Women bosses in Malta right above EU average

Just over a third of Maltese workers have women as their immediate bosses, a figure that is now up from 19% back in 2010.

The Europe-wide survey from Eurofound, the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, shows 36% of Maltese workers reported their immediate boss was a woman, a figure just one point above the figure for the entire European Union (35%).

Back in 2010, less than one-fifth of Maltese workers reported having a woman boss, well below the EU average of the time (29%).

The lowest percentage of workers reporting that their boss is a woman was found in Greece (25%) and Cyprus (26%), while the highest was found in Sweden (48%).

The survey also shows that while 46% of Maltese female workers reported that their immediate boss is a woman, only 22% of Maltese male workers reported having a female boss. In 2010 only 6% of males reported having a female boss, in contrast to 42% of women, showing a greater increase in male workers with a woman boss (16 point).

The survey also showed that only 22% of Maltese workers reported working in gender-balanced workplaces – 37% said the majority of worker were women, while 41% reported being employed in workplace where the majority are men.

And in a further indication of gender segregation, 14% are employed in workplaces where nearly all their colleagues are women; and 15% in workplaces where nearly none are women.

The survey confirms persistent gender segregation in occupations and workplaces, Eurofound said, “indicating that we are a long way from the goals of equal opportunities for women and men at work and equal access to key decision-making positions in the workplace… This calls for a redoubling of efforts to dismantle the stereotypes that limit women’s and men’s choices in work.”

The survey was carried out in 2021 and based on telephone interviews with over 70,000 workers in 36 European countries, of which 1,000 were Maltese.