Chapter 8 : Gender and sexuality

Abstract

Legislation: Notwithstanding some prevailing sexist attitudes within the general population of Malta, gender-related legal structures have been changing over the last 65 years or so. In 1947 women won the right to vote- to acknowledge, and enhance, the equal status of women (Cutajar, 1995). In the last fifty years, the 'breadwinner's wage' was abolished; in the early 1980s the public sector removed its ban on the employment of married women; and a government Commission and Secretariat (which was later given the higher status of Department) were set up to work on addressing gender issues. In 1991 amendments to the Constitution enshrined in the most basic legal statute that Malta is in favour of combating discrimination against sex at all levels. These aimed at accelerating the de facto equality between the sexes. This was followed two years later with amendments to the Family Law, which gave men and women equal rights and responsibilities in marriage, and legalised the joint administration of property acquired after marriage. In 2004 the above-mentioned Commission and Department were incorporated into the newly set up National Commission for the Promotion of Equality for Men and Women (NCPE) as a result of the Equality for Men and Women Act (2003). Among other factors, this Commission identifies and monitors national policies with a view to preventing and addressing discrimination and promoting gender equality. The Employment and Industrial Relations Act also promotes gender equality since it establishes the illegality of harassment on the grounds of gender, as well as introducing and regulating conditions of employment that are 'family friendly' (Naudi, 2005). In 2006 The Domestic Violence Act came into force, setting up the Commission on Domestic Violence, and in 2011 divorce was finally introduced. In 2014 the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (the Istanbul Convention) was ratified.