Committee of Bulgarian Women
There is no mass organization, as such, for Bulgarian women. The Committee of Bulgarian Women, with a membership of 171 in 1973, is a group dedicated to looking after the affairs of women in the country, whether they be workers or housewives. The Constitution of 1971 guarantees to Bulgarian women the enjoyment of equal rights with men. In the complex structure of the BKP-controlled government, recognition of women as a significant working force in the socialist movement is given great attention. An earlier provision contained in the 1947 Constitution, known as the Dimitrov Constitution, similarly guarantees the "right to work, equal pay for equal work," and the attendant benefits, such as paid leave, social security, retirement pension, and education.
Bulgarian women have become active participants in the political process under communist rule. As noted earlier, 25.2 percent of BKP members in 1971 were women, and there was one woman in the Politburo. There were 7,000 women members of the BZS and almost half of the Komsomol members were women (500,000); the same is true for the Fatherland Front, and women made up 41.2 percent of the trade unions. In the unions of writers, composers, artists, and actors women are also active. Most teachers are women. They represented 67.7 percent of the Teachers Union.
The women's movement was active on a nationwide scale. On the initiative of the Committee of Bulgarian Women, a plan for the development of science and technical progress including the study of the social role of women was presented to the presidium of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. Another suggestion by the same women's group called for the study of conditions defining women's role as "mothers, production workers and public activists."
In the report to the plenary session of the party Central Committee in July 1968, Zhivkov outlined the functions of the Committee of Bulgarian Women. These included the coordination of state and administrative organs in research institutes that studied the role of women in society. Henceforth, according to Zhivkov, the Central Committee of the BKP would receive reports on such research and would be directly concerned with matters concerning Bulgarian women.
Ideological Training
How mass organizations relate to BKP party directives, orders, and decrees is best illustrated in the area of political education and indoctrination. The National Conference on Party Propaganda was held in April 1970 and sponsored by the Agitation and Propaganda Department of the Central Committee and by the district party committees. During the conference one of the district secretaries detailed some aspects of a three-stage system that is being applied.
The three-stage structure corresponds to the educational level as well as to the political training and age of students. Schools in the higher level of various district party committees and branches of the mass organizations train administrative personnel, intellectuals, and party activists. Training on this level includes theoretical seminars and study groups. For intermediate personnel, including employees with a secondary education, there are schools and institutes giving lectures and talks on Leninism. A more elementary form of mass propaganda is given to people with less training in theoretical political ideology; people of advanced age fall also into this category. Political education for this group consists of lectures in beginners' schools. Compulsory subjects in primary party organizations are also discussed during education sessions at party meetings. Except for Sofia, which has a high rate of literacy, most districts employ this three-stage system of political education. It is estimated that 60 percent of Communists in Sofia have at least a high school education; many have college degrees in contrast to some outlying districts where a large percentage of the Communists have only an elementary education.
The three-stage system is also used for training newly inducted Communists as well as youth groups. It was reported during the conference that approximately 900 of the best party propagandists have been sent to Komsomol organizations to train youth in the party school system. Within the Komsomol there is evident need for considerable changes in the training of youth in the system of political education, designed to bring the youth closer to the practice of the principles of Marxism-Leninism.