Alarmingly low fertility rates coupled with low female participation in work mean the Maltese workforce is being put under mounting pressure in providing for children’s allowances, pensions and welfare benefits, a seminar heard yesterday.
We’ve spent many years running on the spot. We can’t be complacent as a society
Despite various advances over the past decade, women have shied away from making the leaps and bounds taken by their European counterparts within the workforce, as well as in the political sphere.
In a seminar organised yesterday by the Reggie Miller Foundation titled Women in Politics: New Realities, the Maltese sociopolitical milieu was subjected to a rigorous analysis in terms of female participation.
A study titled Sharing Work Life Responsibilities, by researcher Anna Borg, points out that Malta’s fertility rate stands at a worrying 1.38 births per woman.
At the same time, however, 113,000 women are inactive as opposed to 59,000 inactive men.
The fact that a high percentage of women are neither working nor having children was found to be especially alarming.
The majority of university graduates are women, it was pointed out, leading to speculation as to why many were not finding their way into the workforce.
Ms Borg found that women’s share of professional occupations correlated significantly with the female proportion of parliamentary seats.
However, women were also more likely to interrupt their careers for childbearing and this could bring disadvantages for their professional careers.
Additionally, according to Eurostat figures, the Maltese Government’s expenditure on family benefits in kind was a dismal 0.1 per cent of the GDP.
Neither is family leave generous. Malta’s maternity leave is a mere 18 weeks compared with the 52 weeks available to women in the UK. Paternity leave is a meagre two days, while parental leave is that of four unpaid months.
The majority of Maltese women work in the private sector but unfortunately, employers offer very limited work-life measures for women.
And while the primary caregiver remains the mother, the existing childcare centres and Club 3-16 are not developed enough, the seminar was told.
Addressing a predominantly female audience, Social Dialogue Minister Helena Dalli said that one of the first circulars she released as minister was to directors and heads of departments on family-friendly measures.
“Many human resources, skills and training are being wasted because many women are being refused family-friendly measures.
“However, women who have been refused now have the right to appeal.”
Family Minister Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca advocated the need of having integrated policies.
“After years of complacency regarding family-friendly measures, we have created a demand without providing the supply.
“I’ve had women come up to me saying that, because of the long waiting lists at childcare centres, they risk losing their job.
“We’ve spent many years running on the spot. We can’t be complacent as a society.”
Newly elected MEP Claudette Abela Baldacchino pointed out women had been worse hit by the economic crisis, with a significant percentage at risk of poverty.
When it came to politics, researcher Gail Demanuele said only 14 per cent of MPs were women, below the EU’s average of 27 per cent, and 22 per cent of elected local council candidates were female.
Nationalist MP Kristy Debono attributed Malta’s low percentages to the fact that many women declined to take part in politics.
Labour MP Deborah Schembri underscored the “atrocious” working hours of Parliament, which runs from 6pm to 9pm.
She also attributed women’s lack of participation to the somewhat “negative aura” surrounding politics, which is slowly being eradicated.
Nationalist MP Claudette Buttigieg suggested that political parties should look after candidates who were not elected, many of whom tended to not to resubmit themselves following their first failure.