In spite of all the efforts that have been made over the past years, Malta sadly still lags behind where the participation of women in all spheres of life is concerned, especially in the employment sector.

The latest gender gap report issued by the World Economic Forum places Malta in the 83rd place, among 130 countries, seven places below last years ranking, and at the bottom among the European Union member states.

Countries like Malawi, Georgia, Surinam, Ghana and Madagascar have obtained a better placing than Malta.

It seems that, unlike elsewhere, Maltese society has not evolved as much as it should have, and although there have been strong attempts to give women better opportunities to take on a more active part, for some reason this is not happening.

And so we have a situation whereby, in employment, the female to male labour force participation ratio is a low 0.55, placing Malta in 107th place in this particular category. Women also still earn less than their male counterparts, again a low 72 per cent.

Maltese women are still quite absent from the posts of legislators, senior officials and managers, while their participation in terms of political empowerment is again extremely low.

What is keeping women from taking up a more active role? Why do we have such a high level of attendance by women at University and MCAST and then such a low participation of women in the world of work?

Successive governments have encouraged women to work, offering them incentives even to return to employment after having children. But most women still prefer staying at home, and many of those who did work in the first years after leaving school and/or University opt to leave employment once they are married and especially when they have children.

But while governments have done their job in trying to entice women to enter and/or remain in the employment sector, there are other factors that are pushing in the other direction.

For one thing, the Maltese Church has often strongly hinted that for families to be strong the woman must stay in the home. Although the Maltese Church’s influence on society has decreased over the years, in this particular area it seems that the Church’s ideas still hold.

Secondly, there are many men who still believe that their wife should not work, that men should be the sole breadwinners, even if they have to work part-time to make ends meet. This is perhaps the most difficult obstacle that needs to be overcome, as it requires a culture change that, in a conservative society such as the Maltese one, takes decades to achieve.

Thirdly, our education system is not conducive to encouraging women to work. This is because schools end in the early afternoon, and most women like to be at home when their children return, especially if these are still at primary or kindergarten level. This means that women who want to work have to do so on a part-time basis, in the mornings only. It is only if schools remain open later that more women would be interested in finding a full-time job.

This could be done by organising extra curriculum activities for children – those activities for which little time is found during the restricted school hours, such as music, drama, art, sport and dance. In this way, we would be killing two birds with one stone – children would be having a more comprehensive education, while allowing for more women to be able to work full-time.

Lately there has been a lot of talk about the need to have a culture change when it comes to energy saving. Well, we should perhaps extend this culture change to other spheres too.