“Although we weren’t be able to shatter that highest, hardest ceiling this time, thanks to you, it’s got about 18 million cracks in it.”

–– Hillary Clinton, to her voters after conceding defeat to Democratic rival Barack Obama.

Maltese female professionals have found climbing the ladder to the top of the employment hierarchy especially slippery when compared to their EU counterparts. Statistics recently released by the European Commission in a report entitled ‘She Figures 2009’ allotted each country a glass ceiling index: Malta ranked the highest in 2004 with 11.7.

Men have more of an affinity for Math and Science than do Women

Infamously (and ironically) raised by Harvard President Larry Summers at a speech on gender disparities, where he claimed that men may have more ‘intrinsic aptitude’ for high level science than women.

Gender inequality measured by the World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap Index shows that in countries with a high rate of gender equality, such as Iceland, Norway, and Sweden, girls perform just as well as boys do, or even better. The study suggests that cultural beliefs and myths are to blame for the math and science gender gap.

While both boys and girls exhibit interest in science subjects during elementary school, the National Science Foundation’s Research on Gender in Science and Engineering programme shows that children are already beginning to display awareness of stereotypes. When asked to draw a scientist, most will depict a white male in a lab coat, while the few that draw females show them as unhappy looking and severe. By high school when the pressure to conform to cultural norms becomes more relevant, girls will drop these subjects like hot coals.

I’m reminded of a billboard I saw advertising health care in Malta a year or two ago: the doctor a white male in a lab coat seated centre and the ever-adoring, pretty female nurse looking up at him. It is no wonder the report illustrates the number of female researchers in sciences, engineering, and technology as ‘very low by EU standards’. It is no surprise either that when Malta put forward several female candidates for this years MEP elections, many of whom pushed strong campaigns, we failed to elect a single one to represent us in Brussels.

Maltese women have achieved prominent roles in the political sphere, but they are the typical type cast roles that are traditionally dictated as women’s domain – Minister for Education, or Family and Social Policy. They never get the gritty, tough roles we normally allot to men such as Finance or Foreign Affairs.

Data complied by the Inter-Parliamentary Union shows how many seats women currently hold in Parliament. Malta ranks 106 out of 138 countries, which is a lot closer to countries with a poor track record for gender equality like Saudi Arabia than it is to countries like Sweden or Norway which boast healthier percentages.

Mind your head

Maltese women cannot picture themselves in top positions, because they never see themselves represented in this way. This may indicate that the glass ceiling is in part self-imposed, and in fact, a new study appears to support this idea. Female managers are more than three times as likely as their male counterparts to underrate their boss’s opinion of their job performance, a discrepancy that increases further with age. This could play a part in why women fail to reach high positions. Society and media repeatedly and persistently attempt to exclude and define them, leaving them doubting whether they belong at the top, undoubtedly hindering their ability to reach such a position.

However much of the ceiling women have raised, there is no denying that it is still there and in Malta, it continues to bruise heads. The traditional model for male and female gender roles has to evolve alongside the way we view the workplace and how it functions. Working conditions have to become more family friendly, and not just so that women can balance their family and career but so that men can do so too, as dividing family duties will help to create a more level playing field not only at work, but at home too for both men and women. Women also need to become critical consumers, there is a need to question the information they receive in order to become active participants in redefining the image of women. Only then can monitors such as the Glass Ceiling Index become obsolete.

Katie Micallef recently completed an MA qualifying course in Communications at the University of Malta and is a former editor or The Insiter, published by Insite – The Student Media Organisation.