Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/408403
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 2 NOVEMBER 2014 13 "It depends on the way you look at it. You have to understand how it's worked out. If you look at Ire- land, for instance: it places very high in the rankings; but in Ireland we know there is very high unemploy- ment. Yet they place higher than us, because the index looks only at the difference between male and female participation: not the participation in the labour market as a whole." At the same time, this may also suggest that Malta has a lot of catch- ing up to do. Without disputing Dr Laiviera's claims of progress in so many spheres: if a country with very high unemployment can still over- take us on the basis of the gender gap in employment, this also illustrates that our own gender gap, though narrowing, was very high to begin with… "Maybe. But maybe as well – and this is also showing up in statistics at EU level – men are finding it much harder to get jobs than women." So more than a question of women climbing the employment ladder, it's actually a case of men climbing down? "You have to take each particular country and place the statistics in the context of what is happening there. What the economic crisis has done to that country, for example. As you know in Malta we were spared the worst effects of the crisis. This is why we are managing to push the agenda forward…" Elsewhere, she suggests that statis- tics may be skewed for purely demo- graphic reasons. "On life expectancy, we have moved down the rankings a little with regard to women. But again, if you look at the fact that the number of women who are much older than men is higher… then obviously, the number of deaths will also be higher for women than for men." Nonetheless, she acknowledges that there are causes for concern which emerge from the same report. "Obviously we're not saying that we don't have problems with obesity, or diabetes, and such like. Of course we have, and we need to look into that. Not just to improve life expect- ancy for the elderly, either, but for each one of us. We don't have very healthy lifestyles, and this is showing up in the statistics. And it is costing us a lot, not only in terms of our own health but in the cost for the state to provide healthcare…" The gender gap report also con- firms the existence of a core problem that is very well known to the NCPE. "We know that the rate of partici- pation of women in the labour mar- ket up until the age of 30-31 is as high as the EU average. It is after the age of 31, when many women will be having children – a second child, perhaps – that they start dropping out. It is clear where the issues are, and where our efforts have to focus." The good news, she adds, is that today's labour market is beginning to understand that there are significant benefits to be reaped, even in terms of productivity, from narrowing the gender gap. "Studies have shown that where there is diversity at the workplace, a balance between male and female employees, the output will be higher. There will be diversity of experience, diversity of skills… even diversity of qualifications, sometimes…" But this brings her to another cause for concern, this time affecting the education sector. "We have an issue concerning seg- regation, to a certain extent, in some University courses. In Engineering and IT, for instance, we would like to see more women graduates. We can see a similar segregation in the labour market, too: women tend to be more present in certain areas than others. One of the areas that crops up in the Gender Gap Index is wage inequal- ity. Our question is: is this because of labour segregation? Are women tak- ing lower paid jobs?" At the same time, there are sup- posed to already be safeguards in place on this score. The principle of 'equal pay for equal work' is itself en- shrined in national legislation. I am not naïve enough to think that some- thing does not happen just because it is illegal: but short of better enforce- ment, how can one actually address the issue of unequal pay, when the legislation is already in place? "It is not just a question of equal pay. The jobs themselves attract lower salaries. It is quite well known that as soon as a sector attracts more women than men, the value of that work lessens. The work itself is devalued. Look at teachers, for instance. I was following what hap- pened with teachers in the UK, years ago, and you could see that their bar- gaining power grew less and less [as more women took on employment in education]. It happened here as well. The 'feminisation' of the sector resulted in a drop in wages." When it comes to addressing such issues, Laiviera argues that efforts have to also be made at the level of employment itself. It is not enough for governments to offer incentives. Companies should also take a pro- active approach. Speaking of incentives: what is be- ing done at present… and what more could be done, in the NCPE's view? "Initiatives such as free childcare services and the Breakfast Club have helped a lot. Tax incentives are an- other avenue. We already have in- centives for parents who choose not to send their children to state-pro- vided childcare services. There are tax incentives also for those who re- enter the labour market after having had a child, and after having been out of employment for five years." In some cases, however, progress is impeded by an apparent reluctance to introduce new business models and concepts. "One issue we need to look at is flexibility at the workplace. The Commission awards a quality mark to those companies and enterprises – even government departments – which offer family friendly measures and support, and which have equal- ity and sexual harassment policies that go over and above what the law demands. After all, obeying the law is the minimum. We reward those companies which go above the mini- mum. One of the things we want to see is more flexibility offered to em- ployees in order to achieve a better work/life balance." Teleworking, she adds, is a case in point. "If and where possible, we would like to see more teleworking opportunities in place. Malta now has a very good technological infra- structure. So let's make good use of it… Infrastructure alone is not enough, however. "One of the issues that prevents teleworking from being implemented is that managers are not very familiar with how to man- age the system. So now we are of- fering a training programme for telemanagers, to help in the imple- mentation of systems for the benefit of both company and workers. It is a give-and-take situation: both sides should benefit from this option." Nonetheless, there is one aspect which statistical exercises such as the Gender Gap Report do not nec- essarily reflect at all… and that is national and cultural attitudes. At the risk of buying into a well-worn national stereotype, there seems to be a level of machismo in Maltese society that brings to bear on the issue of social equality. How much do cultural percep- tions of women actually impact the situation? For instance, the tra- ditional view of housework as the sole preserve of the woman… as implicit in the Maltese expression 'mara tad-dar'? "This is what our society is still saying, yes. There is still a ten- dency to saddle women with all the responsibility for childcare, or for care of the elderly… in a word, for dependence in the family. And you still hear women talking about how 'good' their husbands or partners are because they 'help out'. It is not a question of 'helping out'; it is a question of sharing re- sponsibilities. The household belongs to both. I'm not just talking about women and men, but even same sex cou- ples. Household responsibilities should fall on the shoulders of both partners. So yes, we do have that kind of culture…" As with tax incentives, there are policies and strategies that can be used to address this apparent cul- tural imbalance. "One of the issues that needs to be looked into is, should maternity leave – or rather, parental leave – have a certain number of weeks re- served only for men, on a 'use it or lose it' basis? This is what's happening in Scan- dinavian countries, for instance… in counties where there is a push to have more men involved in the upbringing of the children." Often referred to as a 'daddy quota', the model has radically boosted the number of fathers tak- ing parental leave in countries like Norway: where the percentage has shot up from 4% to over 90% since its introduction. Laiviera argues that the need for a similar quantum leap forward in Malta goes well beyond concerns with economic performance or la- bour force issues. "It is also for the men themselves, as fathers, to develop a bond with the children… and also for the chil- dren, in order for them to build a strong relationship with their fa- ther, as they do with their mother. "I remember colleagues of mine – men – who used to say that, because they had to work a lot of overtime and long hours… and again, the long hour syndrome works against not just women, but also men and families in general… they don't remember the children growing up. "And when they retire, they will find that they lost out a lot on their relationships with their children. So this is not just about women, or just about equality. "This is about relationships. This is about the family… about soci- ety as a whole. We want to have a healthy society; and studies have shown that the more diverse the workplace, the more a country achieves equality, the healthier its society becomes." Interview Despite an apparent 15-place drop in Malta's gender gap rating, Equality Commissioner RENEE LAIVIERA sees an overall improvement in female participation in public life. But more needs to be done gender gap GIRL POWER 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 percentage of women MEPs rising to 67%. That is a considerable increase UNEQUAL PAY It is not just a question of equal pay. The jobs themselves attract lower salaries. It is quite well known that as soon as a sector attracts more women than men, the value of that work lessens. The work itself is devalued