Tomorrow is International Women’s Day and the activities that have been set up to mark the day have brought to light some interesting news – Malta’s gender pay gap is one of the lowest in Europe. There is no doubt that Malta, like many Southern European and Mediterranean countries, is a male dominated society. The trend is changing, but many still believe that the woman’s place is in the home and not to go out and work and even more so, become a professional.

It was, however, very interesting to note that Malta’s gender pay gap is only 6.1% when compared to the rest of the European Union, which has an average of 18%. This is all positive, and equally positive is the news that our young men and women are almost on par when it comes to tertiary education. In fact, at the last count, some 54% of the student population was female. Again, this is encouraging, but the challenge in Malta has always been to retain the female professional population once they enter the world of work. While the pay gap might not be high, and closing quite fast, it is our participation rate of women in the world of work that needs to be addressed. More specifically, it is retaining female participation. The problem seems to lie in the fact that once they have children, couples opt for the mother to stay at home to raise the children.

The previous administration got the ball rolling by offering tax incentives for mothers to return to work. And this government has followed hot on its heels by setting up more and more child centres to allow parents to leave their children there for the day while they go to work. In a world where the older generation has to work longer and incentives are being offered for pensioners to supplement their income by getting paid work, the traditional grandparent child carer role is waning, and therefore child care centres are becoming more and more important.

The measures are being put in place, but now we need to go one extra mile and change our outlook. We need to accept that women are just as good at men (if not better) in roles where they earn money and provide for their families. They open businesses, become professionals and can also become the main bread winners. We need to shift away from the mentality that the man is the head of the family and that the man is expected to provide for his family. We have created today’s dynamic social model that is focused on productivity. In order to sustain it, we need to work as a team. And that can only happen if women are on a total par with men in every sense. Quotas are an insult. Women need to be empowered.