It is known that Bulgaria ranks first in Europe in the number of women specialists in the sector of information and communication technologies (ICT). However, the ratio of men to women in the sector is uneven in the European Union, in favor of men - one in five ICT professionals is a woman. The share of the fairer sex in the sector is significantly lower, despite the pandemic, which stimulates the growth of the sector and the need for additional specialists in companies. This is shown by the recent report "ICT Workforce in Europe and Gender Challenges after Covid-19" by the Norwegian Embassy of Ministers in Lithuania and Women Go Tech, the first NGO program for mentoring and counseling for women in Lithuania.
In 2020, the largest category of ICT workers in European countries will be ICT professionals, representing 50% of the total ICT workforce. The second largest category is ICT technicians, representing 40% of the total ICT workforce. The other two groups - ICT managers and service technicians and installers of ICT equipment represent only a small part of the total workforce in the field. In terms of individual countries, the highest share of ICT professionals in 2020 is observed in Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Romania, while the lowest share is observed in Ireland, Italy and Spain. It is noteworthy that Bulgaria is among the six countries with the lowest share of ICT managers among European countries.
Our country ranks 14th in the EU in terms of the share of ICT professionals and technicians in the sector.
Gender differences
Compared to 2019, the gender gap remains significant: only 18.5% of ICT jobs were held by women in 2020, and the current number is expected to increase only to some extent by 2025. Education systems that contribute to the ICT workforce also see a similar gender gap, with only 16.7% of young people with a degree in ICT in European countries in 2020 being women. The chart below clearly shows that Bulgaria is the leader in the number of women in the sector, but it is noteworthy that the forecasts for the next 4 years are that they will decrease as a share of all workers in the ICT sector - a trend not seen in almost any other country.
Source: ICT workforce in Europe and its gender challenge after Covid-19
In terms of education, in 2020, 60% of ICT professionals in the EU have higher education and 35% have secondary education. Bulgaria is in the top 10 of the countries with highly educated ICT specialists (10th place with about 70%).
With regard to specialty education, in the EU two leading areas of ICT training were information and communication technologies and engineering, manufacturing and construction. Bulgaria is second after Romania in the share of women who graduated in information technology. However, the forecast is that by 2024 they will decrease. According to the data in 2017, our country was the absolute leader in the share of women (nearly 40%) with a degree in the field, then last year their share declined to just over 25%.
Source: https://www.karieri.bg/news