Are women advancing?

Rosanne Galea, president of the Malta Association of Women in Business, regrets that women are still not being represented at board level and urges the government to set an example

The number of women engaged in business activity is increasing. However, when one compares the number of women that are in gainful employment in Malta to those in Europe, the result shows that the rate is extremely low, in fact the lowest in the whole of Europe. Why is this so?

Maltese women take full responsibility for the upbringing of the children. Up to a number of years ago, women had to resign from employment upon getting married. This created a culture and a mentality that is difficult to change.

The tax and social security system does not encourage women to regularise their position. There are women who are engaged in the black economy and therefore the statistics of gainfully employed women are not correct.

Another problem that arises is that the husband does not encourage the wife to go out to work because he fears that he would be requested to pay a higher rate of tax. This creates difficulties if the wife retains the income and the husband has to pay a higher rate of tax.

There is also the difficulty of inadequate child caring facilities for children under three years old. Unless the women can afford to pay for private child care or unless the grandparents volunteer to take care of the children, women have no choice but to take a career break.

In today's working and business environment, a career break can be suicidal unless the women undertake training to keep abreast of changes that are affecting the business environment.

Statistics also show that the vast majority of women have to take time off from work to take care of children when they are sick. This means that when one employs women, the employer has to live with this fact of life.

This of course makes engaging women less attractive than engaging males who are more reliable in this sense than women. The Malta Asso-ciation of Women in Business has statistics to prove this. The care of children has to be a shared responsibility.

Employers in Malta were asked whether they were interested in investing in child caring facilities for their female employees. The response was that in the absence of a legal obligation to do so, employers would rather not since they felt that they could do without it. They said that women who wanted to work when their children were young should sort out the issue of child care themselves.

Women in business in Malta

The association taking care of the interests of women in business is the Malta Association of Women in Business. This was set up in July 1991 by a small group of women who felt the need to network and to help create an environment that is conducive to business activity by women.

The association is a full member of Femme Chefs d'Entreprises Mon-diales which is the largest association of business women the world over. MAWB participates in the activities of FCEM and networks with business women in other countries. This opens new horizons for women who need contacts in other countries.

During the last annual general meeting a motion was passed to open membership to affiliates. The eligibility for affiliate status belongs to women who are presently in employment but who wish to open their own business in the years to come.

It is also open to women engaged in decision-making position in organisations which they do not own. Voting rights are restricted to full members and these must be business owners.

In order to further assist business women, some of the association's members undertook a course to become business mentors. A mentor 'hand-holds' someone interested in a starting a business operation. The mentor, being an experienced person in business, would be able to guide and assist the new entrepreneur.

As an association we have also participated in exhibitions overseas and we are trying hard to get business for Malta. We are investing in research and we keep our eyes open for opportunities that are attractive for Maltese entrepreneurs. We have established relationships with the ambassadors and we encourage exchange of information.

Our membership is varied. There are well established businesswomen and others who have just started off. There are those who started on their own and those who are engaged in family businesses.

Today the business environment bears different characteristics to the business environment of a few years ago. National boundaries are falling and trade is becoming more global.

Women must endeavour to attract business from other countries and travel is important. Yet, child care can be a headache, especially if the mother, the business owner, has to be away from home for a number of days. Statistics also show that businesswomen have to take care of elderly parents. Help in this respect would be appreciated.

Besides the problem of caring for children and elderly parents, the new airport tax increases costs and acts as a deterrent to people who want to travel to bring business from abroad.

State services

We also need an improvement in the services provided by the state. Take, for instance, St Luke's Hospital, where invariably an outpatient appointment is fixed for 9 a.m. for an average number of 20 patients. How can businesswomen afford to spend the best part of the day in a waiting room? Private medical care is therefore not an option and neither is the cost associated with it.

There are members who are separated or who are in the process of getting a separation. These lament in no uncertain terms about the family court or the lack of one!

Women can also find themselves having to deal with businesses originally run by the husband. There are a number of sad stories in this respect. One example is of husbands passing away suddenly leaving the wife with not only the sole responsibility of young children, but a business to run as well.

Matters are worse if the husband had not involved the wife in the business affairs. It was this very fact that had started off FCEM, our world association.

Mme Foinant, the founder, was widowed and had to take over her husband's business. She did not have a clue about it and felt the need to network with other women. The association which started in France has now spread to over 40 countries.

Few of those who are in the association have received tertiary education. The majority have completed secondary education and joined the family business. We have women involved in the spare parts business, running petrol stations and other businesses usually considered a male domain.

Today we are seeing women trying to establish a work/life balance by getting involved in businesses which give them the flexibility they are seeking.

There are the property negotiators and those who sell goods from catalogues. Women are job-sharing among themselves. This is interesting and can be the subject of a study on social psychology of working women.

What needs to be done?

We need to get down to acting. We need to change the culture that stops women from using their initiative and going out to work. This can be done by talking more openly about the issue and by establishing a better relationship with the press.

We need to put more pressure on the government. It is unfortunate that laws that will have the desired effect have been left pending. The white paper on gender issues leaves much to be desired.

Women on boards

Also the government should encourage female participation by nominating more women on boards of organisations in which the government is a stakeholder.

MAWB has been left out of the Malta Council for Economic and Social Development. What is sadder is that there is not a single woman on the main board. Why should we be happy to have a seat on a subcommittee when we should be on a main board? Let us hope that there will be women on the board of Malta Enterprise.

By having more women sitting on boards the ideas will filter through organisations and board members will realise that women have a lot to contribute. This will encourage them to appoint women to higher positions.

We need more training opportunities to bridge the gap in skills and make the employment of women more attractive. There is also a need for tax incentives for women who need to spend money on child care, both for those with under three-year-olds and those who need professional child carers after school hours. Child care should ideally be provided by the state.

MAWB is a non political, non governmental organisation. Members will vote as they feel they should and the association respects the members views.

It is, however, preoccupying to see that the government is so keen to join the European Union as soon as possible yet the issues relating to women are not being given due attention.

We know that the EU is very much in favour of female participation in the labour market. Work is carried out to research issues relating to women and lobby groups of women's rights are listened to. So what is holding us back?

Malta needs proper statistics on businesswomen. At present these are lacking. We do not know how many are engaged in business activity and to what extent. How can we work without proper statistics?

We know that collecting data will not be an easy task, one of the reasons being that there are cases were although women have full responsibility and run businesses, these are registered in the husbands' names.

Organsiations in which the government is a stakeholder should set an example when it comes to child care. The police, government departments and authorities should take the provision of child care facilities seriously.

Let us create an environment that rewards entrepreneurship and innovation. Let us not stifle business initiative with over-regulation and stringent rules that get us nowhere.

This country has potential and what needs to be done is to unlock it to achieve the long-awaited results.