2018/12/19 by Maria Todorova · 1 citation
Social Sciences · #Gender Politics and Representation #Historical Gender and Feminism Studies
paper · doi:10.4324/9780429425776-4
openalex publication_date 2018/12/19 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2025/11/06
This chapter examines some specific characteristics of women’s situation in Bulgaria by exploring the country’s historical and social background, particularly the changing social structure and its implications for women; the nature and role of traditional women’s organizations; the character of the discourse on women’s issues, and, finally, the problems of continuity and discontinuity. Foreign observers also singled out the uniqueness of the role of Bulgarian women compared to their more home-bound subordinate Balkan counterparts. The bourgeoisie in Bulgaria emulated this ideal, but given its very recent formation as a class and its relative weakness, it did not provide an overarching role model for other social strata. The industrial revolution of the 1950s and 1960s was accompanied by a dramatic flow of the labor force from the countryside to the cities, a movement common to all East European countries, but greatest and quickest in Bulgaria.