It was great to learn that three of Malta’s MEPs – all female – outperformed their counterparts and received awards for their achievements. Such positive news, which makes some inroads in the efforts towards equal gender representation in politics, was soon followed by some rather dismal statistics.

Malta placed last in employment gender equality, recording the biggest gap in the EU in the percentage of working men and women. This prompted the predictable cries for positive gender discrimination on the workplace.

If women are finding it difficult – or, perhaps worse, are not motivated – to continue being part of the workforce, addressing only the symptoms is not enough. Lawmakers need to look at the underlying causes.

The situation is not yet hopeless; the same Eurostat statistics mentioned above also revealed a significant increase in the percentage of working women, rising from 36.4 per cent in 2004 to 53.6 per cent this year. Of course, there is still a long way to go but the question is: where are we going wrong?

There exist a few pointers that may help. According to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, Finland, though operating a far from perfect system, does better than most of its European counterparts by offering benefits to parents and heavily subsidising childcare services.

In this regard, Malta appears to be on the right track. Parenting benefits are on a par with those of the rest of the EU and the government offers free childcare services. More adequate and affordable care facilities for children who are not yet of school age and also after-school care are likely to result in a higher percentage of working mothers. But there are home truths, two in particular – that law and policymakers often ignore in their pro-woman working campaigns.

The first is the concept of flexibile hours. If an infant is unwell and needs to see a doctor or tending to it is often the mother who ends up doing this. This might not present such a big deal in a working environment where flexibility is offered.

Unfortunately, this is not always the case, either because of an unwilling employer or because an enterpise is unequipped to cope with the pressures of flexible hours.

There is something else that needs to be factored in this scenario. The average retirement age keeps getting higher and higher. Up till some years ago, many grandparents would have been happy to step in whenever some sort of emergency cropped up. Nowadays, they may be willing to help but unable because they are likely to have work commitments of their own.

Which leaves parents who both work in a bit of a dilemma. The State support system, however improved, does not offer that many solutions. And given that social conventions have not evolved as much as we would like them to, it is highly probable that it will be the woman who would retire from the workforce, notwithstanding a few exceptions.

As already stated, a subsidised childcare system is in place. However, so much more needs to be done to realistically cater for working parents’ needs. The services that are offered need to better match the time requirements of an office job (very few remain open after 4pm). Moreoever, free childcare is only offered until kindergarten age, working on the assumption that the parents’ work schedule is freed up after school hours.

The difficulties working parents, especially mothers, face are clear.

It is only when these are addressed with a viable long-term plan that the percentages are likely to turn in favour of equality.