The way forward for gender equality

One of the biggest challenges facing gender mainstreaming is attracting more women to full-time employment and to jobs that were traditionally done by men.

However, Since Bugeja, commissioner at the National Commission for the Promotion of Equality, believes that equality will eventually be achieved and change was already evident.

"We are already on the road to change and the political commitment is there from all sides, though maybe it needs to be higher on the national agenda," she said.

Ms Bugeja was yesterday speaking at a conference on Gender Mainstreaming: The Way Forward at the Dolmen Resort Hotel, Qawra.

The conference is the first in a series tackling four areas of study to get the real picture of the situation on the island so that policies could be drawn up on the local reality.

The fact that gender mainstreaming was not on everybody's agenda and that Catholic discourse was based on the age-old roles of men and women in society did not help, but Ms Bugeja felt people were finding ways of surmounting these obstacles.

The commission has tapped EU funds to make it easier for women to enter the labour market and sensitise the social partners to the various benefits that arise from the introduction of family-friendly measures.

The mainstreaming strategy is not aimed at changing women, but rather accepts their situations, priorities and needs as being "normal", and taking this, at the same level as men, as the starting point in redesigning organisations and institutions.

This strategy is a means of implementing the provisions of the EU Treaty, which proclaims equality between men and women as a task and an aim of the Community.

The project will look into four components: family-friendly measures at the place of work to reduce segregation; gender pay review; following career paths and conditions of work of graduates; and a teleworking pilot project to demonstrate the benefits of flexible working arrangements.