Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/408403
12 IT'S been a week of mixed, possibly even conflicting fortunes for Malta on the international stage. On one level, credit ratings agency Moody's reaffirmed Malta's A3 status, and projected a positive economic out- look for the coming year. Separately, our education system was ranked as 'among the best in the world' by the World Economic Forum. But dropping like a clanger in the midst of all this good news was this year's Global Gender Gap report, in which Malta slipped 15 rungs in the world rankings to place 99th on the global index: far below the European average, and nestling somewhere between Brunei Durasallam and Be- lize. This index measures the relative gaps between women and men in health, education, the economy and politics in 142 countries around the world. Surely, a sudden dip like the one it registers for Malta should set alarm bells ringing on a national level. Or should it? One person who is definitely interested in the report's findings is Ms Renee Laiviera, former chair of the Confederation of Malta Women's Associations, and current commissioner for the promotion of gender equality. I meet her at the NCPE's offices in Blata l-Bajda, and find her poring over reams of papers at her desks: including past Gender Gap Index reports, as well as Na- tional Statistics Office documents showing a dizzying array of graphs and pie-charts. Asked for her own interpretation of the apparent slide in gender gap ratings, Laiviera urges caution in the interpretation of such statistics. "There are two issues we need to look at. One, the overall rating – and even the individual ratings of each country – caused us to start asking questions. What is happening here? Because on the national level, the statistics are giving us a completely different picture. Then we looked at how these ratings were worked out. Let's take, for example, education. If you look at a country where the enrolment of students in primary schools is at 50% of all children… whilst in Malta, at the moment, we have 100% enrolment in primary schools – if the number of girls was higher than boys, both countries would get a rating of '1'. Because it is the gap that is being looked at here. So if the number of girls is higher, irrespective of the total statistics for enrolment in that country, the gap would be the same…" This admittedly shifts the landscape slightly. If Malta's current primary school enrolment is 100%, and the intake of girls is higher than of boys... all that really means is that there are more primary school-aged girls than boys in Malta at the moment… "Exactly. And in a country where only 50% of children attend primary school, if more girls enrol than boys, the gap would be the same. This is one of the factors contributing to this result. Another is that there are eight new countries that have been added since the last time the study was conducted. That's the first thing you see, in fact. Immediately this is going to make a difference. Five of these new ratings have pushed Malta down the ranks because they have a higher rating than we have…" So this index does not represent an actual reflection of the reality at ground level at all? "We can't really say that. On the basis of this interpretation of the gender gap, these are the results that emerge. I'm not questioning that. But then you have to read more, and dig into the details…" Let us, for argument's sake, ignore this report for the time being. The NCPE has after all been looking into the issue of gender equality in Malta for years. How would Dr Laiviera herself rate the actual gap, on the basis of the information the commis- sion already has at its disposal? Are things getting better, or worse? "I think that overall… let's take the different categories into considera- tion. This index looks at specific are- as: political participation, education, health, and the labour market. In the case of political empowerment, we have seen an increase in the number of women in parliament. That is a fact. We have also seen the percent- age of women MEPs rising to 67%. That is a considerable increase. If you look at the labour market, we are seeing a steady increase here too, not only of women, but also of men…" Paradoxically, this apparent im- provement at all these levels is in it- self a cause for concern for the Com- mission: which, as Laiviera reminds me, concerns 'equality', not 'superi- ority', between the sexes. "In education, for instance, we have 61% of graduates at tertiary level who are women. This is worrying for us because of the boys. The rate of male graduates is very low. That is something we have to look at. Even though, in the ratings, we get a '1' here: because, again, the way the in- dex is drawn up looks at female par- ticipation, so we would get a higher rating. But here at the Commission we look at gender: both male and fe- male…" The picture Laiviera now paints seems considerably different from the perception that arises from the report. "Our statistics show that the partic- ipation of women in the workforce is also rising. According to the National Statistics Office… hold on, I have the figures here somewhere…" She rifles through her papers "… it has gone up to 51%, as of June 2014. In December 2012 it was 49%. In December 2013 it went up to 50.1%, and now…" Doesn't this also mean that the re- port is completely misleading? Interview By Raphael Vassallo maltatoday, SUNDAY, 2 NOVEMBER 2014 Minding the gender PHOTOGRAPHY BY RAY ATTARD