The changing face of the family in Malta

Abstract

Malta is a modern economy but still tends to be conservative in certain social dimensions. Until 2011, Malta was still one of the three Catholic countries, which had not introduced divorce (the remaining countries being the Philippines and the Vatican City). Although legislation regarding gender equality is in place, the reality does not correspond to the legal structure. Culturally Malta remains patriarchal although some changes may be happening, particularly in more developed towns and amongst highly educated individuals. These changes have been slowly accumulating for decades, with the family being in transition (Tabone 1995), although family values and traditional families (Abela 1992) continued to be strong, nonetheless the decline in the birth rate (Milne 1973) had been registered for a long time. However, "Malta remains one of the most family oriented countries in the EU, with the family still being very much at the heart of personal and social life" (McGregor 2008:1) According to the 2011 Census of Population and