Equality is about embracing diverse people of all genders and creating a context in which everyone pursue their legitimate aspirations while their human dignity is respected, President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca said.
She was addressing the opening ceremony of the 12th edition of the European Development Days, organised by the European Commission, which this year is focusing on women and gender equality.
“Gender inequality, and the barriers that women face to achieve quality economic empowerment, remains one of the biggest challenges to the successful implementation of the global commitment for inclusive growth,” she said.
Full-time working women in the EU would need an average raise of 19% to their hourly rate to match male wages
On the gender pay-gap, President Coleiro Preca said full-time working women in the EU would need an average raise of 19% to their hourly rate to match male wages. And according to the Gender Equality Index, she said, in some areas the gaps were even bigger than they were 10 years ago.
She mentioned access to free child-care centres in Malta as an example of an effective strategy which contributed to a 6% increase in female participation in the Maltese workforce in five years.
While Europe was making considerable strides forward in terms of legislation and policy, the same pace had to be kept to achieve a mental and cultural leap, overcome prejudice, patriarchal oppressions, discrimination and socially-sanctioned abuses of privilege.
“If women and girls do not feel safe, protected, and respected, their place within our economies will never truly reflect their potential,” she said.
President Coleiro Preca said one in three women in the EU had been a victim of physical and/or sexual violence since the age of 15; one in 20 women in Europe had been the victim of rape; 55% of women had been victims of sexual harassment; and one in three women experienced abuse by a partner.
She said that the full participation of women in economic life could not be achieved while women and girls were still subject to unacceptable threats to their safety and wellbeing.