I drifted a bit off course there, so why do we not see any women police officers, or women bus and trolly-bus drivers, or women taxi drivers etc etc

Well Bryan there are women Police Officers seen at least 2. But lets be realistic here men wear the trousers its just the women who tell us what size and colour.

interesting ...... rule or run bulgaria

my woman bulgarian neighbour tried to rule the brits in the early days and now most of them are taking her to court , the female notary and translater she used were corrupt

willowsend .. the women judges in our mutal friends case were both corrupt.....and a few more i can think of and have learnt of , over the years

quote "
"
Women are increasingly powerful in Bulgaria. "
"
end quote ...and not all of the kosha !

varnagirl wrote:

interesting ...... rule or run bulgaria

my woman bulgarian neighbour tried to rule the brits in the early days and now most of them are taking her to court , the female notary and translater she used were corrupt

willowsend .. the women judges in our mutal friends case were both corrupt.....and a few more i can think of and have learnt of , over the years

quote "
"
Women are increasingly powerful in Bulgaria. "
"
end quote ...and not all of the kosha !

You are absolutley right varnagirl, come to think of it, a female was in the Notary when I signed that document which a lot of people believed I was stupid enough to give Teoharov POA to sell our house. I always maintained she was bent now I am convinced she and Teoherov had something going on between them

here is one of them i was refering to


Found labeled bribe money judge of Varna


Sn.: Black Sea
BGNES
moreto .net

Today, December 19, 2011 15:12


Found marked BGN 10,000 bribe from the Varna judge Anelia Tsvetkova. This happened at today's hearing, three years after the President of the Administrative Court of Varna in 2008 was arrested and charged with receiving a bribe.

At the request of attorneys for court Tsvetkova open three envelopes in the case. The defense pointed out that there are material to the case to which they have access and requested that they be brought. After the court open them in one of them find BGN 10 000 - 200 BGN 50 banknotes court ordered the money be given for storage at the BNB.

In the case were today questioned two witnesses. The process continues on February 10, 2012

We recall that the operation of specialized employees of SANS and the Sofia City Prosecutor's Office on July 17, 2008, with 10,000 Euro purse in Varna Restaurant "
Lavera"
was held Anelia Tsvetkova, Chairman of the Administrative Court in Varna. Money was given to her Tsvetkova former lover - businessman Stefan Stefanov.

According to the prosecution in her home were found more BGN 150 000 and 400 grams of gold. The same day against Tsvetkova were indicted for corruption. Three days later, Judge was released from custody on bail in Sofia 20 000. Following the release to freedom she resigned as chairman of the Administrative Court - Varna. Before heading the newly created court in the seaside capital Tsvetkova was head of the administrative department of the District Court.

I think we are going off topic here but I suppose yes women do have a great roll these days and behind every good man there is an even better woman.

Don't know about Bulgaria but definitely in our house

Noddy wrote:

Don't know about Bulgaria but definitely in our house

Noddy You are funny thanks for making me laugh

Yes indeed I would say most the the Bulgarian women I have come cross rule the roost/work place and boy do they dictate to their men/workers sounds like world war is about to break out.

Oddy

The Mayor of Sofia is a woman and I have used a lady taxi driver in VT and the Notaries I have used have all been women except one and our lawyer and her partner are both women. Very professional they all are too.