What’s in it for HER?

The recent rhetoric about the need to increase female participation in the labour market may be a welcome change to those who have been calling for the need to address gender inequality in the country. But the measures introduced in the so-called ‘family budget’ need to be placed in context and evaluated according to the challenges faced.

Malta scrapes the bottom of every EU statistic on gender rights, including female participation in the labour market. This remains a problem despite the high number of female graduates in the country. The maximum employment rate for females is gained in the 25-29 years age bracket. Beyond that, there is a steady erosion in rate of female employment.

Marriage and family are forcing women to abandon careers. The government admits, in the pre-Budget document, that this decline “has persisted, notwithstanding the tax incentives and the introduction of child-care centres over the years”.

A Eurostat figure may be useful to put this fact in context: Government investment in services such as childcare facilities and after-school care is 0.2 per cent of GDP – one of the lowest in the EU.

Government committed to building three new childcare centres in the last Budget. This falls short of the five needed according to the requirements outlined in the pre-Budget document, which acknowledges, “Affordable, accessible and adequate quality child-care centres are crucial for the reconciliation between family and work.”

When it comes to after-school care, the pre-Budget document admits than nine centres are needed to complement the existing three operated by government. This need was completely ignored.

Promises made to build childcare centres in different localities were made in previous Budgets and before the election. They never materialized despite their necessity. There was no explanation given on why these commitments were never met, but it did not lead to government reflecting on its credibility when promoting a Budget that emphasised “a balance between work and family” (in other countries, where an individual’s value is not confined to a family, the term used is work/life balance).

A national study launched this week on ‘The Price of Motherhood’ may help put things in perspective. It reveals that the economy is losing €5.1 million a year in tax and NI. This “conservative estimate” of financial loss may be just what is needed to shake things up. In Malta, only 20.5 per cent of mothers have a career.

Of all the EU states, Malta has the lowest participation rate of women in the labour market. In spite of having close to 60 per cent of female graduates only 38 per cent of women work. In the last 10 years, the overall increase has been insignificant.

“The slow increase in female employment rates is a clear indication of persisting structural and cultural hurdles,” according to the National Confederation of Women’s Organisations (NCWO) that encompasses a network of 14 organisations.

The NCWO’s report to CEDAW (Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women), states: “To say the least, government’s approach to this problem has been fragmented and sporadic. Although in recent years government has given fiscal incentives and provided some rudimentary services, we believe that these measures are neither sufficient nor tackle persisting structural problems in a holistic manner”.

Efforts to increase female employment are therefore a welcome change, but their success will depend on whether a more comprehensive approach can be adopted to addressing the very real issue of gender inequality in the country.

Attempts by the government “to exploit an under-utilised economic resource” (hardly a flattering choice of words used in Budget documents) by relying on fiscal incentives to increase female employment may result in some benefit to the economy. But they will be limited and the gains short-lived if the primary value that society continues to attribute to women is motherhood rather than the fulfilment of individual potential.

Women represent 50.45% of the population, but they are poorly represented in the power structure. Women comprise 8.7% of members of Parliament, positions in the judiciary are overwhelmingly held by men, women are a minority on government boards and committees, and Malta has the lowest representation of women on company boards in the EU.

Occupational segregation by sex is widespread – women are concentrated in care giving professions. This leads to allocational inefficiencies and gender wage gaps. Gender inequality in employment contravenes women’s right to decent work and is costly for women, their households and society.

The principle of equal pay for work of equal value has gained wide acceptance and yet gender gaps in earnings remain among the most persistent forms of inequality in the labour market. In Malta, women earn an average of 23% less than men doing the same job.

Although Malta has seen significant progress towards greater women’s emancipation, statistics show that the journey towards equality between the sexes is still a long one. Increasing female participation in the labour market should not focus exclusively on the economic benefits of moms returning to work, but should be part of a wider approach to eliminating gender stereotypes.

Those stereotypes are being reinforced by political discourse that places the family at the centre of policy, where the benefits to women are allocated based on their status as mothers and wives. Women cannot truly participate on an equal footing with men as long as social pressure and inadequate support structures ensure they remain the sole or primary childcare givers and homemakers.

Gender equality is not a women’s issue – it should be portrayed as a human rights matter and one of social justice. Until there is a major shift in political discourse to reflect these values, efforts to increase female participation in the labour market will remain an exercise in collective masturbation.

For more on the subject: A matter of choice

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Category: Equality