Malta has moved up one place to 13th in the European Gender Equality Index.
The 27-country index is based on research carried out by the European Institute for Gender Equality. The 2024 edition is based on data from 2022.
The score is averaged out from a number of different categories, including equality in work, money, power, knowledge and health.
A score of 100 means a country has achieved full gender equality. Malta obtained a score of 70.1.
With a 2.3-point increase, Malta was the country that registered the most improved position from the previous edition.
Since 2010, Malta has advanced more than 15 points, the second-highest among European countries.
On the other hand, the country is still 0.9 points below the EU average.
Digging deeper, the index’s profile on Malta details a number of improvements, as well as areas where the country is still lagging.
The entry on Malta states that the country’s gender pay gap of two percent in favour of men is one of the smallest in the EU. The report also notes that gendered segregation in education is decreasing, There is also a significant increase in gender equality in cooking and housework responsibilities.
Moving to the more negative aspects, wide gender gaps remain in political decision-making, with the proportion of women in senior and junior ministerial positions in Malta falling to 15 per cent, a decrease of five percentage points from the previous year.
Women’s representation in economic decision-making has also stalled. The share of women on the boards of the largest quoted companies in Malta has increased by just one percentage point since 2023, reaching 17 per cent in 2024. The portion of women on the boards of the central bank has remained the same since 2023 (27 per cent).
Reacting to the report, Equality and Reforms Junior Minister Rebecca Buttigieg expressed satisfaction with the improvement in Malta's scores in various sectors measured in the index.
She remarked that this improvement in the index reflected other advances made by Maltese women in gender equality. She added that the government's gender equality strategy envisions further actions to be taken at the national level to ensure Malta continues to progress and break into the top ten countries in this index.