The Chairwoman of The Council of Women in Business in Bulgaria Dr. eng. Boryana Manolova presented the Sofia Declaration at the conference “Women and Technologies”, organized by Manager magazine. The document was accepted at the Global Women Leaders’ Forum, held at the end of May in Sofia and organized by the Council together with UNESCO, under the patronage of the Director-General of the organization Irina Bokova.

“The Declaration is an extremely important document with which we, all the participants in the Forum, urge governments, international organizations, civil society and the private sector to take measures to promote equal participation of women in politics and the labor market, to achieve gender balance in government bodies and public administration, management of companies, etc.” Manolova commented in a speech presented to the audience with which she opened the conference “Women and Technologies”. She also added that the Sofia Declaration is an explicit call to make the necessary legislative and administrative reforms needed to provide equal rights and women’s access to economic resources, education and training opportunities, technology. The Declaration focuses on women’s education as a tool for their professional growth and empowerment, by ensuring access to scientific, technological, engineering and mathematical education of young girls.

The presence of women in the technology industry is increasing, but at the moment it is still dominated by men, while for the women the syndrome of “the glass ceiling” still applies. This was one of the conclusions drawn at the conference “Women and Technologies”.

During the event a number of economic benefits from the entry of women in the technology sector, as well as from gender equality were noted for the overall development of economies and societies. Sociologist Mira Radeva referred to information published in the Financial Times newspaper according to which those companies, in which women are on leadership positions, increase their net profits.

A positive example of the opening of the technology sector to women gave Iravan Hira, the General Manager of HP Enterprise. He said that 38% of HP Enterprise Bulgaria employees are women and most of them are on management positions.

The conference participants were sure that in the next 20 years the presence of women in the technology sector, and in others, will continue as it is conditioned by economic reality.

“In this process there is no turning back, processes are inevitable and any company that wants to develop must use the potential of women”, the Chairperson of the Council of Women in Business Boryana Manolova said.

She also said that her participation in the conference organized by Manager magazine is a kind of comeback, since in 2012, it was exactly after the national conference “Women – the Soft Power in Business” of the magazine, the idea that the Council of Women in Business in Bulgaria should be established was born.

“The organization has come a long way since then in establishing itself as the leading organization of its type in the country. During the years were launched several successful initiatives aimed at promoting the professional development of women and young people in Bulgaria, we have attracted many new members, we have gained experience and confidence. Today in the Council there are 60 women members on high managerial positions that represent companies which are nearly 10 percent of Bulgaria’s GDP and employ thousands of employees”, Dr. Eng. Manolova said. She presented the most large-scale initiatives of the Council, including the Leadership Academy, the National Traineeship Program “We are staying in Bulgaria” and the Global Women Leaders’ Forum dedicated to gender equality, which was the first event on such a high level held in Bulgaria.

Note: The pictures are made by Julian Donov for Manager magazine