PM’s wife hits out at ‘Catholic mentality’ that judges women who choose careers

The wife of Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, Michelle, has questioned whether a change is needed in the mentality of passing judgement over women who choose a career over being a full-time housewife.

"Although I am a practising Catholic, sometimes I see a certain divergence when progress made by women is said to not be in line with our religious teaching. Isn't it time to start, perhaps, separating these two things?"

"This will show that by giving women the chance to go to out and work, they needn't feel guilty about it... women cannot afford to think in an 'archaic' way."

Muscat was addressing an International Women's Day event with civil liberties minister Helena Dalli entitled 'Equality for women is progress for all' - both women remarked that celebrating the day itself was a reminder of the long way ahead in achieving equality.

Muscat said that many women did not have similar opportunities to achieve some form of success in life. "One only needs to knock on a few doors to see that there are many women who have not reached their full potential," she said, pointing out the high number of female graduates who do enter the workforce.

"What are they doing? Why are they staying home? Why are they feeling like the best thing for them to do is to stay at home?" she questioned.

"Is it because they feel that they need to stay at home once they've had children?" she asked. "And if so, is it because our very Catholic country judges us when we do not participate fully in our children's lives?"

"Ultimately, we've been taught ... that the best thing that a wife and a mother should do is to take care of her children."

She argued that women should not be made to feel guilty or judged when they are unable to pick their children up from school or other activities due to work reasons - with the role being passed on to others, such as the grandmother.

On her part, Dalli said gender inequality was not just a violation of a human right, but served as an obstacle for progress.

"People should be looked at in terms of what they can contribute... it's their hearts and minds that should be judged and not their gender," she said.

Dalli said that following the findings of a report by the EU's Fundamental Rights Agency showing that one in three women in Malta had experienced some form of sexual violence since the age of 15, she would be pushing for Malta to sign the ratification of the Istanbul Convention, the first legally-binding treaty on sexual abuse.

In a brief address, US ambassador Gina Abercrombie said that positive discrimination had a negative connotation, implying that women could not succeed on their own, but that the truth was that "nobody really makes it on their own."

"Everyone was given opportunities and women should take advantage of those opportunities so as not to get left behind. It doesn't really matter how a door is opened, but rather what one does when in the room," she said.

Lawyer Anita Aloisio, a partner at Nexia Malta, made her pitch for increased education of women, noting that the majority of illiterate persons in Malta were women. "Competitiveness relies very much on education, whether this education is technical, professional or even of the tertiary kind," she said.

Nurse Victoria Sultana, a lecturer at the University of Malta, criticised the low female representation in public positions in Malta. "Are women perceived as not being capable of holding public roles?" she asked. "There seems to be a dichotomy in the Mediterranean where women are judged capable to carry out both paid and unpaid jobs like housework, but then are not trusted in public roles," she said.