The woman in business is not a new phenomenon. We have evidence of women entrepreneurs as far back as the time of the Knights: bar owners, seamstresses, property brokers. All around us we see women shopkeepers, property brokers, hairdressers, beauty therapists, but statistically they are only partially visible, financially they are shackled by heavy taxation and poor banking services, and as family administrators totally unsupported.
It is only possible to form a partial and somewhat conflicting picture of the number of women in business and their distribution. Parliamentary Secretary Edwin Vassallo recently revealed some figures at a Malta Association of Women in Business (MAWB) seminar, held recently.
Women form 15 per cent of all self-employed at 3,396, trailing far behind the average figure in the EU of 28 per cent. The NSO gives people in global business figures of 4,4949, far higher than the self-employed global figures, because it includes public liability companies and foreign owned companies. What is interesting about the latter figures though, is that there is a breakdown of number of employees per business. Just under 10,000 (9,656) are one man/woman businesses, almost 33,000 (32,797) employ one to five persons, 1,111 businesses have six to 10 employees, and the remaining 1,385 have up to 26 employees and over.
MAWB statistics on women in business
The only information we have about the distribution of women in different business sectors is data collected by a student for MAWB. A business woman was defined by them as any woman actively involved in business, no matter the size of her ownership. Data was collected from the Business Directory, and phone calls to all businesses listed under a woman’s name. It also includes names gathered randomly from other sources and is thus incomplete. No distinction is made between, at the top of the scale, women who own big businesses and those who simply work part-time in Time-Share for example. Nor does it distinguish between those enterprises where women are the real fulcrum of business and those where the husband really runs the business, but has put his wife or daughter’s name down to bypass the law – a civil servant for example is not allowed to own his own business. Nor does it reveal the number of women’s businesses that are not registered from ignorance or to avoid taxation. It is a known though unquantified fact that many of the most economically vulnerable women – the long term unemployed, often over 40 years old, separated or widowed – work in the black economy, some also running businesses illegally. These include women who register as unemployed because the system taxes them too heavily, and women who work from premises not licensed for commercial use. They include the separated business woman who might be loathe to register her business, although it means forfeiting benefits and pension because her husband works illegally and hence is entitled to maintenance from a working wife.
At 576 women, the MAWB statistics does form however, the most complete data-base we have so far of women in business. More than that, it gives a good indication of the sectors in which these business women operate. The vast majority (52) work in hairdressing, 36 in beauty salons, a fair number in schools and others in hotels, guest houses, restaurants and shops. There are also a handful of female law business persons and female insurance brokers.
During the MAWB seminar it became evident that the social security system in Malta does not support women in business. For instance, once a women who was employed and hence paid her NI contributions decides to open her own business, she cannot claim benefits while she is setting up her business and therefore unemployed, if she is married, because it is assumed she is financially supported by her husband, although this may not be the case.
The businesses that are provided with some sort of support by the government, such as those that make use of facilities at the Kordin Business Incubation Centre and various other Malta Enterprise Schemes, are, in the vast majority, owned by men, because the schemes favour manufacturing and women tend to go in for the services.
Family businesses
About 95 per cent of all businesses in Malta are family owned.What do we know about women in family businesses? Not very much though some studies are being carried out. A random sample of 30 family organisations revealed that only a handful of female family members were company directors. Most of the enterprises were led by men. The majority of women in family businesses appeared to be stuck in middle management, though further study needs to be done to ascertain this. Initial data also suggests that the traditional habit of leaving businesses to the eldest son continues, and it has been suggested that this goes against the spirit, at least, of the Gender Equality Act. But do women want these positions of responsibility? Many think they are partly to blame for their lack of advancement even in the area of family business with anecdotal evidence that women are “quite happy to take a back seat.” However, we still need to ask why: is it due to culture mind-set? fear? lack of self-confidence?.
Current MAWB president and fellow of the Chartered Insurance Institute Rosanne Galea owns an insurance brokerage and a consultancy and training firm. Married with two children under 10 she works a 10-hour day with the support of her mother and mother-in-law. She believes strongly in widening the net of MAWB membership which now stands at 40 and has embarked on a huge campaign in the media and through seminars to raise public awareness of the association and the benefits of joining. She says it is essential that “we form a stronger lobby to get the government to take more action”. As an indication of government lip service she mentions the glaring lack of women on government boards and parastatal companies and this despite the Gender Discrimination Act, and the data base of female experts collected by the Department of Women in Society in recent years.
