Malta edges down global gender parity index

More than 90 countries around the world are able to boast  a better gender equality situation than Malta according to an annual study by the World Economic Forum.

According to the Global Gender Gap Report (GGGR) for 2018, Malta ranks 91 out 149 countries when it comes to gender equality across multiple different sectors.

Last year, Malta ranked 93, with 144 countries evaluated.

The GGGR was first introduced by the WEF in 2006 as a tool to quantify gender-based disparities across the globe, and registered progress, with time.

Despite Malta dropping two places in its overall ranking, it still performed better than the average in most categories.

According to the GGGR, Malta scored 0.614 in economic participation and opportunity. By comparison, the global average was 0.586, with 1 indicating parity between the sexes and 0 representing imparity.

Malta again ranked first in educational attainment, where the country’s registered an imparity which actually favours females. The global average was 0.949.

In Health and Survival, Malta ranked 114 with a score of 0.969, compared to a global average of 0.955.

Political empowerment was by the far the worst category with Malta registering a mere 0.159 parity score, ranking 81.

Government not doing enough to address gender gap – PN

In a statement, the PN said that what was meant to be the most feminist government had “failed spectacularly”, with another report showing that “Joseph Muscat’s promises to women were empty and misleading”.

The PN noted that since 2013, Malta had fallen from the 87 to the 106 place in women’s wages, from 19 to 48 in wage parity and from 65 to 114 in women’s health.

Moreover, the PN highlighted the fact that Malta had fallen to 120 from 78 in life expectancy for women, from 53 to 81 in women’s public participation and from 90 to 122 in female participation in parliament. Malta’s ranking on female participation in decision making positions fell from 41 to 126.

The PN said it was appealing to the government to seriously address this unjust situation, stressing that the discrepancy in salaries earned by women and men was resulting in women ending up in poverty.