On March 7, at the Bulgarian Industrial Association / BIA / premises was held a panel discussion titled “Gender Balance in business – to break the glass ceiling.” Major issues related to equality between women and men in the economy and society were presented in discussion.
The event gathered representatives of the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy / MLSP / Ministry of Economy, social partners and national NGOs. It was attended by Ekaterina Yordanova – President of the Federation of Transport Trade Unions in Bulgaria and vice-president of the European Trade Union Confederation’s Women’s Committee.
Ekaterina Yordanova addressed one of the key issues – the participation of women in decision-making process at national, European and international level.
She presented the opportunities for women both through direct participation in political decisions and by the means of social dialogue. She stressed its importance as this is only through it that strategies and programs may be translated into active policies for development and real success in the workplace. The role of the social partners and especially women in business and trade unions is twofold – participation first in the formulation of these policies through the mechanism of democracy in then their implementation in practice.
Yordanova outlined the agenda on the issue at European and international level and presented the FTTUB and CITUB active participation in this process via trade union women’s committees and advisory councils at all levels. She gave concrete examples of fruitful dialogue with the institutions – Bulgarian, European and the United Nations. Yordanova underlined the importance of good cooperation and coordinated efforts of all stakeholders to overcome the imbalance and inequality between the genders and to promote women’s representation and participation in decision-making. “There is no equality without common decisions”, she said.
Irina Ivanova, expert in MLSP, also intervened and commented the positive practices of the “Progress”programme which contains measures, policies and actions concerning gender equality in decision-making in the economy.
A video input was made by Mariya Gabriel, member of the European Parliament. She addressed the audience: “Why is it important for women to have access to the business? As small and medium business led by women is very successful, I believe that women have big potential for business”, she said.
In conclusion, participants called on more incentives for women in leadership positions in our society to be taken.