No progress by Malta in Global Gender Gap Index

Malta has again ranked in 83rd place in The Global Gender Gap Index 2011. This is the same ranking as in 2010, however last year there were 134 countries listed. This year there were 135. The countries ranked below Malta include Armenia, Hungary, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Cyprus, Tajikistan and Turkey.

Malta has been falling in its ranking since 2006 when it stood at the 71st place. The worst year was 2009 when the ranking fell to 88th place.

The worst showing for Malta, as in previous years, was in the Economic Participation and Opportunity index, where Malta was ranked 110th falling six places from the 104th in 2010.

The Malta Confederation of Women's Organisations (MCWO) expressed its concern at the lack of progress being made in reaching the government's objective of ensuring de facto equality in Maltese society in line with United Nations and European Union commitments.

"In spite of the number of incentives introduced to attract women to the labour market and the slow increase in women's participation rate, Malta is still falling back in this sector when compared to other countries on a global basis. This means that Malta is not benefiting fully from the considerable investment being made in education, to the detriment of our economy," the confederation said.

"The Government seems to be aware that the incentives in place to date have not been effective enough and need revisiting so that they may be more focused on parents' needs, particularly those of single parents. A step in the right direction was Government's commitment to extend maternity leave from 14 to 18 weeks over a two year period. Government is, for the first time, taking on the financing of this incentive. This was one of the proposals the MCWO submitted to the Finance Ministry in its Budget proposals. MCWO sees this incentive as a positive step that should result in an upgrade of Malta's ranking in the Global Gender Gap Index in the coming years."

It noted that in the index for health, Malta had kept its place at 72nd ranking. However, under Political Empowerment index, Malta lost one place and fell from 51st to 52nd place.

"In the political sphere, women are visible by their low numbers. This is also very true in decision-making levels where women make up only 3% of appointments to board rooms," the confederation said.