Women Give Fewer Births, Work at Home Twice as Much as Men

Bulgarian women give birth to fewer children and spend twice as much time as men on housework home, but gets almost equal pay for work as men. These are steady trends for 20 years now. But there are also changes, in line with the European policy of gender equality.

This statistical summary came from Ivan Balev, Director of the National Statistical Institutes's Demographic and Social Statistics Directorate.

Women see Bulgaria's EU membership as a potential opportunity to improve their education and to find a good job abroad. Unlike other countries, the number of Bulgarian women who emigrated almost equals the number of Bulgarian men who left the country.

In 2007, women resident in Bulgaria outnumbered men by 240,000, and there were 107 women per 100 men. The reason is the longer life expectancy of women: 76 years, compared to 69 for men.

The average age at which women marry and give birth to their first child is tending up. De facto cohabitation ever more often replaces marriage. The tendency is confirmed by the number of births. Out of 75,349 live births in 2007, 37,825 (or 50.2 per cent) were born out of wedlock. But there are records on the fathers of 23,602 of the latter. These are presumably children born to de facto cohabitees and they live in a two-parent family environment, Balev said. In reality, only one out of five children is illegitimate.

The average Bulgarian woman marries for the first time at age 26 (compared to 29 for men), but gives birth first at age 25. In 2007, there were an average 1.42 live births per woman in child-bearing age. Ever more often, women in this country limit themselves to a single child, even though they say they want to have more children.

The average age of women in Bulgaria is 43, up from 40 for men.

Professional responsibilities take women an average 7 hours and 52 minutes daily, compared to 8 hours and 30 minutes for men. Therefore, women work 38 minutes less than men on the average. To make up for it, housework take women 4 hours and 40 minutes daily, double the 2 minutes and 33 minutes that men put it.

Women's unemployment rate is higher than men's: 7.3 per cent and 6.6 per cent, respectively, in 2007. Inequality in pay for work is still there, too, with women drawing an average monthly wage of 391 leva, against 469 leva for men in 2007.

Source: BTA