Malta’s family courts do not always give value to the work carried out at home when deciding on spousal maintenance during separation proceedings, a family lawyer has said.
“In separation cases, the fact that one partner – often the woman – stayed at home and their career took a setback doesn’t really feature that much and, if it features, they are not really compensated for it,” Ann Marie Mangion said.
She was speaking during the first Women’s and Gender Studies Symposium and Conference in which an array of subjects that impact women were discussed.
Topics tackled during the conference, which was organised by the University of Malta’s Department of Gender and Sexualities, included the motherhood penalty, gender pay gap, work-life balance, caring expectations and more.
Mangion looked at all the separation judgments in 2023 on eCourts, the electronic court system. A total of 553 judgments were delivered by the family courts in Malta and Gozo of which 48 were separation judgments. Out of the 48 decisions, 28 cases requested spousal maintenance.
According to the Civil Code: “The amount of maintenance… shall be determined having regard to the means of the spouses, their ability to work and their needs, and regard shall also be had to all the other circumstances of the spouses and of the children, including… whether the ability of the party to whom maintenance is due to have earnings of whatever nature was diminished by reason of that party having, during the marriage, taken care of the household, the other party and the upbringing of the children of the marriage.”
But a look at last year’s decisions showed that this was not always being implemented in practice.
Women, especially mothers, are financially poorer after the separation
Out of the 28 cases, spousal maintenance was granted in 11 cases.
Out of the 11 cases, four cases were for a year or until finding employment, whichever came first, or until the home was sold.
In 10 cases it was not given because the woman was working or could work.
“It is known that, in the majority of cases, women are the ones who stay home with the kids and handle most of the house-related work. In over a third of the cases, employment was given value over work at home, and value of work at home was not quantified. Women, especially mothers, are financially poorer after the separation,” she said, adding that what emerged through the figures reflected what she saw in court.
Professor JosAnn Cutajar, from the University of Malta’s Department of Gender and Sexualities within the Faculty for Social Wellbeing, built on this as she spoke about the pension gap.
“There is a big gender disparity in pensions in Malta. The age of 60 plus is the time when most women are at risk… The pension gap is increasing,” she said.
Research showed that the average duration of the working life for women was 33 years compared to 41 years for men. The thing is that, when it comes to contributory retirement pension (the one you receive after working), the number of years worked makes all the difference.
“Pensions are linked to salary, so earning a basic salary, with little career progression, will also have an impact on a pension. And when you have children, if you don’t have support, few of us continue progressing up the career ladder… Resorting to family-friendly measures and reducing working hours are putting women at a disadvantage but no one is telling women this,” she said.