The gender equality rating awarded to Malta last week should serve as a wake-up call that not enough effort is being made into reducing the gender gap, according to academic Anna Borg from the Malta Confederation of Women’s Organisations.
“It’s immediately clear that we still have a lot to do, especially when you take into consideration all the efforts that are being made by the government, educators and other social partners,” Dr Borg said.
Malta’s gender equality ranking stands below the EU average, at 46.8 per cent, according to data compiled by the European Institute for Gender Equality. The Gender Equality Index measures gender gaps in work, money, knowledge, time, power and health across the EU.
In the six categories analysed by the institute, Malta only ranked above the EU average in two categories, money and health.
Dr Borg said that most of the countries which achieved a ranking lower than Malta’s were former communist countries with weak economies. She said the index clearly proved that those countries with strong economies achieved the highest score.
Of the 28 member states, Sweden had the highest score (74.2), followed by Finland (72.7) and Denmark (70.9). Romania scored the lowest, (33.7), followed by Slovakia (36.5) and Portugal (37.9).
From 2010 to 2014, the increase of women on boards was just 0.4 per cent. Women leave university, but do not succeed in doing enough after
“While we boast of having a strong economy and a high number of female university graduates, we are still clearly failing when it comes to reducing the gender gap,” Dr Borg said.
The rating on knowledge attainment given to Malta was most worrying, Dr Borg said, especially in light of recent data from the statistics office which showed there were more women who graduated from university than men.
“How is it that we boast that 60 per cent of graduates are women and yet our rating on knowledge is so low? What are women doing? We need to look into this,” she said.
On knowledge, which addressed educational attainment, segregation and lifelong learning, a score of 36.3 was awarded to Malta, while 36.7 was awarded for the time factor. Dr Borg said that this was also not adequately reflected in the positions of power held by women.
“Between 2010 and 2014, the increase of women on boards was a meagre 0.4 per cent. Women are leaving university, but not succeeding in doing enough after.”
Dr Borg said such results also called for an in-depth evaluation of the efforts being made so far, adding that it was crucial that men be made aware of their role in bringing about change.
“If they don’t realise how important their role is, than nothing will ever change. This is the invisible hurdle that we need to supersede.”