The term ‘feminisation of the labour market’ means different things to different people. I am particularly interested in the interpretation of this term as ‘the effort needed to raise female participation in the labour market’. The obstacles that keep women out of the labour market for long stretches in their lives are not peculiar to Malta.
Gender discrimination is possibly one of the worst obstacles that keep women out of the workplace- John Cassar White
It is an established fact that countries with high levels of development measured by income per capita have high labour participation rates, while countries that are still developing experience low levels of female participation in the official economy. The implication of this observation is that large structural changes occur with economic development.
It appears that female participation in the labour market increases as wage levels increase and this in turn leads to a fairer distribution of income between male and female workers. Some social researches maintain that despite increased gender equal opportunities in many western countries, “a large proportion of unpaid housework and care activities are still performed by women, although in many countries male household production is rising”.
Governments throughout Europe often resort to various enablers to motivate women to join the labour market to compensate for a falling working population that is threatening the chances of healthy economic growth. At the political level, policies “aimed at helping women reconcile work and family life may be more acceptable than policies aimed at keeping older people longer in the workforce”. In our case both types of policies are in fact needed if we are to reach the living standards of the best performing EU countries.
Childcare facilities are one of the most effective tools to facilitate the return of women to the workforce. The main challenge linked to this issue is to provide affordable facilities for women who would like to return to work. So far the role of grandparents in the provision of these facilities has been crucial to support young mothers in the workplace. But female workers with low levels of potential income and with no family support still find it difficult to afford any type of payment for childcare facilities.
Tax incentives are another motivator to lure women back to the workplace. I do not believe, however, that this is the main factor that will encourage women to return to paid work. Gender discrimination is possibly one of the worst obstacles that keep women out of the workplace in a certain phase in their lives.
We would be naive to deny that in Malta we have our fair share of gender discrimination in the form of pay and promotion opportunities for females wanting to return to the workplace. Anti-discrimination laws simply are difficult to implement. What is needed is a cultural change that considers women who are capable of contributing to economic growth through their paid employment as an asset that needs to be supported actively.
Parental leave is yet another enabler to encourage young women to remain in the workforce even when parental duties become their top priority in life. However, we need to understand that “long parental leave for an extended period of time decreases labour market skills and so damages future career paths and earnings”.
Employers will win the loyalty of their workers who need to take parental leave to care for their young children not only by offering job security for such workers but also by introducing schemes for the professional upgrading of the skills and knowledge of those workers who may have spent some time away from the workplace.
We may be facing an obstacle to higher female participation that we rarely hear about. It is an undeniable fact that there are thousands of middle aged women, as well as younger females, who lack the qualifications and skills needed to find employment in most of the activities that characterise our economy. Upgrading the educational skills of these people is, of course, a good strategy. But it is going to take too long to integrate these people in the official economy.
We may therefore need to make it easier for businesses to employ more low skilled workers by easing employment burdens. If successful, such a strategy would also encourage more low paid female workers to leave the shadow economy and join the official one.
Our strategies for the feminisation of the labour market will be effective if we embark on an empirical study to establish what is impeding more women from joining the official labour market.
johncassarwhite@yahoo.com