Focus

Malta will be at least seven years late from reaching its EU target to practically double the number of women in the working world. Ariadne Massa focuses on the situation, with an emphasis on the obstacles facing dual worker families and the emergence of househusbands.

From working women to househusbands

It was highly unlikely that Malta would succeed in reaching its goal to almost double female employment to 60 per cent by 2010, according to Sina Bugeja, executive director of the National Commission for the Promotion of Equality.

"Realistically, and all things being equal, if politicians make the right decisions and entrepreneurs take the necessary risks then maybe we'll reach meet our targets by 2016," she said.

Malta had committed itself to raise the number of women in the working world by about seven per cent to 41 per cent and eventually meet the EU Lisbon Strategy targets of 60 per cent in three years' time.

However, this was now an unlikely scenario and Ms Bugeja believes the main stumbling block is the deep-seated culture that permeated society and inflicted guilt on mothers who chose to return to work.

"We are not getting any closer to reaching our targets, and though I do believe that there is greater awareness and the mentality is changing, it's a slow process," she added.

"We cannot forget the ingrained mentality that women are expected to stay at home and should not go to work."

Ms Bugeja pointed out that in all fairness Malta had only seriously focused on its targets when it joined the EU two years ago, while the EU Lisbon Agenda was set in 2000, giving member states an advantage of four years.

For the employment to shift upwards, women had to start looking at work differently and think laterally of alternative job options that could give them economic independence and flexible hours.

"People should consider setting up cooperatives and tapping the gaps in the market. For example, they could prepare wholesome meals or lunches for families, or provide laundry service, among the numerous options," she said.

Employers also had a role to play and they had to change their frame of mind that women were too expensive to employ because they would have to fork out paid maternity leave for 13 weeks.

"Research by the International Labour Organisation shows that if we look at the lifecycle approach, men in their mid- and late 40s tended to use up more sick leave than women," she said.

Apart from that, employers had to consider the fact that each time they lost an experienced and skilled worker they were spending more on retraining a new employee.

Ms Bugeja said that if the option of flexible hours was to succeed then both employees and employers had to build their relationship on trust.

The dual worker family

In a society where the dual worker family was becoming the norm, it was crucial to create a corporate culture that supported the values of an ideal work-life balance.

A study conducted this year by Saviour Rizzo, from the university's Centre for Labour Studies, suggests that heeding such a call may prove to be beneficiary both to the dual worker family and to industry.

In his study, Mr Rizzo explored some of the reasons for the present state of affairs - among them Maltese women's absence from the labour market as one of the main obstacles to modernise Malta's economy - focusing on the problems faced by individuals to combine work with social life.

The study showed that despite all their efforts at time management "only about one-half of dual worker families actually manage to strike an effective balance between work and family".

All the others are constrained to work in order to be able to pay for their "basic needs" and these were constantly changing in a consumer society dominated by a work and spend culture.

The causes behind this "time squeeze" were a result of housework and family/children obligations, no residual time for other activities and long hours.

It is interesting to note that about eight of 10 respondents (78.6 per cent) said they would prefer to work regular hours with a good pay, which would not provide many opportunities to go beyond the basic, than work long hours with a very good pay that would allow them to buy certain luxuries.

However, the fact that one in five spouses (21.4 per cent) tended to be willing to work long hours to go beyond the basics was an indication of the "consumerist values" among many family members.

"It is this urge to consume more, whatever the social cost may be, that makes our society consumer based," the study said.

The study showed that to most spouses (59.6 per cent), satisfying the simple acts of consumption, which are linked with immediate needs, was the reason why they had opted for a dual worker family.

One out of five women (19.5 per cent) in contrast to one out of 10 men (10.5 per cent) appreciated the fact that the dual worker family enables them to "pursue their career" and "escape the boredom of home".

About 2.8 per cent said that the main reason why both were in gainful employment was to enable them to cope with their children's education and the demands of their well-being.

With regard to child care arrangements, the study showed that 58.5 per cent left their children with the grandparents, 5.4 per cent left them with relatives and a mere 8.5 per cent made use of child care centres.

It is interesting to note that while the women interviewed worked fewer hours, their time was being taken up caring for the children and honouring family obligations, leaving them with little time for their personal and social needs.

On the other hand, men, being relieved of most of the family's immediate needs, found more time for leisure and felt less "time-squeezed", even though they worked longer hours.

"Men do not seem to worry as much as women do about the effect their work will have on children. The stress some men feel over balancing their career and family commitments can be tempered by the knowledge they are conforming to cultural expectations if they devote most of their time to work," the study points out.

