Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/922844
maltatoday SUNDAY 7 JANUARY 2018 News Malta rises in EU gender equality index TIA RELJIC MALTA still maintains its place as one of the three largest employ- ment gaps in the EU-28 but has shown significant progress as a substantial percentage of women entered the labour market from 2005 to 2015, the Gender Equality Index 2017 report shows. In fact, Malta showed the most significant progress out of all par- ticipating EU countries, with a point increase of +17.5. The index is published by the European Institute of Gender Equality, an EU agency. In the domain of work overall, Sweden, Denmark, and Nether- lands remain the leaders in gen- eral equality, while the most sig- nificant improvements in the past 10 years can be noted in Malta (+10.2 points) and Luxembourg (+5.9 points). Malta has also been quick to improve its score in the domain of money, showing a +12.1 point increase in women's access to economic independence, second only to Slovakia which showed an increase of +12.5 points. Seven other Member States – Germany, Spain, Croatia, Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal, and the United Kingdom – showed mar- ginal progress in achieving gender equality in the domain of money (progress of 3 points or less), while Greece is the only country that regressed in this regard, as its score went down by -1.2 points. The report also noted a cor- relation between an increase in financial resources and progress in economic equality between the genders for all member states ex- cept for Croatia and the UK. Im- provements in financial resources, which may include various types of income such as pensions and benefits, was mostly observed in Malta (20.3 points) and Slovakia (16.3). However, while the vast major- ity of Member States improved their scores in the domain of pow- er, Malta regressed (-0.4 points) in gender equality in decision-mak- ing positions across political, eco- nomic, and social spheres. On the other hand, Italy (+29.2), France (+24.6), and Slovenia (+24.1) showed the most significant pro- gress in the domain of power. Locally, the political sphere is yet to catch up with the increase of women in the workforce, how- ever, as Malta, together with Hun- gary and Romania, has consist- ently scored lowest in political representation in the EU-28, with the women's scare of parliamen- tary seats standing at around 10% with no significant progress in the past 10 years. Man injured after car flips over A 29-year-old was seriously in- jured after losing control of his vehicle on Regional Road. Early yesterday at around 5:30am, the young man was rushed to hospital where he was certified as suffering from griev- ous injuries after losing control of his vehicle, a Peugeot 206, which then flipped over and crashed. The man is a resident of Msida, where the incident took place. He was taken to Mater Dei hospital by ambulance. Cyclist grievously injured in collision with motorbike AN 18-year-old cyclist was cer- tified as suffering from serious injuries after being hit by a mo- torcycle driven by a 21-year-old resident of Naxxar. The incident occurred at around 6pm on Friday in Triq Birkirkara, San Gwann, after which the teenager was rushed to Mater Dei hospital for treatment.