Women in Post-Soviet Nations Prove STEM Isn’t Just for Men

In former communist nations, women dominate the science field — but is this an example the West can emulate to bridge its own STEM gap?

My mother grew up in communist Bulgaria. The Berlin wall didn’t fall until 1989 and she was a 70s kid. Her formative years were spent behind the iron curtain, where people queued for hours to buy their yearly allotment of oranges.

Communism was a grey regime where apathy and a general lack ruled. People lacked freedom, people lacked choice, people lacked oranges, and jeans, and cars, and most things we take for granted these days.

My grandparents were neither revolutionaries nor staunch communists. They existed in the apathetic majority that accepted its reality as commonplace. They hoped to raise their children well and live a decent life.

My mother was their firstborn and she showed an aptitude for math at an early age. She did exceptionally well at school. She was never told she can’t pursue math because she is a girl. And, with female scientists and chess grandmasters championed in Bulgaria, there were plenty of examples of women who had succeeded in these fields.

Between her love for chess and checkers, her weekly judo classes, and numerous math competitions that she prepared for relentlessly, she had a very communist upbringing. My mother went on to study at an elite school specializing in the field of math and natural sciences. She then chose to obtain an economics degree. She knew she could, so she did.

But what is it about these former communist countries that leveled the STEM playing field? And are there lessons that can be learned and applied elsewhere?

Getting more women to pursue careers in STEM remains a priority for policymakers and professionals in the education field.

Despite efforts to encourage women to take up the sciences, the percentage of women opting for core STEM subjects like physics and math has hovered at around 25% in the UK over the last five years.

There are still those who claim that women are just not naturally inclined to take up the hard sciences. Some research suggests girls don't do as well as boys when it comes to science, and that apparently their strengths lie in ‘reading’. Girls, the research suggests, tend to opt for STEM careers to give themselves financial security in places where gender inequality is rife. They are not actually interested in science on the whole.

Except in Eastern European nations, women do pursue careers in STEM fields. And while sexism and gender inequality does exist, women pursue these careers because they want to and because they can. I know many wonderful women in Bulgaria who are in happy, fulfilling relationships and are also doctors, software engineers, and clinical researchers too.

This isn’t anecdotal evidence either. In Lithuania, 57% of scientists and engineers are women. In Bulgaria and Latvia, this number stands at 52%. In south-east Europe, 49% of scientific researchers are women.

So what is it about these nations that has closed the gender STEM gap? And are there actionable takeaways for other countries hoping to do the same?

Emphasis on the Sciences

In communist nations, pursuing science and math was strongly encouraged at school. The sciences were revered and it was a mark of prestige to study and work in the STEM field. This was largely indoctrination on the part of the state.

In Soviet Russia, almost half of the curriculum in primary and secondary school was made up of math, science, and mechanical drawing classes. Nearly 70% of degrees conferred were in the sciences. Further, vocational colleges focused on the STEM fields too.

Communist regimes wanted the population trained and engaged in these fields. This was their way to consolidate and expand their regime. They needed the (wo)man power to drive scientific and technological advancement in the face of opposition from the West.

But unlike societies that saw men as the driving force behind scientific advancement, Soviet nations instilled a work ethic mentality in both men and women. They pursued aggressive policies to encourage women to take up studies that were previously only open to men.

This worked so well that at one point, 75% of doctors in Latvia were women. A similar pattern was observed in Russia. The Soviets had to introduce quotas to encourage more men to join the medical profession.

Female Empowerment at Work

But merely encouraging women to pursue careers in the sciences would not have been enough. Although communist nations were largely egalitarian when it came to the public sphere, this did not extend to the privacy of the home. Women were still the main caretakers of children.

This is a universal problem. In Invisible Women, Caroline Criado-Perez discusses how women are still more likely to take on part-time roles so they can raise their children. In the UK, 42% of women work part-time, as compared to 17% of men. And women make 75% of the part-time workforce.

Part-time roles, which tend to be low-paid, are taken on by mothers with caring responsibilities who often opt for jobs they are over-qualified for. Women work jobs that offer them the flexibility they need, but not the pay they deserve, Criado-Perez says. The unpaid housework and care responsibilities that women continue to take on set their careers back and widen the gender pay gap.

Post-communist nations have strong maternity leave policies and all-day kindergartens subsidized by the state. The system is set up to allow both parents to work full-time if they choose to do so. This is a legacy from the soviet regimes that reigned a few decades ago.

Maternity leave in post-communist nations allows mothers to pursue their careers after having children

Paid maternity leave in Bulgaria is 410 days. Mothers are paid 90% of their gross salary for the duration of their leave. They are also allowed to transfer their leave to their partners after the first six months, allowing for shared parental leave.

After the 410 days lapse, parents are entitled to extend this leave until the child turns 2. The parent staying with the child receives the national minimum wage for the remainder of the leave. If the parents choose to do so, one of them can remain at home with the child until he or she turns 3. While the employer is legally obligated to hold the parent’s job, this final year is unpaid.

In contrast, in the UK, mothers are entitled to 52 weeks of maternity leave. They receive 90% of their salary for the first six weeks. After this, the maximum amount they can receive is £151.97 per week or 90% of their earnings, whichever is lower.

There is a shared-leave scheme available, where both parents can share up to 37 weeks of parental leave and be compensated accordingly. However, both partners’ employers must be notified and they must meet certain eligibility criteria to qualify.

And in the United States, there is no obligation for employers to offer expectant mothers any kind of paid maternity leave. Bigger employers must allow women to take 12 weeks off to have their baby. However, there is no expectation that this must be paid. It is up to the company to offer paid maternity leave as an additional benefit.

Childcare provisions help women stay at work

In Bulgaria, women are guaranteed an income for the first two years after they give birth. They are guaranteed a job for the first three years after they give birth. This allows them to take a career break but pick up where they left off when they return.

However, all-day nurseries and kindergartens subsidised by the state mean mothers can go back to work earlier. Children can start attending these from the moment they turn 10 months old. Parents pay a contribution for the child’s meals and can choose to pay an additional fee if they wish their children to partake in extracurricular activities such as martial arts or foreign language lessons.

In contrast, in the UK, parents pay £7,000 a year for a part-time nursery place that does not include meals. Full-time nursery costs are approximately £263 per week, which works out to more than £12,000 for 48 weeks. To put this into context, the median household income in the United Kingdom is just under £30,000 per year.

Post-communist nations leveled the STEM playing field by changing the mentality around women in the sciences and women with careers in general. The many female scientists from the communist era show young women today that they too can pursue these careers successfully.

But it isn’t just the strong role models — if Western nations want to bridge the STEM gap, they need to address the lack of adequate and affordable maternity and childcare provisions as well.