ETC's comments on a recent study

ETC Senior Executive (Gender Issues) Anna Borg comments on the study entitled Factors affecting women's formal participation in the Malta labour market.

Professor Godfrey Baldacchino recently presented the results of a survey undertaken by 25 students currently following the Gender and Development diploma course, run by the Workers' Participation Development Centre, University of Malta.

This ETC-organised presentation at St James Cavalier featured reactions from a panel, made up of Helen D'Amato, MP, Department of Women in Society director Renee Laiviera and the author.

First of all I would like to congratulate Professor Baldacchino and the Gender and Development students, who made this study possible. ETC is committed to ensure that its programmes and initiatives are products of adequate research, planning and innovation.

Because people have a complex nature, research and statistics can only tell us part of the story. Like all studies, while attempting to answer a set of chosen questions, in the process it automatically raises new ones. In this article, I highlight some points for discussion and show how ETC can intervene in order to facilitate the integration and retention of women in the local labour market.

There are many factors that have a direct or indirect effect on the life decisions that we make as women and men. Our marital status, the number of children we may have, our age, social class and the education we receive are just a few of these conditioning factors.

Some of the strongest factors which affect the decisions that women and men make regarding the labour market are traditional values and assumptions, especially those which shape the division of labour at home.

For example, it would be interesting to see from the supply side, if attitudes would change if women would find practical support in the running of the house and the caring of the children. Camilleri, in her book A Day in Her Life (1999), found that on average, Maltese women dedicate 11 hours to performing tasks that mainly benefit others without any direct reward in money or in kind to her.

Obviously, non-remunerated work has an enormous impact on women's decisions. With such a heavy load, women may well be happy to stay at home taking care of the family without adding extra pressures from going out to work outside the home.

But if the household chores and the caring were divided more equally between the husband and wife, and if the government shared the burden of childcare, what impact would this have on the decisions of whether a woman would stay at home or take up remunerated work?

This study attempts to take one snapshot from the kaleidoscope. If one of these elements changes, then the whole scenario changes, like the kaleidoscope, where one slight move changes the picture completely.

This study sets out to test the assumption that demand side supporting measures (like child care, flexible working arrangements etc.) will not - by themselves - have the desirable effect of drawing more women out into the formal economy and not to a significant extent.

The study deliberately focuses on the supply side (attitude-driven) factors, which affect women's decision to enter or leave the labour market. However, the study fails to test what impact these supporting measures may have on the supply side if they were in place and functioning well.

It appears that this research therefore needs to be complemented with further research that looks into what motivates women to work, and under which circumstances they are likely to change their attitudes towards remunerated work.

First of all, it must be stated that 87 per cent of respondents are mothers and only 13 per cent are not. This in itself has a strong bearing on how respondents replied. Only 0.44 per cent explicitly replied that they were not happy while they worked and that they do not want to work any more.

How many of the rest would be inclined to work given the right conditions and supporting structures? An internal report compiled by ETC on the female dropouts from the labour supply (November 2001-November 2002) revealed that 85 per cent of the female dropouts were from the private sector, while only 15 per cent left from government departments. This may suggest that the favourable conditions of work with Government encourage and permit more women (especially married women) to remain in the labour market. 24.8 per cent explicitly claim that they are happy at home taking care of the family.

Looking at it from the other end, excluding the 24.8 per cent who claim to be happy, 6.6 per cent who claim they do not need to work and 0.44 per cent who do not want to work any more, does this imply that over 68 per cent of Maltese women are in some way or other constrained, discouraged or not permitted to seek remunerated work outside the home?

Only 6.6 per cent of respondents claim that they do not work because they do not need to do so.

What does this mean? We do not know if the rest (around 93 per cent) can have a good standard of living on one wage and if they would be keen to earn a wage if they had supporting measures and the right conditions at the work place.

This study found that contracting marriage is a major cause behind the withdrawal of women in Malta from the formal labour market. However, a deeper analysis of the data provided shows that while this may be the case for women aged 40 and over, pregnancy and child birth are the main reason for the younger age cohorts to leave the labour market. Therefore, younger women tend to remain in the labour market until they are pregnant or until they have their first child.

Data from ETC also point out that the participation rate for married women is much higher than the nine per cent cited in this study. A conservative calculation indicates that the participation rate of married women is actually between 16 and 20 per cent of all those aged 15+.

This point is strengthened further if one looks at data from ETC as at February 2003. This shows that 39,953 women were in the labour market, of whom 22,753 were single (57 per cent) while 17,218 (43 per cent) were married. These figures are just for full-time jobs, the participation rate of married women would be much higher if we also counted those married women in part-time employment.

It is very interesting to note that 27.3 per cent of those currently not working are likely to consider paid work should home-based work become possible.

ETC will be using this information to put forward a European Social Fund project, which is targeting 100 women per year who are over 40 years of age and the majority of whom are envisaged to have low skills and education. Such women can enter a scheme for the duration of one year. During the first six months they will be getting appropriate training and are then put on a work placement for the next six months.

The type of work being sought for these women will include work they can do at home, in their own time and with possibilities of job-sharing. ETC is concurrently working on the establishment of a part-time register for those who want alternative hours of work, other than the standard 40-hour week.

During the training and placement, workers will be paid by ETC and their employer will continue to receive monetary support for up to three years. ETC strongly believes that the provision of affordable, accessible and quality childcare is of primary importance in making it possible for more women to remain the labour market.

For this reason, ETC has put forward another European Social Fund project. Its aim is to encourage and support employers and entities like local councils and co-operatives to open up child care centres. ETC will provide a pool of trained child care workers while giving other start-up grants and related support services.

I would like to end by referring to the conclusion of the study which recommends that the results should be closely scrutinised by the competent authorities so as to redress existing handicaps to facilitate the integration of more women in the local labour market.

This statement, with an emphasis on the need to redress existing handicaps, implies that there are hurdles and problems that will not go away on their own, but some form of intervention is required if the situation needs to be changed.

Thus we can say that not all is well and the picture is not as rosy as the survey would initially put across.

ETC is doing its part in redressing existing handicaps. The Gender Equality Plan is but one instrument. We believe that civil society and social partners should become more vociferous in pushing government to give its due attention where it is due, so that hurdles can be overcome and dismantled in time.

Unless the stumbling blocks are removed, women will have to continue making constrained choices, rather than real ones.

Factors Affecting Women's Formal Participation in the Malta Labour Market: Results of a Research Project has been published in booklet form by the Department for Women in Society of the Ministry for Social Policy. A soft copy of this study is available at www.etc.org.mt.

Ms Borg is ETC senior executive (Gender Issues)