International Women’s Day celebrated tomorrow, Monday the 8th of March, is the story of ordinary women as makers of history; it is rooted in the centuries-old struggle of women to participate in society on an equal footing with men. It is an open secret that many challenges remain and have become even more difficult in the current economic climate. Not surprisingly, women have suffered most from the economic upheavals. Economic hardship has pushed tens of millions of women into vulnerable employment and increased the number of those who, though employed, do not earn enough for themselves and their families to rise above the poverty line.

Women, in developed countries find themselves struggling to balance the family and work life. Nighat Urpani, AD Spokesperson for Social Protection commented that the extension of maternity leave across the EU that was voted for on the 23rd February of this year, by the Womens’ Rights Committee of the European Parliament, to extend this leave to 20 weeks on full pay is a positive development. It puts words and rhetoric about the family into practise. On the other hand Malta is still very far off this target. AD insists that the Maltese Government should support the extension of maternity leave if it wants to be taken seriously when it speaks about the family and family-friendly measures.

It is vital that the public sector and companies do much more to grant security to their female employees to return back to work after maternity leave with no threat to their opportunities for promotion, including specific training programmes. The effectiveness of maternity leave and these programmes should be thoroughly evaluated and governments should provide subsidies and grants only to companies who acknowledge the social importance of maternity leave as an essential family friendly measure and those who provide training schemes for their female employees after they return back to work.

AD Spokesperson on Civil Rights, Yvonne Ebejer Arqueros commented on domestic violence. She insisted that domestic violence is an underestimated problem. Domestic violence includes all forms of violence: the threat of physical, psychological or sexual violence. Violence against women is one of the most common forms of all violence. It produces more casualties than wars, terrorist attacks or natural disasters. Worldwide, one in five women will become a victim of rape or attempted rape in her lifetime. In this regard various social NGOs are trying hard to help women victims of violence; their work should be appreciated more and they should be supported by the state to be able to give a better service. “For us, civil rights and effective gender equality legislation are top priority both here in Malta and throughout the European Union.”

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