Barriers to women’s participation in decision-making positions
Published: 15 July 2007
Addressing the issue of women’s participation in decision making is one of the six priorities of the EU Roadmap for equality between women and men 2006–2010 [1]. Against this background, in 2006 the National Council of Women of Malta (NCW [2]) commissioned the National Statistics Office (NSO [3]) to carry out a study aimed at examining the views of the general public with regard to the participation of women in decision-making positions. The results of the study are meant to support the development of strategies which aim to increase the participation rates of women in decision-making positions. On 28 May 2006, the NSO published the final survey report on the Perceived obstacles to the participation of women in decision-making positions (167Kb PDF) [4].[1] http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=COM:2006:0092:FIN:EN:HTML[2] http://www.ncwmalta.com/[3] http://www.nso.gov.mt[4] http://www.nso.gov.mt/statdoc/document_file.aspx?id=2009
The National Council of Women commissioned a study to examine the views of the general public with regard to the participation of women in decision-making jobs. Childcare responsibilities are viewed as the most significant obstacle faced by women in obtaining decision-making posts. While most respondents believe that there should be a gender balance in parliamentary and local council representation, a minority think that men are more suitable for such posts.
Addressing the issue of women’s participation in decision making is one of the six priorities of the EU Roadmap for equality between women and men 2006–2010. Against this background, in 2006 the National Council of Women of Malta (NCW) commissioned the National Statistics Office (NSO) to carry out a study aimed at examining the views of the general public with regard to the participation of women in decision-making positions. The results of the study are meant to support the development of strategies which aim to increase the participation rates of women in decision-making positions. On 28 May 2006, the NSO published the final survey report on the Perceived obstacles to the participation of women in decision-making positions (167Kb PDF).
The study was based on a survey distributed to a sample of 1,432 persons aged 18 years and over. Some 83% of the contacted persons replied, of whom 51% were women and 49% were men, and about 50% of the respondents were economically active.
Promotion prospects
According to the survey findings, men are to some extent more interested in receiving job promotion in their work than women are (Table 1). When asked about their interest in being promoted, 57.9% of men expressed an interest in promotion compared with 53.9% of women. Interest in workplace promotion is also positively related to a worker’s level of education and inversely related to years of experience in the same line of work and to age.
| Men | Women | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Interested | 57.9 | 53.9 | 56.5 |
| Not interested | 28.1 | 34.4 | 30.3 |
| Do not know | 14.0 | 11.7 | 13.2 |
| Total | 100 | 100 | 100 |
Source: NSO, 2006
Salary is the main reason cited by both men and women for their desire to be promoted. On the other hand, women tend to place greater emphasis on job satisfaction as a reason for wanting to be promoted in their work. About a third of men and women – that is, 35% and 33% respectively – believe that they have good prospects for future promotion in their current job.
Obstacles to promotion
As highlighted in Table 2, when asked about the major obstacles faced by women in obtaining a decision-making or managerial position, 83.7% of women indicated childcare responsibilities as a barrier, while 82% of women cited the lack of partner support. More women than men stated that long working hours (75.8% of women, compared with 69.1% of men) and age (45.5% of women, compared with 38% of men) represent significant obstacles for women in their pursuit of posts with greater responsibilities. About 30% of the survey respondents believed that women were disadvantaged due to their sex; this reason was given more often by women than men.
| Men | Women | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Age | 38.0 | 45.5 | 41.8 |
| Sex | 27.4 | 32.6 | 30.1 |
| Qualifications | 71.5 | 71.1 | 71.3 |
| Competition | 67.9 | 68.8 | 68.3 |
| Long working hours | 69.1 | 75.8 | 72.5 |
| Childcare responsibilities | 84.1 | 83.2 | 83.7 |
| Care responsibilities of older family members | 72.4 | 71.3 | 71.8 |
| Family responsibilities | 76.0 | 74.2 | 75.1 |
| Lack of partner support | 81.3 | 82.6 | 82.0 |
| Lack of support from family | 69.1 | 72.3 | 70.7 |
Source: NSO, 2006
Gender balance in decision-making institutions
In relation to the issue of gender balance in parliamentary and local council representation, about three quarters of the respondents (74.4%) believe that there should be a balance between male and female representation. Table 3 shows that, out of those who do not agree with gender balance in parliamentary and local council representation, a high proportion of both sexes – corresponding to 45.7% of all survey respondents – regard men as being more suitable than women to work as parliamentary representatives. The share of those who think that men are more suited than women to local council representation is smaller than that concerning parliamentary representation, at 32.8%. A significantly larger percentage of men (15%) than women (4.8%) consider that women should look after the family rather than taking part in parliamentary representation.
| Parliament | Local councils | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Men | Women | Total | Men | Women | Total | |
| Men are more suitable | 46.7 | 42.9 | 45.7 | 34.1 | 30.0 | 32.8 |
| Women do not have the time | 10.0 | 14.3 | 11.1 | 17.1 | 15.0 | 16.4 |
| Women are not good leaders | 5.0 | 0 | 3.7 | 4.9 | 0 | 3.3 |
| Women should look after the family | 15.0 | 4.8 | 12.3 | 14.6 | 15.0 | 14.8 |
| Other reasons / refused to answer | 23.3 | 38.1 | 27.2 | 29.3 | 40.0 | 32.8 |
| Total | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 |
Source: NSO, 2006
Manwel Debono, Centre for Labour Studies
Eurofound recommends citing this publication in the following way.
Eurofound (2007), Barriers to women’s participation in decision-making positions, article.
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