Zaharieva: Bulgaria has the largest share of women in the IT industry in the EU
22 September 2018 News
‘Bulgaria has topped the European Union ranking of women working in the IT sector. In Bulgaria, approximately 30 % of IT sector professionals are women compared to the EU average of 16 percent’.
The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ekaterina Zaharieva, used this example before Female Ministers of Foreign Affairs to illustrate the possibilities that Bulgaria offers to women even in traditionally male-dominated sectors.
The Meeting of Female Foreign Ministers, which is the first of its kind, is currently under way in Montreal, Canada. Minister Zaharieva also stated that top public officials, including the Speaker of the Parliament, the Mayor of Sofia, the Bulgarian member of the European Commission and the Vice President of Bulgaria are women who are highly praised for their work, although ’55 % of our compatriots still want a man as President of the Republic’.
The Bulgarian Deputy Prime Minister added that in diplomacy, women are often better negotiators and that politicians should aim to work to alter perceptions of both women and men so that they can work together for gender equality.
In her opinion, ‘empowering women and giving them access to territories traditionally reserved for men benefits both the economy and the country as a whole. There is compelling evidence that if all women and girls are actively included in economic life, the annual growth of the world’s GDP will equal that of China and the United States put together’.
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