To illustrate the benefits to society of a greater female presence in executive positions, she cites a study conducted by the Milan Bocconi University which found that where public and private boards are mixed, they are more corporately socially responsible and see better results in the long term. The study concluded that women see things differently, they have more intuition, feel more compassion for their colleagues, give more importance to training, believe in work-life balance and are therefore better than men, at time management.
The main obstacles to women returners, the lowest in the EU, she thinks are the lack of child care structures including after school support, and the fact that many male-run companies are against job sharing. The white paper on public service reforms, published two years ago, has been left to gather dust. In its feed-back the MAWB pointed out, among other things, that mention should be made “of part-time work and flexitime, (considering that) 62 per cent of part-timers in Malta are women”. Moreover, it stressed the fact that studies in the EU have shown that it is more cost-effective to introduce work flexibility, including flexitime and part-time work than to lose out on the investment in a woman who needs to work less hours due to family responsibilities. Despite the white paper’s shortcomings, the MAWB thinks it should also be made to apply to the private sector, which in Rosanne’s experience is not interested in supporting working mothers.
Bank of Valletta initiative
In collaboration with the MAWB, the Bank of Valletta has launched a new financial package for women in business. The package is divided in two: one to finance training and mentoring which so many women lack and the other to provide financial assistance to help women entrepreneurs set up or expand their business. The novelty of this package is that first of all, a loan for professional assistance is offered for five years, without security, at a very low rate. Secondly a start up loan of up to Lm30,000 is to finance property and machinery at a low rate for the first year, as well as a Lm20,000 overdraft with security, also at a low interest rate for the first year.
MAWB sees the bank initiative as a very positive first step. Rosanne points out however that in many other EU countries, banks offer micro-financing to women in business and venture capital (without security) for start-ups.
Miriam Farrugia
Miriam set up her successful beauty business in her home town of Siggiewi nine years ago and employs two other women part-time. She has two children, Stefania, 18 and Andrea,12. She has a pharmacy technician diploma, a childcare diploma, and a beauty therapy diploma, and has always worked: 10 years as a bank clerk in various branches, two years as a facilitator, and finally she set up her own beauty salon, “because I wanted to be my own boss and organise my time to suit me.” In fact she works a four-day week, cooking ahead on her days off and doing all her errands, and spends two hours every afternoon at home when the children come back from school. She puts her drive and entrepreneurship down to the fact that she lost her mother when she was young and learnt to be independent. Her business acumen, she says, she got from her aunt who she lived with and who taught her always to try and better herself; her careful budgeting – she bought her salon (a converted garage) from her savings and didn’t take out a bank loan – from the fact that she came from a humble background. She is now considering borrowing money to buy a larger salon, however. Costs are kept down thanks to her supportive husband Saviour, who works at Maltacom and is her accountant, does all the maintenance work, and did all the wiring, plumbing and decorating of the salon. He has always shared in the housework and childcare, and Miriam discusses every business idea she has with him before taking a decision. Her children’s opinion vary in their attitude to Miriam’s work. Andrea never really liked Miriam working, but has got used to it. Stefania is more positive. “My mother has a more modern mentality because she works, and I have learned to be independent. Mummy working gives me a sense of assertiveness with the boys, many of whom think that a woman is somehow less than a man.”
A lot of Miriam’s success, besides her technical ability, is surely due to her ability to be open and flexible with her clients and staff. She goes to great pains to treat her employees as equals, encourages them to criticise her when necessary, shares cleaning chores, and she even cooks for them at the salon. She found her staff through her network of beautician friends. She listens to her clients’ personal problems and shares her own freely, giving health advice when she can. Clients’ children are made welcome and are provided with toys and sweets. On one occasion she had a client for a facial who was breast-feeding and she gave up two hours of her time instead of one-and-a-half, to give the mother time to feed her baby.
Miriam says she has no problems with the male wholesalers she gets her products from. “They are used to working with women,” always treat her as an equal and are accommodating when she needs an urgent delivery. She says she has always been very sociable and assertive. The business has “made me more self-confident”.
She keeps her prices “moderate” to increase her clientele and always takes pains to explain what the product does and why it is priced as it is.