The Gender Equality Index developed by the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) shows that Malta is approaching the halfway mark towards equality between women and men.

Malta scored 46.8 out of 100 on EIGE’s most recent update of the Index (2015), giving it a rank of 16, when compared to the other 28 EU Member States. 

EIGE’s Gender Equality Index measures equality between women and men in six core domains: work, money, knowledge, time, power and health. It then assigns a score to each Member State - 1 for total inequality and 100 for complete equality.

Malta’s primary strength in gender equality lies in the health domain. It gains the top score amongst all Member States in this area (95.6), which reflects a good balance in access to health services and overall health status for both women and men.

Significant challenges for Malta lie in the domain of power. Malta scored 28.3 out of 100, which is not the lowest score in Europe, but there is evidently room for improvement. Women are seriously lacking from decision-making positions in the political sphere, and even more so from the economic one. Another serious challenge is in the unequal division of time women and men spend on care, domes­tic tasks and social activities. Out of all the domains, the score in time has decreased the most since 2005 (by 10.6 points). Women spend increasingly more time on care activities and little on leisure, sporting or voluntary activities. This has major consequences on the work–life balance of women.

The Index also shows signs of positive development over time. Women’s level of full-time employment has increased and access to fi­nancial resources has improved for both women and men. Malta’s score in the domain of knowledge also increased, mainly due to the increased proportion of university graduates, with almost no gap between women and men.

EIGE officials will be in Malta this week to discuss the results of the Gender Equality Index and their monitoring tools. Media representatives are welcome to participate in an open panel debate on Tuesday 14th June at Le Méridien St. Julians hotel, Malta from 14.00 to 16.00.

For more information, please contact Christian Veske, +372 5306 0424.

To learn more about Malta in the Gender Equality Index, read the fact sheet or go to the country profile on the website.