Gender policies in the Maltese public service

Abstract

Gender issues have become in recent years an important focus for decision making. In Malta the Maltese Public Service has been at the forefront of change in this respect as the number of reforms implemented have increased over time. This study attempts to explore this issue with respect to the General Service or as it is popularly known the Civil Service side of the organisation. Through a set of interviews it examines how employees in the civil service view the gender reforms implemented in recent years and how they interpret their future direction. It will be seen that that females employees feel positively affected by them and that male employees, while not advantaged in the same way by them are beginning to understand that gender equality, if it is to happen at all, requires the implementation of such measures. It will also be seen that not all males feel that gender policies are justified and tend to argue that a new sort of inequality now exists, one that touches males. Such policies also have had a marked effect, in a positive way, on the morale of female civil servants. Given the above Maltese family relationships have also been influenced by the introduction of these gender reforms. Women civil servants who in the past had to resign on marriage, thanks to certain individual policies not only con hope to retain their job but can have the necessary time off to look after their children during the first months or years. The civil service was in the past projected as a model employer and held up as an example of good practice to employers in the private sector who may be persuaded but not imposed upon to implement particularly policies relating to gender.