|
|
|
Map of Europe |
Email this citationCIAO DATE: 02/03
Bulgarian Women : Mentality and Life Strategy
Raya Staykova
December 2000
Abstract
Like women in other East European societies in transition, Bulgarian women face great difficulties. The main issues discussed in the paper are: What has changed during the past 10 years for Bulgarian women; who are they in contemporary society, and who are they in the family; what life strategies have women chosen to meet the challenges of the new social, economic and political order?
In this study, women's issue are looked at from different perspectives: a brief review of the traditions and historically entrenched position of Bulgarian women in the family and in the community has been done in order to understand better their behavior today. For centuries the Bulgarian wife has been known as a person who informally dominated the family. Bulgaria has a long-standing tradition of formal gender equality that is enshrined in the Turnovo Constitution of the Bulgarian Principality (1879), in the two Constitutions of 1947 and 1971, the acting Constitution of 1991 currently in force, and in a number of additional laws that provide legal guarantees of equality. De jure equality notwithstanding, Bulgarian women have de facto lower status than men.
The socialist period, which was characterized by modernization of the economy and industrialization of the country after the Second World War, brought women out of their homes. They had to participate equally with men in all sectors of the national economy. During the early 70s, when society and the economy became more developed, women received many social benefits, but they did not value them, because the initiative for this social policy belonged to the Communist Party and central authorities. The main reason for the family-oriented policy was still the economic need for women to work out of their homes as an equal part of the labor force. Regardless of the existing equality, indirect indicators of hidden gender discrimination are revealed. The arguments emphasize the way Bulgarian women design their career development. The main motive that drives women's behavior is the correspondence between the efforts they have to put in to achieve a certain position in society and the general results of their new position.
On the bases of statistical data and several sociological studies, women's behavior during the transition period has been revealed within the framework of transition from a centrally planned to a market economy and from a totalitarian towards a democratic society. Two different areas of potential activities have been studied: political life and re-establishment of the private sector. The data distinguish two types of women's behavior: women reject political life and in contrast they are economically active and entrepreneurial if they find a suitable environment. One could suggest that the reason for lack of participation in political life is due to the fact that women are more concerned than ever (because of the economic difficulties and chaos surrounding the transition to a market economy) with the everyday struggle for their own and their family survival. The other possible reason for pulling aside from political life could be the popular understanding that politics is "dirty", dangerous and risky, especially in a society like Bulgaria where traditionally politics implies something nasty and corrupted and the image of politicians is more or less associated with swindlers and scoundrels.
The dynamics of life strategy for survival show that during the beginning of the changes, women were keen on starting their own business, relying predominantly on their own efforts, and the support of families and friends. Their expectations were that the state would guarantee economic order and support the rules of the game for the emerging private sector, especially the development of small and medium size enterprises (SME). Women's interests were expressed in creating family-oriented companies mainly in the production sector, not in the trade sector where most men aspired to be. The other features of the so-called "women's companies" were that women managers created informal associations to help each other and to share knowledge and responsibility, but these groups were only among very close friends and very limited in information sharing. Confidence and common trust among partners was most important for their operation.
Seven years into the transition our data reveal a market disillusion about successful activities in the private SME sector. State institutions are not relied upon although the claims made on them are growing rapidly. Businesswomen understand that in the absence of an infrastructure they will be doomed and have reassessed their invested efforts against the results achieved and found out that they do not correspond. As a result, the level of self-confidence has dropped sharply as well as the confidence in family and friends (45% reported a sharp drop in the number of friends). All these factors are conducive to the 'wait-and-see' behavior and mimicry typical for the Bulgarian tradition. Short-term planning associated with daily responsibilities have moved up to first place. Attempts to obtain a better level of education, better access to information, association with trusted partners and collaborators retain their importance, but are not fundamental when behavior is chosen and may be considered as activities which accompany, but do not replace, the passive strategy chosen.
Special attention has to be paid to young women, who are mostly affected by the transition - both in economical and in moral and physiological terms. About 50 per cent are totally unsatisfied by their way of life, their job and their career development but see no options to change their life. They are young and have different visions for their future life, but they have no clear strategy to meet their objectives. Because of their personal lack of experience and great dissatisfaction, they are a group at great social risk and potential victims of crime. Because of long-term unemployment, some of them are already societal outsiders. It is clear that it will be impossible to implement further reforms without young people's participation and support. Such alienation of the young people has to be a key point for future state policy. The executive power has to turn to the needs of the youth.
Future NGO activities together with local and central authorities could be helpful in solving some of the problems of Bulgarian women and prevent the potential for double labor discrimination associated with the NIT. Women are doubly exposed, first as East-European employees and second as females. Results will be much more effective when the authorities design their plan of action based on real data and an analysis of the environment and people's system beliefs and mentality.
