In the decades after World War II, Bulgaria developed as a one-party socialist state in which women were formally granted equality in education, employment and political life. Official doctrine held that women’s emancipation could only be fully achieved through the advance of socialism. Party leaders treated women’s wage labour as essential to economic development, and by the late 1960s women were a major part of the industrial and professional workforce. Yet the everyday realities of long working hours, housework and child-rearing placed working mothers under significant strain, and the country saw falling birth rates. Fear of demographic decline shaped party leaders’ attitudes towards women’s employment.

Against this background, the Committee of the Bulgarian Women, reorganized in 1967–1968 and led by scientist Elena Lagadinova, became a major institution working to reconcile women’s multiple roles. Its functioning relied on a countrywide network of local branches, and women who were not Communist party members could also participate in its activities. The committee also had formal powers to propose legislation, which would then be negotiated by top-level policy makers, inspect enterprises, and sue for violations of labour law. Its activists were convinced that women’s emancipation depended on state action to “socialize” reproductive labour. They championed policies such as extended maternity leave, institutionalized childcare, workplace canteens and public laundries, all intended to shift domestic tasks from the household to the collective. Their programme was inspired by the ideal of a holistically developed socialist person whose fulfilment required balancing the roles of mother, worker and active citizen. Activists’ grassroots efforts, however, shed light on the gap between this ideal and women’s realities. In 1969, the committee organized a national survey of 16,000 women revealing long workdays of paid and unpaid labour, unmet desires for larger families and a severe shortage of childcare facilities. Using these data, and framing their arguments in Marxist-Leninist terms, Lagadinova and other leaders of the committee pressed ministries and the Party’s Politburo for reform.

Women workers at the Elhovo collective farm, Bulgaria (Source: Topfoto)

The turning point came with the Politburo’s Decision of 6 March 1973, Enhancing the Role of Women in the Building of a Developed Socialist Society. The document stated the main “functions” of women in a socialist society: “to bear and bring up children; to take part in social labour; to take part in the nation’s socio-political life and administration”. It stressed that “motherhood … ranks first” and explicitly linked its measures to reversing the decline in births. The Decision mandated extended paid maternity leave, guaranteed unpaid leave until a child turned three, promised large-scale construction of nurseries and kindergartens, and called for the socialization of domestic work through public kitchens and services. It also envisaged more flexible working hours and full pay during a child’s illness.

The scope of these reforms was considerable, but their implementation and framing exposed limits. Not all of the committee’s recommendations for comprehensive and far-reaching labour and social policies were adopted. Economic constraints and regional disparities meant that many promised childcare places and housing measures lagged behind schedule, and the hoped-for transfer of household chores to public services remained partial at best. The Decision also did little to challenge, let alone change, the unequal division of domestic work. The insistence on motherhood as women’s primary function, complemented by paid employment, further underlined that population policy, not gender equity alone, lay at the heart of the initiative.

Even with these shortcomings, the 1973 Decision left a lasting imprint on Bulgarian social policy. It enshrined extensive maternity rights and childcare guarantees in law and confirmed the committee as a recognized actor in policy making and enforcement. Over the following years, these measures increased women’s formal security in employment and consolidated expectations of state support for combining paid labour and family life.

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