Balgarianovinite.com Women are still waiting for true equality. On March 8, statistics serve as a reminder that gender equality remains a distant goal. On the occasion of International Women’s Day, the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) has compiled some of the latest available data illustrating inequality in numbers.
Full equality between men and women in the labor market does not exist in any country in the world, and only 4% of women live in countries with conditions close to equality, according to the World Bank’s annual report Women, Business and the Law.
At the current pace of change, the European Union (EU) will need 50 years to achieve full equality between men and women, according to data from the European Commission.
Europe ranks second in reducing gender inequality (75.1%), behind North America (75.8%) and ahead of South America and the Caribbean (74.5%).
New EU strategies and global reforms show progress, but statistics clearly indicate that full equality remains a challenge and that decades will be needed to overcome structural disparities.
Data for Bulgaria
Bulgaria dropped to 83rd position in 2025 among 148 countries covered by the Global Gender Gap Index compiled by the World Economic Forum (WEF), according to a report published on the organization’s website.
In 2025 ranking the country was 60th globally. A decline is also observed in the regional ranking, where Bulgaria dropped to 33rd position compared with 28th in 2024.
The index, compiled since 2006, tracks the current state and development of gender equality through four key sub-indices – economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment.
Among these four sub-indices, Bulgaria performs best in education and weakest in the political sphere.
According to the National Statistical Institute (NSI) publication Equality between Women and Men in Governance – 2024, of the total 23,856 senior and middle-management positions in Bulgaria’s administration, 62.8% are held by men and 37.2% by women.
The highest share of women in leadership positions is observed in the judiciary (54.1%), while the lowest is in the legislative branch (23.3%).
As of the end of 2024, women members of the Bulgarian Parliament account for 21.7% of the total 240 MPs.
In 2022 the gender pay gap was 13.9%. In managerial positions men earn 21.2% more than women, while among specialists the gap reaches 30.9%.
Data from the 2021 population census show that men sleep 10 minutes more than women – 8 hours and 35 minutes, work 16 minutes more – 8 hours and 9 minutes, and watch television for 2 hours and 1 minute, which is 22 minutes more than women. Women, however, spend nearly twice as much time on household care (3 hours and 18 minutes) as men (1 hour and 55 minutes).
At all Summer Olympic Games so far, Bulgaria has been represented by 1,911 male and 560 female athletes. In the first four Olympics in which Bulgaria participated – in 1896, 1924, 1928 and 1936 – all Bulgarian athletes were men, but at Beijing 2008, Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024 women outnumbered men. Among medalists, men lead with 208 medals compared with 133 for women, although in Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 all medals were won by women.
Global picture
The World Bank report, cited by Agence France-Presse, notes that when laws are adopted, their actual implementation occurs in only about half of the cases, highlighting the large gap between legislative frameworks and their real enforcement. As a result, full equality does not exist in any country, and only 4 percent of women live in countries close to equality.
Chief Economist of the World Bank Group, Indermit Gill, said: “Even in economies that have carried out reforms, women face restrictions in access to employment, starting businesses and securing the safety needed to take advantage of available opportunities”.
The report examines not only legislation but also public services designed to support women’s professional activity, as well as the real implementation of laws.
The World Bank emphasizes the importance of implementing the necessary reforms, as 1.2 billion people – half of them women – will enter the labor market over the next ten years.
The institution’s data show that in countries with more opportunities for women, male participation in the labor market is also the highest.
Conditions closest to equality are found in developed economies, with Spain leading the ranking, while countries in the Middle East and the Pacific region lag significantly behind.
The most significant progress has been achieved by low-income or developing economies, particularly in Africa and the Middle East, such as Egypt, Madagascar and Somalia, which have introduced measures to reduce restrictions on access to certain professions, introduce equal pay and create parental leave policies.
A total of about 70 countries adopted more than 100 reforms between 2023 and 2025 aimed at improving women’s access to the labor market and entrepreneurship, the report also states.
A United Nations representative said that no country in the world has achieved full legal equality between women and men, the German news agency DPA reported.
Sarah Hendriks, director of the UN department for gender equality and the empowerment of women, told journalists in New York on the occasion of International Women’s Day that progress achieved in areas such as protection from violence, equality in family law and guarantees against discrimination is under threat in many places.
She said that more than half of countries worldwide do not take lack of consent into account when defining rape. Child marriage remains legal in 74% of countries, and 44% of countries do not have laws requiring equal pay for men and women. Over the past two years alone, the share of women and girls among victims of conflict-related sexual violence has risen to 87%, Hendriks said.
“Too often impunity prevails,” she said, adding that many women and girls fear the consequences if they report such crimes.
European context
The European Commission has presented its new Gender Equality Strategy for 2026–2030. It integrates gender equality into all areas, both offline and online – education, healthcare, employment, public life and others. The strategy places special emphasis on modern threats such as cyberviolence and risks associated with artificial intelligence, which particularly affect women.
Although progress has been made, estimates by the European Institute for Gender Equality indicate that at the current pace of change the EU will need 50 years to achieve full equality between men and women. Differences between Member States also persist.
The strategy includes measures to combat gender-based violence, with a strong focus on online abuse. This includes actions to tackle deepfakes and sexually explicit manipulated content and to improve the protection of women online. This will be implemented through a structured regulatory dialogue with very large online platforms.
