Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/692424
maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 15 JUNE 2016 News University academics say equality of rights cannot exist without equality of burdens MARTINA BORG W E cannot have equality of rights unless we have equality of burdens, the director of the Uni- versity of Malta's department for labour studies, Dr Anna Borg said. Speaking during a debate of the Gender Equality index for 2015, Borg pointed out that the un- equal division of care work and housework was having a nega- tive impact on women's ability to participate in activities such as local government, and even in research that may be pivotal to obtaining further qualifications or promotions. "In reality we still live in a so- ciety that believes it is natural for women to carry out chores like cooking and cleaning at the end of a long work day, while the husband goes out to practise a sport or to participate in other activities," Borg said, adding that this attitude was institu- tionalized through a number of policies in the country. "The government can begin by analysing what the suggestions of having benefits such as pa- ternity leave limited to one day right after a child 's birth, are," she said. She explained that such initiatives gave the message that men are unnecessary to bring up children, or that it is not nor- mal for them to stay home and take care of the family rather than the woman. "We need to have initiatives such as paid paternal leave to challenge gender roles," she said, adding that this could en- courage a more equal division of caring responsibilities. The European Insti- tute of Gender Equality (EIGE) is currently on a two day visit in Malta to meet policy makers and high representa- tives in government as well as NGOs to raise awareness on the gender gap in Malta and the monitoring tools which can be im- plemented to battle this, following the publication of the gender equality index for all member states for 2105. The index, developed by the EIGE, showed that Malta is in general approaching the half- way mark towards equality, with a score of 46.8 out of 100, rank- ing the country at 16th place when compared to the other 28 EU member states. It measures equality between women and men in six core do- mains, namely work, money, knowledge, time, power and health, and then assigns a score to each member state. Although Malta's overall score has increased, the country con- tinues to fall short in the do- main of power, s c or- ing 28.3 out of 100, with women in Malta seriously lacking in decision-making po- sitions in the political sphere, and even more so in the eco- nomic one. One of the main reasons for this, according to the report, and according to those partici- pating in the discussion, was balancing work-life responsi- bilities, with women spending far more time on care, domestic tasks and social activities. In line with Borg's observa- tions, the index also indicates that time has also seen the big- gest decrease since 2005 (by 10.6 points), with women spending increasingly more time on care ac- tivities and little on leisure, sporting or voluntary activities. Nursing visiting lecturer at the Uni- versity of Malta Sina Bugeja commented about the fact that Malta's primary strength in the gen- der equality index had been precisely in the health domain, with the country having the highest score among all member states (95.6). "Although the index ref lects a good balance in access to health services and overall health sta- tus for both women and men, the index does not ref lect men- tal health issues," Bugeja said. Chairperson of the gender is- sues committee, Maria Ther- ese Camilleri Podesta also ex- plained how difficult it could be for women to achieve promo- tions, taking the example of the University of Malta. "There is a three year differ- ence between men and women reaching a resident professor position at university," she said, adding that the index in terms of power were very much in line with this. "At university only 14% of pro- fessors are women, and only 27% of associate professors are women," she said, adding that numbers tended to taper out the lower down the scale you go. She suggested that the way promotions were given ought to be revised, given that this was based on how much research was published on peer review publications. "I think this may be unfair due to the amount of time required for such research," she said. "Basing judgment on research output may be working against the promotion of women," she said, suggesting that other fac- tors ought to be considered be- sides published work, such as the contribution to teaching, attendance at voluntary boards and committees among others. mborg@mediatoday.com.mt