Women make up half of the population, but they had to fight so many struggles in order to achieve the level of equality seen today. There is still more to be done.

The Euopean Commission has put forward a very impotant proposal regarding gender pay gaps. This was the topic of discussion during a webinar organised by the European Commission in collaboration with The Malta Independent on the occasion of International Women's Day. Commissioner Helena Dalli, who spoke during the event, said that the Commission presented a proposal on pay transparency to ensure that women and men in the EU get equal pay for equal work.

The proposal sets out pay transparency measures, such as pay information for job seekers, a right to know the pay levels for workers doing the same work, as well as gender pay gap reporting obligations for big companies. The proposals will require major companies to declare differences in pay between genders and remedy when the difference in such a pay is not justified. It will not make companies publish all individual salaries and it will not mean that all wages must suddenly become the same. Commissioner Dalli said that there can be differences, but only if they are for objective reasons – such as, for instance, productivity – and not directly related to gender.

This is a major step forward. The gender pay gap has, for years, been a topic of much debate around the world, and this proposal will hopefully help tackle the problem. Indeed, the announcement was welcomed by the panelists. The General Workers’ Union’s boss Josef Bugeja who was on the panel, said that the union has seen examples of the gender pay gap here in Malta, saying that there have been cases where employers outright told the union that a pay difference for work of the same value was due to the worker being woman. Action was taken before the Industrial Tribunal as a result. Such beliefs in this day and age are absolutely unacceptable.

But the pay gap isn't the only issue. A recent Eurostat report revealed that only 28% of all people employed in management positions were women in the third quarter of 2020.

Now of course the best person for the job should always get the job. Those with more expertiese and expeirence should be given priority, but if there are companies that are passing on promoting women to managerial positions for no reason other than they prefer a man for the job, then they are very much in the wrong and this needs to be corrected.

Another statistic by Eurostat relates to women in Parliament. Malta has the lowest share of women in the national parliament in Europe. Now this will be fixed through the gender corrective mechanism being proposed by the government. Whether this is the right approach to solve the issue or not is being debated, however one thing is for sure, something needs to be done.

Women in top end positions had to fight tooth and nail to get to where they are, and did this likely while facing more challenges than men did. There are so many strong female rolemodels in society, women who we can all look up to, who strive to work for the betterment of us all. Let us work to make every workplace an environment where women have the equal opportunity to strive.

The key to ending any form of inequality is education, and that also needs to be a main focus. Laws alone will not get the job done. Nobody should be treated differently because of their gender, race or for any other reason.