The strategy will also focus on countering information manipulation and disinformation in order to avoid growing polarization between women and men, especially among young people. The Commission will conduct research on online networks and messaging targeting young men and boys.
For the first time, healthcare is included as a specific area, with an initiative aimed at improving the quality and accessibility of healthcare for women The strategy will launch a new action plan on women in research, innovation and start-ups to attract more women to the sector.
Gender gap widens at every stage of careers
A study by the European Patent Office (EPO) Observatory on Patents and Technology, Progress of Women in STEM, reveals slow progress and gaps in inventive activity, deep-tech entrepreneurship, patent professions and doctoral career paths, according to information from the Bulgarian Patent Office cited by the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s online bulletin Infobusiness.
Published ahead of International Women’s Day, the report provides strong pan-European evidence supporting the EU’s gender equality strategy, the objectives of the European Research Area and Europe’s ambition to strengthen technological sovereignty within the framework of the New European Innovation Agenda.
The study shows that the share of women inventors in Europe has increased only slightly in recent years, reaching 13.8% in 2022 compared with 13% in 2019. Although women increasingly participate in inventor teams, they are much less often listed as individual inventors. Promising trends with the smallest gender gaps are observed in Portugal and Spain.
The gender gap is particularly pronounced in patenting by start-ups. Only 13.5% of patent-holding start-ups include a female founder. Differences across Europe are significant: Spain, Portugal and Ireland show the highest participation rates, while the Netherlands, Austria and Germany record the lowest.
New start-ups show a higher share of female founders (14% for younger companies compared with about 4% for companies older than 21 years), suggesting that newly established start-ups are becoming more diverse. One of the major challenges is that women’s representation decreases in later, more advanced funding rounds.
Universities and public research organizations show the highest share of women inventors (24.4%), while small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and individual applicants show the lowest participation levels.
The study also finds that research conducted by female doctoral students has comparable inventive potential to that of men. However, their share declines, especially when researchers move toward commercialization of their inventions. This suggests that women’s lower participation in patenting is not due to a lack of high-quality research results but rather to social, institutional and economic factors.
Women’s participation also varies sharply across technological fields. Pharmaceuticals (34.9%), biotechnology (34.2%) and food chemistry (32.3%) show the highest shares of women inventors, reflecting stronger female participation in life sciences research.
In contrast, some engineering fields with the highest concentration of patents record the lowest levels: metal-working machines (5.7%), basic communication processes (5.5%) and mechanical elements (4.9%) rank at the bottom.
The study also examines women in science and innovation more broadly, beyond inventors alone. It shows that women are increasingly active in professions that support the functioning of the innovation system: women now account for 29.2% of European patent attorneys, and this share is growing.
International Women’s Day is observed to highlight women’s achievements worldwide regardless of national, ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic or political differences. The day began to be marked in the early twentieth century in North America and Europe as a day to defend women’s rights.
On February 28, 1909, the Socialist Party of the United States marked a National Women’s Day in the US following the 1908 strike of women workers in New York demanding better working conditions. At the Second International Socialist Women’s Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, on August 26–27, 1910, with the participation of more than 100 women from 17 countries, a decision was taken to establish an International Women’s Day to honor the women’s rights movement. No specific date was set at that time.
As a result of the Copenhagen initiative, International Women’s Day was celebrated for the first time on March 19, 1911, in Austria, Germany, Denmark and Switzerland. More than one million people took part, demanding women’s voting rights as well as the right to work and professional training. Since 1975, declared by the United Nations as International Women’s Year, the day has been observed on March 8. Women Still Waiting for True Equality, Statistics Show on International Women’s Day 2026 THE NEWS FROM BULGARIA – NEWS AGENCY 2009-2025 2026-03-08 06:41:47 Latest news World news Country news Most important news latest news most important latest of the day Justice Petar Nizamov Feathers Petar Nizamov- Feathers Justice bg iustitia.bg iustitia iusticia usticia investigation Burgas Bulgaria news news of the last hour news of the day news of today Bulgaria news The news from Bulgaria blitz news top news most important most commented latest news Boyko Borisov news weather coronavirus news news weather facebook youtube facebook instagram news today news of the last minutes news today today news news bg news leading news hot news bg news site for news all news news bg news of the last hour latest latest news bg news of today news today news today news of the last hour latest news today news bg news news 24 hours news vesti bg novini news world bird bg bivol bg bivol trud bg novini latest news today novinite bg news hello bulgaria political party coat of arms delyan peevski scandalous Bulgarian National Television Free Europe Television scandal exclusive live tv live right now tv tv online tv program bg live now tv news online tv online live court Burgas court Burgas district court Burgas court Burgas district court Burgas district court Burgas appellate court Burgas prosecutor Burgas prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Prosecutor General Ivan Geshev Prosecutor Geshev Tsatsarov Ministry of Internal Affairs Burgas ODMR Burgas ODPR Burgas police Burgas district police Burgas prosecutor Tsatsarov SGS cases Varna court chairman of the SGS court decisions on civil cases decisions on cases Plovdiv court decision of the court decisions cases Varna court criminal cases district district court decisions work in the court SGS chairman of the SGS judges Sofia court post judges Plovdiv court Plovdiv judges Plovdiv Supreme Court Inspectorate Supreme Court Supreme Judicial Council lawyer lawyer criminal cases lawyer civil cases lawyer marriage cases lawyer administrative criminal law criminal process civil law civil process administrative law constitutional law