The woman of today is a housewife, mother and worker : what is being done to alleviate the stress that these roles are leaving on women in Malta?

Abstract

Women's participation in the Maltese labour market is still very low compared to other countries in Europe. On the other hand, the Government has committed itself with the European Union to raise the overall female employment from 33.7 per cent to 41 per cent by 2010. It may be argued that the major contributor to these low figures is the stress that reconciling family and work can lead to. Therefore, this dissertation will focus on family friendly measures that are available in Malta to enable a better reconciliation of family and work responsibilities without adding to the stress in females. The research for this study is divided into primary and secondary research. The literature review section will discuss secondary research collected through statistics and other academic literature. The main findings and discussions section will process the primary research collected. Primary data was gathered by means of a qualitative research. This was done through 20 interviews with Maltese managers both within the public and private sector. Throughout these interviews the information gathered focused on the types of family friendly measures that are available within their organisations, and which gender is most likely to make use of these benefits. The main findings vis-a-vis the literature review confirm that Maltese women are still compassed in the traditional mentality that they should take full responsibility of the family and home, even when they are also working. This situation is putting the female workforce in a more stressful position, making it difficult for her to cope with these responsibilities.