Today is International Women’s Day. The Malta Independent journalists Elaine Attard, Annaliza Borg and Francesca Vella met three women who are actively involved in civil society. They discuss the position of women in society, their work within their respective organisations, and the fact that we still make a big deal of women who have a successful career, particularly those in decision-making positions.

Women learning from other women

Francesca Vella

As more women further their studies and enter the workforce, other women are bound to be encouraged to do the same, said Petra Bianchi, the newly elected executive president of Din l-Art Helwa, the NGO whose main aims are to safeguard the country’s built and natural heritage.

Dr Bianchi was elected to the post last Saturday during the NGO’s annual general meeting. She has taken over from Martin Galea.

She is the NGO’s first female president and the deputy president is also a woman – Simone Mizzi.

She pointed out that over the last years, many women have taken up professional careers and nowadays it is becoming more commonplace to find women in decision-making positions.

“More women are bound to follow suit. But it is certainly not only about individual achievements, but also social development.”

Dr Bianchi, who holds a doctorate in English literature, said that tertiary education was something she took for granted.

“My mother was my role model because she is a doctor, and both her sisters are lawyers. When I was at school there wasn’t a big push for girls to continue studying. Nowadays however, society makes it easier for women to do so.

In the end it boils down to individual characters, but women are also given more confidence by the fact that people are more accustomed to seeing women sitting around decision-making tables, she said.

While acknowledging the fact that Malta still has a long way to go, particularly in the political sphere, it is really all about balancing work and family duties.

A mother of two teenagers herself, Dr Bianchi said women are more sensitive to the famous ‘balance’ than men are, although she pointed out that a lot of men, especially younger men, are increasingly aware that they have an important role to play with regard to domestic duties.

She said, however, that it can be very tiring to try to cope and find this balance; having a supporting network around you also helps, and again, even in this sense, women can learn from other women’s experiences.

Speaking about Din l-Art Helwa, Dr Bianchi said she has long been active in the organisation.

Essentially, the NGO has three main roles: restoration of historic property, lobbying in favour of the protection of the country’s built and natural heritage, and fundraising.

Last Saturday she was critical of the authorities for failing to address certain pressing environmental demands.

She said: “Our environment is in shambles. The countryside is scarred with development everywhere and enforcement on illegal buildings is wholly inadequate. Little progress has been made with alternative energy or the control of emissions.

“Our coastline and marine environment are under huge pressure, and our water resources are endangered. Important historic sites such as Fort St Angelo and Fort St Elmo are crumbling to pieces.”

While urging the authorities to protect the environment and its dwindling resources, she welcomed Parliamentary Secretary Mario de Marco’s commitment to draft an environmental policy and strategy for the country, and she said the NGO supports the City Gate regeneration project. 

Speaking about cultural tourism, Dr Bianchi noted that it has been on the government’s agenda for a long time. She highlighted the importance of careful site management, saying that while cultural tourism is important, it is important to ensure that there isn’t too much pressure on key heritage sites.

On the Il-Majjistral Nature and History Park, whose management committee includes Din l-Art Helwa, she said that although slow progress was made since the park management was set up, some steps forward will hopefully be made in the near future.

“The concept of park management is still a relatively new concept, both for NGOs and for the government. We’re treading new ground all the time. But hopefully we are managing to overcome the first organisational hurdles.”

Juggling a shift and running a household

Elaine Attard

Dr Anna Maria Vella, 47, has been working at the Detox Centre of Agenzija Sedqa for the past 15 years. She specialises in public health, women’s health and bio-ethics. She is also a mother of a 20 year old daughter, the president of Cana Movement and a university lecturer. As many other women she went through difficult choices at the height of her career when she tried dividing herself between a 60-hour shift job and raising a family. She had to move away from her aspiration to become a gynaecologist but focused on other areas such as drug addictions and pregnant women with a substance misuse problem that gave her equal professional satisfaction.

“Juggling between a 60-hour shift and managing a household is not easy. I worked like this in hospitals for ten years both locally and abroad. I feel that it is important to strike a balance between family and work but some jobs make it quite difficult to strike that balance. This is not a problem which is encountered by Maltese women only but by women all over the world. I believe that a doctor’s job is a vocation which you carry with you 24 hours a day and seven days a week. You don’t quit thinking about work once you’re at home or vice versa. Most times I used to find myself thinking about work when I’m at home or thinking about what I left home when I’m at work,” explained Dr Vella.

“In my time only 15 from a course of 60 medical students were women. Now it’s the other way round but the situation has not changed and female doctors are still encountering the unsolved problem. Ironically, studies show that when women started taking over those professions that were normally associated with males, wages started to decrease,” she added.

Regarding the world of academia, Dr Vella said that the situation is somewhat different because logistically it is less of a problem but she notes that female lecturers, for example, prefer to lecture in the morning rather than in the afternoon or evening.

Dr Vella attends various seminars and conferences to keep abreast with the latest developments in her profession and meets other doctors, both males and females, on a regular basis. She notes that female doctors are less likely to attend such events in the evening or during weekends while men usually take their time to socialise.

“Women are able to multitask but I believe their innate wish to be there for their family cannot be changed. I think that women waste more energy trying to adapt to men’s way of doing rather than accepting the limitations and working around them.

“In a way, yes, I still have patients who call me a nurse, for example, while others find it difficult to trust a woman, but I think women have got used to that. I work within a foundation, the Foundation for Social Welfare Services where it is accepted that women progress in their career. The FSWS is also led by a woman, Sina Bugeja. This makes career progression for women even less of a problem,” replied Dr Vella.

