Call for 'equal partnerships'

The culture change that would allow women to succeed in taking a greater active part in the country's economic and social life still needs to take place, the National Council of Women said in a message to mark International Woman's Day, being observed today.

The conservative and long-established demarcations of responsibilities between the husband and wife within family life still exist today, it said. These must give way to a more equal partnership where responsibilities and duties are equally shared.

It said society should encourage families to have more children and take care of dependent family members, however not to the detriment of women who would carry these responsibilities and subsequently lose out on benefits.

The council said it also acknowledged the right of a woman to choose a career as well as having a family in order to fulfil her development as a person in her own right.

Women, it said, should not have to choose between a career and a family but should be encouraged to have both. In order for this to function there has to be a more equal sharing of raising a family between parents.

"A lot has been done and achieved over the last years but much more is necessary and the changes in our societies are worrying. Therefore we need to move much faster and take bolder decisions to translate all the reports and words of gender equality into action," the council said.

In another message, the General Workers' Union's female workers' committee yesterday called on the government and political parties to set up the necessary structures that would enable women to participate in the employment market with fewer obstacles standing in their way.

The committee said that to date female workers were considered a burden on employers because of pregnancy and maternity benefits, together with rights granted to women through the new work law.

"The committee feels it is useless to appeal to women to contribute more to the local economy when our society lacks the necessary social infrastructures which allow women to make a free choice to work," it said.

The committee pointed to the lack of compatibility between school hours and working hours, which made it difficult for women to go out to work while taking care of a family.

The Union Haddiema Maghqudin gender equality committee said there is still a lot to be done for women to be given equal rights. Committee chairman Romina Bartolo said Malta still has a culture which gave different roles to men and women and there was a need for more work to take place in the education sector so that from a young age children realised there should be no distinction between men's and women's rights.

Dr Bartolo said it was a pity that although 55 per cent of university students were females many did not go on working, which led to a loss of resources needed by the country.

In another message to mark Woman's Day, the support agency Appogg made a strong call for an end to domestic violence.

It expressed solidarity with "survivors" of domestic violence and with women who are still facing abuse behind closed doors.

Appogg pointed out that every woman had the right to be safe. Domestic Violence was a crime that left an impact on the victim's physical and mental health, it said.

The agency also urged women to seek individual support in order to deal with this social problem. It offers a specialised service to victims through its domestic violence services.

Besides offering a professional social work service to victims, Appogg also works with male perpetrators through specially designed programmes and support groups.