On the other hand, working mothers may struggle with feelings of guilt for failing to conform to the motherhood mandate as prescribed by cultural norms, explicitly or implicitly espoused by the Catholic Church.

"To improve the work-life balance of the dual worker family we have to look at the other factors that are making it difficult for the spouses belonging to this type of family to find the ideal equilibrium between their working and social lives," the study recommends.

"A change in the workplace aimed at making it more conducive to family obligations and social life may be the best proposition."

Househusbands - a new phenomenon

A new role for fathers was an important change in the family for the future, a change that was starting to occur in Malta, according to a recent study.

A dissertation by Francesca Theuma, submitted for her BA (Hons) sociology dissertation, looks into the reasons behind a man's decision to take parental leave or become a full-time househusband.

The in-depth interviews with 15 married men showed that the decision was taken jointly, in most cases because the wife was the highest income earner.

Two men who stayed at home full-time argued that it was not easy taking such a decision because it went against the natural system that existed in Malta.

Five househusbands considered themselves as a substitute of a housewife and not as an unemployed or lazy person - these comments offended them.

The respondents argued that housework was a continuous cycle that never came to an end and they found that they were always busy: "actually much more busy than at work".

One of them insisted that domestic work was a full-time job with the only difference being that it was unpaid.

When asked if their wives helped them in the domestic chores, half of the respondents said that on weekends or public holidays they shared the home duties.

Overall, the respondents said that one of the best things about parental leave, or staying at home full-time, was that they were creating a better bond with their children. This, in turn, improved relations with their partner.

Two respondents pointed out that while they were still in paid employment they had rarely helped with the housework or cared for their child. The reversal of roles had made them appreciate how time-consuming and tiring taking care of a child was.

Half of the respondents maintained that they did not consider themselves to be the kind of men who would work all day and return home in the evening expecting to be waited on by their wife.

All the respondents saw their role as being more than that of the main breadwinner.

Creating a new routine was not easy for those who chose to stay at home and three men described the frustration of giving up paid work - they missed the communication and interaction with adult company and they felt isolated from the outside world.

All the respondents agreed that people's reaction to their decision was not always good and many were taken aback, since it was such an unusual situation - in Malta 98.4 per cent of women took parental leave and career breaks as opposed to a mere 1.6 per cent taken by men.

The men described the financial setbacks they experienced, but added that it had made more sense to give up the lower salary. Two respondents argued that they should at least receive 10 per cent or two-thirds of their salary, or at least have parental leave included as time spent in service.

When asked what could be done to increase the participation of fathers in the family, the respondents mentioned that the state and the Catholic Church had to work separately and not influence each other.

They felt that the state should provide family-friendly measures at the workplace for both males and females. They also argued that there should be an increase in public child care centres, especially at the place of work and in schools.

Overall, almost all the respondents agreed that men should make more use of parental leave. Finally, they said they would recommend this experience to every father - men should be more conscious of their role as fathers, they said.

A manual for employers

If the participation of women in the labour market were to increase, and gender discrimination at the workplace eliminated, employers had a very important role to play.

With this in mind the Employment and Training Corporation, together with input from the Malta Employers' Association, has launched a manual for employers, titled Making Work Better For Organisations And For Employees.

Anna Borg, ETC gender issues senior executive, said the manual was intended to be a comprehensive guide for inclusiveness (not just for women) and to obtain a flexible working environment.

The manual, coordinated with Lucy Pace Gouder and Jonathan Brimmer from the ETC, contains a checklist on how to avoid discrimination with examples of good and bad practices.

The checklist includes the careful drafting of advertising a vacancy; examples of reduced working hours and flexitime; child care facilities; as well as a sample of an equal opportunities policy that organisations could adopt.

It has been developed specifically for employers and human resources managers who want to ensure their employees do not suffer unfair discrimination on their job.

It offers advice on how to recruit and retain the best employees according to their skills and abilities and to do so in line with the law.

The manual points out that by introducing innovative work practices employers will not only ensure fairness and equity, but also bring advantages through increased productivity due to staff loyalty, and a reduction in staff absenteeism due to flexible working solutions, among others.

Ms Borg said that across Europe the number of companies that were implementing equity and diversity strategies were on the increase.

Research showed that they were doing so not only for legal and ethical reasons, but also because of the business benefits these changes were delivering.

This manual was geared to provide Maltese organisations with some ideas on how to implement such change.

Ms Borg said the manual was being distributed to all employers and the reaction so far had been a positive one.