On the 27 October, the World Economic Forum published the 2009 Global Gender Gap report. This annual study measures gender-based differences in access to resources and opportunities. The aim of the researchers is to provide “a snapshot of where men and women stand with regards to some fundamental rights such as health, education, economic participation and political empowerment.” This study looks at very important issues such as female participation in the workplace, wage equality between men and women for similar work, female representation at managerial level and also participation in the political arena.
In a nutshell, 134 countries were ranked according to how equal their societies are. I started at the top, thinking that surely, Malta cannot be that low down… Iceland was first, followed by the Scandinavian countries: no surprise there. As my eyes travelled down the list I noted South Africa in the 6th position, the Philippines in the 9th position, Mozambique in the 26th spot, Namibia in the 32nd place, Estonia in the 37th position, Botswana in the 39th, Uganda in the 40th, Kazakhstan in the 47th, Uzbekistan in the 58th, Romania in the 70th. Where on earth was Malta?
Finally I found us – in the ignominious 89th place, in the company of Tajikistan (87), Belize (88), Azerbaijan (90) and Armenia (91).
What makes the situation particularly worrying is the fact that Malta is one of the few countries in the world where women are actually becoming less equal to men over the years, as opposed to progressing. The World Economic Forum publishes this gender gap ranking every year – in 2006 Malta was in the 71st place, in 2007 we lost ground and slipped to the 76th spot, in 2008 the freefall continued and we were ranked 83rd, and we already know this year’s result, i.e., 89th place. I guess that, at this rate, we should expect to be ranked 95 or worse next year.
I have to admit that I was surprised at this result. I knew that things were bad, but I had no idea that they were this bad. My gut reaction was to blame it on the political empowerment part of the equation. We all know that male politicians greatly outnumber their female counterparts in Malta. However, I was wrong. The number of women in politics was a contributing factor, but not the main reason for our abysmal ranking.
Malta is doing so badly in gender equality rankings because women on our islands still have a long way to go where economic participation and opportunities are concerned. When looking at the details of the report it emerged that our country was ranked in the 114th position (out of 134 countries!) in relation to labour force participation.
This is particularly astounding when one sees the very high proportion of women in tertiary education. More women are getting degrees than men, so how on earth do we justify the fact that proportionally fewer women are working, and fewer women are managers (or legislators, or senior officials)? What’s happening to these female graduates? Are they disappearing in some great big black vortex somewhere?
In a way, I guess they are.
I have often written in the past about how difficult it is for women to juggle work and career in this country of ours. It is not only the lack of childcare centres, or the problems we encounter trying to match office hours with school hours. It is also about the policies in relation to parental leave and the existence of a very tangible glass ceiling.
These problems all exist and they are definitely damaging women’s chances. However in my opinion the factor that will be hardest to overcome is the local mentality and our firmly entrenched gender stereotypes.
I usually laugh when I meet a friend of mine who tells me that her husband refuses to change a nappy because the smell makes him sick. I also smile when they say that their dear hubby refuses to get up at night if the baby cries because otherwise the poor man would be too tired to get up in the morning.
However the reality is that this situation is no laughing matter. Why on earth should fathers shirk their responsibilities? Why should they not change nappies, bathe children, mop up vomit and console crying babies? Do they seriously expect us to believe that it is because they are genetically incapable of doing so?
How often have we read interviews with successful women who say ‘I am lucky because my husband is very supportive”? Now match that to the number of times you have heard a man make the same statement.
Let’s face it. In Malta women consider themselves lucky if their husband does his fair share of the work. Men, on the other hand, can go to work safe in the knowledge that their wife will do all the grunt work related to keeping the house decent and raising children.
We can pay lip service to the promotion of equality till kingdom come. However if nothing is done to change local attitudes as to the respective roles of women and men, we are not going to get very far.
Change does not happen by itself. It needs to be planned and coordinated. My suggestion is that the local authorities check out what happened in several Scandinavian countries. I think that we have a lot to learn from countries where women have achieved high levels of equality while at the same time having more kids. An example is Sweden (4th in the gender gap ranking), where fertility has gone up from 1.54 births per woman in 2003 to 1.67 births per woman in 2008.
How do women in Sweden have more children than Maltese women, while participating much more in the workplace?
Apart from the generous family policies instituted by the Swedish Government (for example universal access to excellent all-day childcare facilities, and 16 months paid leave per child, the cost of which is shared between employer and State) the State actively conducted campaigns to influence public attitudes about the role of women in society. The Swedes were told in an unequivocal manner that children need parents, and not just mothers! Swedish men were encouraged to become fathers, and to act as such. The result – Swedish women are having more babies as well as working more. A win-win all round.
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This study looks at very important issues such as female participation in the workplace, wage equality between men and women for similar work, female representation at managerial level and also participation in the political arena.
