Statistics issued by Eurostat confirm that in spite of efforts made to encourage more women to go out and work, the rate of female employment in Malta is still very low; in fact, it is among the lowest in Europe.

Just one third of Maltese women aged between 15 and 64 are employed. The second worst countries are Italy and Greece who are way above us, close to the 50 per cent mark. Denmark and Sweden top the list with nearly three-fourths of women in the same age group in some form of employment.

Malta also has the highest employment rate gap between working men and women. Over 75 per cent of men aged between 15 and 64 are employed, which means that the difference between employed men and women is about 42 per cent.

Incentives to encourage more women to join the workforce or to return to work after a period of inactivity do not seem to be having the desired effect.

First of all, it must be established whether enough work exists for women who are willing to find a job. Can the current economic situation sustain more women in employment, considering that there are roughly 8,000 unemployed people, the majority males?

Secondly, if such jobs did exist, would enough women be interested in taking them up? Or do we still have the mentality that a woman’s place is at home?

The situation in our country is that many women, particularly those who left their original place of work to have children, find it hard to work full-time jobs even when they are willing to return. The reason is that they are still bringing up young children and many prefer to be at home when their children return from school. In most cases, women try to find part-time jobs that would satisfy both their requirements – the need to work and time with the children when they come back home.

These women, in fact, work mornings only, earning that extra bit of cash that enables the family to live better and probably keep their husband or partner from having to get a part-time job himself, apart from his full-time one.

It would be interesting to know what these working mothers would do if school hours are extended till late afternoon. Would they be prepared to be employed full-time if their children finish school at the same time they finish work?

The problem of “who will take care of my children” increases during the holidays. Schoolchildren have an average of three months off during the year – summer, Christmas, Easter and mid-term – and it is not always possible to leave the children with their grandparents or other relatives. This is perhaps one of the reasons why summer schools were introduced and have become more popular in the past few years.

Of course, there are many mothers who work full-time even though they have young children to take care of. On most occasions, they would have their own mothers – the grandmothers that is – who are willing, and have the time, to look after the children while the mother is at work or else the family income is good enough for them to pay someone to take care of the children.

There are then parents who, once children are old enough to stay on their own, give them the house key and these return from school to an empty home. Whether one should leave 10-year-old children in this situation is another matter.

The situation is rather complex.

The government would like to see more women get a job because only by utilising our human resources to the maximum can Malta push ahead. On the other hand, there is a big question mark as to whether these jobs are available and, point two, whether women who are willing to take up these jobs can do so because of the children they are leaving behind.