Regarding executive roles, she said that it is a bigger challenge for women in executive roles to strike a balance. They need not be married to encounter a problem because Ms Vella knows of single female doctors who find a problem to get a promotion just because they are women. Maltese society still finds it difficult to accept that women are appointed at executive levels, she said. This happens not only in the professional world but also in general society. “It is accepted that a male stays out longer, but women are talked about and often end up being the subject of gossip,” she went on.

“Recent developments in the implementation of EU directives that help women blend in the professional world were fruitful; still there is a long way to go. The private sector is far behind. But also in the public sector, most female doctors cannot avail themselves of flexi hours or reduced hours, for example. Such initiatives are important for women and men to play on a level playing field,” answered Dr Vella.

Regarding the employment of women, she said that most women work behind the scenes or work undeclared jobs in areas such as cleaning.

She recalls how in her sixth form one third of the female students had dropped their studies because they passed the Air Malta, Government or Bank exams at the time. Today, a big percentage of these women are unemployable because they have no qualifications whatsoever and are finding it difficult to return to work.

Employing women is an asset, because they mature earlier than men and are better qualified than men in this day and age. Initiatives like flexi-working, tele-working and job sharing would help women strike a balance between work and life.

Quoting Cheryl Blair, Dr Vella said, those women who don’t help other women at work have a place in hell, to emphasise that women should help and support each other at the workplace. The Malta Financial Services Authority is an example of how the work environment was adapted in ways to accommodate the needs of both men and women. It is a setting which is worth looking into, she said.

Dr Vella, has her reservations on childcare centres. “It is not healthy for children under the age of six years to spend more than 20 hours a week away from home. She finds the idea of grandparents looking after their nephews and nieces as unfair. Women who sacrifice their career to look after their children should not be looked down upon. Such women should receive a financial remuneration similar to what foster carers receive. Women should also be given more opportunities to reengage themselves in the workforce after bringing up their children.

She hopes that women who are studying and aspiring to become professionals get the real picture, the reality that awaits them once they start working, marry and start raising a family. It is unfortunate that males are willing to work 80 hours a week if the woman stays at home looking after their children. Women should be prepared for this reality, remain independent and share their responsibilities equally with their partners.

The balance between employment, family and politics

Annaliza Borg

The government has taken a lot of initiatives creating incentives for women to find a balance between employment, family and politics but a lot is still to be done, believes Paula Mifsud Bonnici, president of the Nationalist Party General Council.

A lawyer by profession, Dr Paula Mifsud Bonnici, 36, has been contesting local council elections since 1998. Following in her father’s footsteps, she had been serving in the party’s administration for a while when she came across the chance to contest the post for the party’s general council president last November.

Her role calls for her in-depth contribution to the party’s administration while being close to the party’s roots and therefore the councillors forming the general council. This body itself, the PN’s highest organ, drafts policies which the party proposes to the government. Her task is to move positive proposals forward and push for their implementation. She must also ensure good communication between the party and its roots as well as the party and the people out there who must feel a sense of belonging.

Discussing government incentives such as the introduction of tax cuts attracting women to the work force, Dr Mifsud Bonnici noted that while the government was managing to play its part well, there were shortfalls in the private sector which needed to be addressed.

“The private sector still falls behind the government in giving incentives and the law does not oblige private companies to take certain measures which the government has implemented in its departments,” she said. “We still have a long way to go,” she added. Future discussions should lead us to the point whereby private companies would be able to give family friendly incentives which will ultimately result in better opportunities for all.

She pointed out that while the majority of university students – 58 per cent – are women, the figure only translates to 54 per cent of the 18-to-25 work force being women. It drops further to 32 per cent for women over the age of 25.

Dr Mifsud Bonnici acknowledged the suggestion that in 2010, we are still making an issue out of having women in politics. In Parliament, just six of the 69 MPs are women (only two of whom are Nationalist MPs), which translates to a low 8.7 per cent of all parliamentary seats. In the European Parliament, the figure is around 18 per cent.

“Men still dominate the political arena and Malta is lagging behind in comparison to other EU countries,” she said.

Results are better in local councils were the participation of women is around 18 per cent.

Dr Mifsud Bonnici therefore sees the need for a change in mentality, although this has somewhat improved along the past years. This fact was manifested by her being elected as general council president. However, she feels women are still sceptical of other women’s candidature as the general belief is that women do not have enough time for the political world.

“Women out there cannot stand back and pretend other people take steps forward but must be courageous and ambitious enough to enter important roles,” she pointed out.

Meanwhile, she believes political parties too should have the adequate structures for women to give their contribution.

While noting she was not at all sexist, Dr Mifsud Bonnici accepted the fact that women can naturally be good listeners and perhaps more sensitive to certain issues, consequently pushing them more. Nonetheless, she believed women, together with men, were able to draw up good policies for their countries. The many women who have important roles in different categories of society and the country’s decision making bodies were there for their important contribution to the country and not simply for their particular qualities.

Dr Mifsud Bonnici also commented on the fact that several PN supporters participated in yesterday week’s protest against the high water and electricity tariffs explaining this reflected the policy of allowing people to express themselves liberally. While she did not believe the protest was a solution to existent problems, Dr Mifsud Bonnici said that having people protesting does not mean that they have changed their political belief or that they will vote against the government, but that they were free to act according to what they felt.