Current issues and trends related to gender equality in Bulgaria and Sweden were discussed during the traditional meeting between the Council of Women in Business in Bulgaria and prominent business and government representatives from Bulgaria and abroad..
Honorary guest of the event was Helena Pilsas Ahlin, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Kingdom of Sweden to Bulgaria, who shared best practices and policies from her country aimed at strengthening equality between men and women. “Sweden was ranked 4th in the Global Gender Gap Report 2014. We believe in the principle that all citizens must have equal rights,” said Ambassador Pilsas Ahlin. She gave as an example the distribution of seats in the government of the country, where the proportion of men and women is 50/50. Similar is the distribution in parliament, where 55 percent of MPs are men and 45 percent are women.
Ambassador Pilsas Ahlin noted that one of the latest trends in Sweden is to encourage fathers to take a leave to care for a child up to 3 years of age. “Despite the fact that over 75 percent of the people, who use this leave, are still women, there is an increasing number of fathers, who temporarily stop work to take care of their children,” she said.
Furthermore Mrs. Pilsas Ahlin pointed out that there are still aspects relating to gender equality, in which the Swedish state and society are facing problems. As an example she gave the lower pay for women compared with men (an average of 14 percent) and the uneven distribution in different business sectors. “In the largest companies, listed on the stock exchange, the number of women at senior management positions is only 4 percent,” said the Ambassador. She stressed that the government is working purposefully to overcome the problems by implementing policies to promote gender equality in all areas of life.
The women from the Council shared about the situation in Bulgaria and the activities that the organization implements to help tackle the current problems. Darina Stoyanova, CEO of Prestige 96 AD, shared impressions of her participation in the Global Summit of Women in Sao Paulo, Brazil, together with the Chairwoman of the Board of the Council, Eng. Dr. Boryana Manolova. In turn, Ambassador Pilsas Ahlin assured the Council that they can rely on the future support of the Embassy of Sweden.
“Our meeting with Ambassador Pilsas Ahlin showed that business and government can cooperate successfully to promote gender equality. Sweden is a great example of this and I am glad that we were able to obtain first-hand information on the best practices and policies of the Swedish state,” said Mrs. Zoya Paunova, CEO of AstraZeneca – Bulgaria EOOD, who chaired the meeting.