Gender inequalities under study

Requests for advice received by the National Commission for the Promotion of Equality may have increased, but the number who go on to make an official complaint is still low.

The commission's executive director Sina Bugeja told The Times that women tended to accept a state of affairs even if they felt uncomfortable, such as a case of sexual harassment.

She expressed satisfaction however, at the increasing interest in gender equality.

The commission yesterday held a half-day conference to discuss areas of study that can provide a real picture of the situation so that policies can be drawn up according to the local reality.

The whole project, which includes five areas of study, aims to facilitate the process of introducing family-friendly measures, reduce gender segregation, encourage employees to enter, remain in or re-enter the labour market, provide opportunities for women to take advantage of advancement opportunities and encourage them to take up or continue training.

Yesterday's conference on Gender Mainstreaming: The Way Forward at the Dolmen Resort Hotel, in Qawra, addressed the gender pay review and a pilot project on tele-working, two of the studies the commission is tackling after tapping EU funds.

Angele Deguara, who is conducting the research on the gender pay review, said that historically women had always earned less than men. Moreover, these inequalities had been constant and resistant to social, cultural and economic changes despite efforts to surmount them.

Although the unequal pay phenomenon, which is present universally, has narrowed since the 1960s, the current trend is for women not to be bridging the gap. This was more apparent in the private sector, she said.

Moreover, the wage gap does not decline according to the level of education, experience and qualifications but tends to widen in more senior positions.

In Malta, Ms Deguara said, the difference in earnings had declined in the past five years, but there was still a large gap in the higher-paid occupations. She pointed out that women tended to join the labour market with different tastes, expectations, qualifications and experience to men and were less likely to invest in training.

Ms Deguara said literature suggested that women tended to opt for jobs that enabled them to combine their occupational and domestic duties and were more likely to work less overtime than their male counterparts. She added that the long working hours culture contributed to more women opting for part-time employment.