Women as Workers and as Carers under Communism and After: The Case of Bulgaria

This paper reviews the work-family policy of Bulgaria before and after the transition. Before the transition the family policy was one of earner–carer where women were given support to combine work-force participation with childcare and men were at least encouraged to help with carework. After the transition women's access to help with carework became so limited that the family policy, by default, became one of dual earner, but with extremely high levels of unemployment. A survey of 349 women by the Varna Employment Office indicates how devastating the loss of employment was during the transition. Today policies that support family caregiving still exist on paper but are not enforced. This is due, in part, to the lack of organized broad-based women's groups. Such organizations would be necessary for women to effectively claim the rights and entitlements to caregiving support. But there is continuing pressure from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and others to eliminate any state support for caregiving.