ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Sociol.
Sec. Work, Employment and Organizations
This article is part of the Research TopicOvercoming (in)visible Barriers: Gender, Work and DiscriminationView all 10 articles
Invisible Lines of Inequality: Intersections of Gender, Motherhood, and Work-Based Discrimination in Bulgaria
Provisionally accepted
- Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS), Sofia, Bulgaria
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Introduction Motherhood remains one of the most persistent axes of gender inequality in the labor market. Caregiving responsibilities are linked to pay penalties, stalled career progression, and restricted opportunities, risks intensified in post-socialist Bulgaria by occupational segregation, weak family policy support, and precarious employment. Drawing on intersectionality and cumulative inequality theory, this study investigates how structural inequalities and workplace dynamics intersect to shape experiences of discrimination, distinguishing between general workplace discrimination and bias specifically linked to motherhood.
Keywords: workplace discrimination1, gender2, motherhood penalty3, intersectionality4, cumulative disadvantage5, Bulgaria6
Received: 17 Aug 2025; Accepted: 28 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Spasova. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Lyuba Spasova
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