This year, the Malta Confederation of Women’s Organisations (MCWO) is celebrating the first hundred years since the first time women raised their collective voice to demand the right to vote and safe conditions of work in the first wave of feminism. Over the years women continued to demand an end to discrimination and implementation of equality between women and men in all societies.
While today is a day of celebration, there is still a lot that needs doing. MCWO has been focusing on three major areas of concern – women’s public and political participation, the poor presence of women in the Maltese labour market, and persistent violence against women – areas that were deliberated in October 2010 at the United Nations (UN) Headquarters in Geneva.
This was the occasion when the MCWO was invited to submit a shadow report to the Malta national report on the implementation of the UN Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination against Women.
Public and Political Participation
The dearth of Maltese women in decision-making positions is hindering Malta’s efforts to join other leading EU countries in being considered a developed state. Whenever the issue is tabled, Malta is invariably cited as the worst performer on the list for the absence of women in decision making positions. The latest instance was the Gender Balance in Business Leadership Report, where again Malta placed last with 2% – compared to an EU average of 12% and with Sweden and Finland placing highest with 26%.
Malta’s miserable performance is not limited to business leadership however. Female participation in parliament is equally low, standing at less than 9% as compared to the EU average of 24%.,The trend is evident across the board – in national administration Level 1 at 0% (EU 26%) and at Level 2 registering a slightly better result at fifth place from last with 27% (EU 36%).
On the first of this month, Commissioner Reding was reportedly quite explicit in her call to business leaders to address the lack of female participation in the Europe’s boardrooms. She referred to Norway, France and Spain as having introduced ‘regulatory intervention’ in this regard. The last country of the three to do so was France, when in January of this year, legislation was passed that calls for 40% of boardrooms to be female.
Reding declared that ”Enhancing women’s participation in boardrooms can make companies more profitable and trigger sustainable economic growth.”
Commissioner Reding promised EU member states that they “can count on my regulatory creativity” if no change is registered by the end of the next 12 months, “My goal is to bring women’s presence on the boards of the major European publicly listed companies to 30% in 2015 and to 40% by 2020″ says Reding. An ultimatum that underlines how dire and untenable the situation has become.
MCWO will definitely be following developments in Malta. This is the third call made to the Malta Government within the last six months for the introduction of positive action, including quotas, to rectify the inequalities within Maltese society. The first call is incorporated in the UN Concluding Remarks on the Malta National Report mentioned above, whilst the second was that of the European President Buzek when, during his visit to Malta earlier this year, he remarked on the total absence of Maltese women MEPs and suggested that if need be positive action should be considered to rectify the situation. MCWO will continue to lobby for a strong commitment followed by effective action from the Malta Government to address these concerns.
Labour Market
The International Women’s Day (IWD) this year highlighted another major area of concern for Malta – the labour market and the gender pay gap. Whilst women make up 60% of university graduates, they are by far less visible in the labour market with 39% participation. The drop in the participation of women comes at age 34+ with child bearing and child rearing, as many have no option but to leave a family-unfriendly job market.
This is where the crux of the problem lies. The traditional structure of the labour market obstructs flexibility for workers with family responsibilities. Despite the much-publicised renewed government commitment in this regard, the lack of an overall plan to-date that addresses the various needs of these workers undermines initiatives and incentives introduced so far that aim to encourage workers, particularly women to remain or re-enter the labour market.
Progress in this sector is also being hindered by the lack of universal childcare services and by the lack of before-and-after school services in all the localities. Currently school opening hours are not compatible with working hours and this pushes many women to opt for part-time work or to leave the labour market all together. Much more needs to be done in this area in order to relieve the caring duties which unduly fall on the mother’s shoulders.
However, even more serious is the issue of the gender pay gap. According to an NCPE study on the subject, the gender pay gap in Malta stands at 23%. According to a new report, published just a few days ago, in the EU 27member states, women earn 17.5% less than men on average — a gap that has remained consistent for the past 15 years.
Commissioner Reding said that this means “that women in the EU would need to work an extra two months a year in order to earn as much as men.” If this is the case for European Women, Maltese women would need to work much longer than that.
This discrepancy is attributed to the “structural problems in the labour market” says Reding’s spokesperson. An issue of concern is that women “are not getting into professions like engineering, computer science, and management, where there are higher paid jobs.”
This is a reflection of developments in Malta where, in spite of the fact that the majority of university graduates are women, there is still a lack of female graduates in IT and computer science. MCWO continues to call for better career guidance based on effective training for career counsellors particularly in the context of government’s objective for Malta to become a centre for innovation and excellence in IT by the year 2020.
Violence against Women
Since its inception the MCWO has been working against one of the most fundamental issues that plague women of all ages and from all walks of life to this very day – domestic violence.
Active within the European Women’s Lobby (EWL) Observatory on Violence against Women, the MCWO is unwavering in its commitment to ending this anguish. It is a well known fact that, in the majority of cases, women are the main victims of domestic violence.
Information gathering is one of the tools that the EWL is honing, to be better able to build an all encompassing overview of legislation, plans of action, shelters, and services in place in all 27 EU member states.
Locally, studies show that one in four women suffers abuse during her life. Currently, thousands of these women are being beaten, abused, intimidated, but above all, robbed of their fundamental human dignity.
MCWO notes that what is more worrying is the fact that only half of these women seek help while over one third of the research respondents believe that domestic violence should be kept within the confines of the family.
It is clear that a lot more awareness-raising is still needed for all members of our society to acknowledge that violence against women is a crime against society and should be condemned outright. The message that it is the responsibility of each individual to report such cases to the police, even if anonymously, should be embedded into young and old, women and men.
MCWO welcomed the call made by Minister Dolores Cristina in recent weeks asking for submissions on amendments to the 2006 law on domestic violence. MCWO recognises the need for such amendments particularly to remove the heavy weighting that the law gives to the victim’s willingness or otherwise to give evidence against the alleged perpetrator. Whilst the law recognises that domestic violence is a crime against society, alleged aggressors are very often walking away free without answering for their actions before the courts even when evidence, apart from that of the victim, is available. The law urgently needs to address such lacunas in order to put a stop to victims being further terrified into withdrawing or refusing to give evidence before court hearings.
A welcoming sight indeed were also the voices of the male bloggers appalled at the violence against a woman last week as reported in the press. MCWO warmly welcomes this outright condemnation by men who are aware of the danger of domestic violence not only to women but to children and to society as a whole.
Within the wider context of violence against women, MCWO strongly condemns all violence that women and children are facing on a daily basis in the war zones, particularly in the African continent, where rape is being used as a weapon of war.
Conclusion
MCWO augurs, that come next IWD in 2012, women would be in a position to celebrate progress in the issues highlighted above. MCWO is always ready to work with the stakeholders in the field, particularly, the National Commission on the Promotion of Equality and the National Commission on Domestic Violence.
Renee Laiviera
Chair, MCWO
