Dr JosAnn Cutajar is Senior Lecturer and currently Heads the Department of Gender Studies within the Faculty for Social Wellbeing.  Dr Cutajar is former Director of the University of Malta Cottonera Resource Centre and winner of the 2016 EPALE award for community involvement. Dr Cutajar, apart from teaching community activism has also been involved in a number of research projects namely as a social expert specializing in gender issues.

I discussed with Dr Cutajar whether women rights are safeguarded within the current legislation we have in this country.  She argued that the basic human rights are enshrined within the Maltese legislative structures.  However she claimed, “The real issue lies in the enforcement of these rights.  For example, the principle of equal pay for work of equal value is embedded within Art. 14 of the Constitution, Art. 26 of Chapter 452 (EIRA) and Art. 4 of Chapter 456 (Equality legislation).  In spite of this, statistics demonstrate that the overall gender pay gap stood at 11% in 2016.  This gender gap, according to Magro (2018), was highest among the highest paying occupational activities.  It stood at 28.3% for women working within finance and insurance activities, while within professional, scientific and technical activities women were paid 23.1% less than men.  The irony lies in the fact that the gender pay-gap rises with the level of education.  The gender pay gap stood at 10.3% among those with a basic level of education, and rose up to 18.7% among those women with a tertiary level of education.” 

Dr Cutajar claims that these statistics demonstrate that although women do their very best to continue studying and attaining degrees, their efforts are not as compensated as men’s are. 

Another issue I tackled with her was the numerous challenges that women are facing in our society.  Dr Cutajar maintained that the economy necessitates that more women work.  It is true that women have entered the labour force, but they are also still expected to carry out the full brunt of household and caring responsibilities as well.  The only way which will enable women to participate fully within the public sphere necessitates the equitable division of labour between women and men, where household obligations and responsibilities are concerned. Dr Cutajar states that, “The 2017 Gender Equality Index (EIGE 2018) notes that Maltese women spend almost double the amount of time men spend caring for and educating their children or grandchildren, elderly or people with disabilities.  Women are then castigated for undertaking these tasks – as workers and as social beneficiaries.  Magro (2018) for example notes that there was only a 6% pay difference between men and women who did not have dependents.  The pay gap rose to 16.6% when women had dependents.”

Dr Cutajar explained that the Nordic countries insist that in order to ensure that women are not discriminated against for undertaking caring responsibilities, childcare related tasks should be shared by both parents.  In Iceland both parents have the independent and non-transferable right to paid maternity/paternity leave for three months. This means that each parent has the right to three months of paid leave, and his/her right cannot be transferred to the other. In addition to this, parents can avail themselves of three additional months; this may be taken by one parent or divided between them.  When we discuss paid paternity and maternity leave, employers in Malta immediately ask who is going to pay for this. 

“Children are an asset for the whole country, not only for the parents or guardians who bear and/or rear them.  They are our future workers, future consumers and future service users, which means that the state, workers and employers should invest in their future.  We need to take good care of them.  To do so policy makers and employers need to realize that workers also have caring responsibilities.  We need to set aside paid caring leave for those who work since the majority of families cannot afford nannies or stay at home carers.”

I also discussed with Dr Cutajar whether gender issues are being taken seriously by our institutions.  To this she answered that there are a number of policy and legislative changes in the pipeline where gender issues are concerned. 

“The problem is not the legislation, but its implementation.  A number of these legislative changes are being directed at the public sector, when the private sector can also benefit from such changes.  Implementation also depends on the individual enforcer.  Individuals run institutions.  If particular individuals do not believe in gender equality they will always find ways and means to undermine this principle. This means that boys and men need to learn that women and men may be different, but this does not mean that women should be treated as second class citizens and/or abused.”   

We also discussed whether the issue of ‘breaking the glass ceiling’ is a matter of the past.  This concept coined originally by feminists referred to the barriers women face when it comes to progressing in their careers.  Dr Cutajar states that “The glass ceiling is still here”.

She made reference to statistics published by EIGE (2018) for 2017 and notes that the proportion of women on the boards of the largest publicly listed companies stood at only 8.4%.  These statistics have undermined women’s gains in academia.   The proportion of female graduates has surpassed that of males for almost two decades.   This means that those who graduated in the 1990s would have had plenty of time to make it to the top.  They are nowhere to be found though.  Things are not that rosy within academic levels either. 

Finally, on the debatable issue of quotas for women who enter politics and other positions of power she feels very strongly.  She says that, “Quotas should be temporary measures to enable more women to attain positions of power.  Quotas will not need to be used when people stop assessing each other on the basis of gender rather than assessing each person’s capabilities.” 

She considers interesting that the two main political parties in Malta have adopted voluntary measures to ensure that the number of women in their executive reached a critical mass.  

Dr Cutajar says, “Such measures could have been easily adopted in parliament, by companies, but they were not.  Where the representation of women in decision making is concerned, the bye word at the moment is quotas where political candidates are concerned.  This of course does not mean that the electorate will vote for women if the electorate does not identify women with politics. Policy makers could easily set aside 50 percent of parliamentary seats for women, and 50 percent for men.”