Women closing in on men

The gap between the number of men and women in employment has gone down by 9.3 per cent since 2005 – the fastest decline in the EU.

Malta still has the highest number of unpaid full-time housewives among member states.

But it seems that efforts made by the authorities in the past years to provide incentives to women who enter the labour market are producing concrete results.

The percentage of Maltese women with a paid job reached 41.6 per cent in 2010, up by 6.5 per cent since 2005, according to the Annual Report on Gender Equality in the EU, published by the European Commission in Brussels.

On the other hand, the employment rate for men went down by nearly three per cent over the same period, from 80.6 per cent in 2005 to 77.8 per cent in 2010.

Malta has the lowest average rate of women in the labour market, with the EU’s reaching 62.1 per cent in 2010. However, the island is catching up and its growth rate in this area is three times the EU’s average.

Italy is just ahead of Malta in its female employment rate, at 49.5 per cent. At the top end of the rankings is Sweden, with 75.7 per cent.

A Commission official said Malta had made strides in the past years through various incentives and increased focus on the provision of childcare services.

A recent EU study showed that longer school hours may have a positive effect on enticing women to work. This report showed Malta has among the shortest school hours in the EU.

In 2010, only 42.6 per cent of women aged between 25 and 49 with children under 12 had a job, against 59.4 per cent of childless women.

The situation is the reverse for men. At 94.9 per cent in 2010, the employment rate of Maltese men aged 25 to 49 with children under 12 was much higher than for those who do not have to provide for their offspring (86.4 per cent).