This Wednesday is 8 March – a date that has become synonymous with the celebration of International Women’s Day, having been established as such by the United Nations in 1975. The first marches for women’s rights can, however, be traced back to 1908, when 15,000 women marched in New York City demanding better working hours, better pay and the same voting rights as men.
Although the marches and celebrations started at the turn of the 20th century, it took nearly 70 years for the realisation that something concrete must be done to start the uphill climb towards gender equality. Today, more than 40 years later, themes for IWD remain basically the same, with many predicting that full gender equality will not be achieved before another 70 years has passed, and although the intentions to move to gender equality are present, a regression to 2008 levels has been registered in several countries. Can businesses and politics afford to wait that long to reap the benefits of gender equality in leadership positions?
The world’s fast advancement in technology has created new challenges for both businesses and employment. Female-run businesses may be acutely affected because of the pervading gender-based skills gap with regard to digital knowledge. The lack of digital skills will also have a long-term repercussion on employment in the technology sector for women. Although 60 per cent of university students in Malta are women, and there is also a high percentage studying at MCAST, how many of these female students are reading Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects and moving to post-graduate levels? What will be the outcome if women are absent from the highly-paid jobs of an ever-increasing digital present and future? Will this skills gap further increase the gender pay gap, because women will be in the lower paid jobs and therefore with less chance of achieving managerial and decision-making positions at their place of work? Will this affect their actual employment, career, financial situation and eventually their pension?
The National Council of Women has been advocating a national guidance structure that will steer girls towards continuing their interest in STEM subjects throughout their academic or vocational education. It is a fact that girls are as interested as boys in STEM subjects until early secondary school years, but then move to more traditional and stereotyped subjects at the choice of subjects stage. Action must be taken immediately in order to limit the damage in the skills gap and hence in employment.
This year’s theme for International Women’s Day is ‘Be bold for change’. What can be done to accelerate this change? Women must be present at decision-making levels, on boards as leaders and in the political arena in order for gender equality to be reached. Men, on the other hand have an important part to play and they too can champion gender equality. Both men and women leaders can promote females through mentoring and creating an environment that is inclusive and welcoming. Bringing about gender balance in all areas requires a real culture change as well as a change of mindset. Above all, there must be a commitment on the part of all leaders, CEOs and political parties, to make this change happen.
Mary Gaerty is the President of the National Council of Women