Malta has the most male-dominated culture sector in the EU, according to a recent study by Eurostat.

Last year, the total number of people employed in a cultural role in Malta was 12,500. Of these, 61% (7,600) were men and 39% (4,900) were women.

This was the highest variation in favour of men across the EU at a difference of almost 22 percentage points.

Spain was the next highest, with an almost 10 percentage point difference, followed by Italy and Ireland, which were both at around nine percentage points.

Meanwhile, Latvia and Lithuania recorded the biggest differences in favour of women, who took around a 26 percentage points larger slice of the cultural sector than their male counterparts in each country.

Cyprus was next, with women representing around a 17 percentage points larger share, followed by Bulgaria and Luxembourg at around 13 percentage points.

By contrast, the view across the EU was more equitable at a difference of almost two percentage points in favour of men, corresponding to around 3.9 million men (51%) and 3.8 million women (49%).

“Since 2013, the number of women in cultural employment has been increasing across the European Union, except in 2020. In 2022, the cultural sector recorded the smallest ever gender employment gap,” the report said.

From 2013 to 2019, the increase in the number of women working in Malta’s culture sector outpaced the rate of men by almost double, with female cultural employment growing by 103% from 2,700 in 2013 to 5,500 in 2019.

Meanwhile, the number of males working in cultural roles increased from 5,000 to 7,800 over the same period, a growth of 56%.

From 2013 to 2019, total employment in Malta’s cultural sector grew steadily year-on-year, only stalling slightly in 2016 when it shrunk by 0.1 per cent.

The sector reduced in 2020 and 2021 before rebounding slightly last year, when 12,500 people were employed in the culture sector. This was still not a return to pre-pandemic levels, however, when, at its peak in 2019, the industry employed 13,300 people.

Last year, the EU culture sector employed 7.7 million people, representing almost four per cent of total employment. This represented a 4.5 per cent increase from the 7.4 million people working in cultural roles the year before.