Only 6% of Maltese men have a female boss

This emerges from a European-wide survey conducted by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and working conditions. 

The survey shows that 18.6% of Maltese workers have a female boss. But while 42% of female workers have a boss of the same sex, only 6% of Maltese men answer to a female superior.

Female bosses are more common in the services industry, where 22% of workers have a female boss. In industry, only 9% answer to a female boss.

Across Europe, the proportion of workers who have a female boss has also risen – from 24% in 2000 to 29% in 2010.

In Malta, the number of workers with a female boss has risen from 14.6% to 18.6% in the past decade.

The highest percentage of workers with a female boss is found in Estonia (41%) which is closely followed by Scandinavian countries Norway, Sweden and Finland.   Greece is the only EU member state with a lower percentage of workers with a female boss than Malta (16%).

As in Malta, most of these workers are themselves women, with 47% of female workers saying that they have a boss of the same sex, compared to just 12% of men.

This segregation appears to be increasing across Europe. While the proportion of employees with a female boss rose from 31% in 2000 to 36% in 2010 in the services sector (a heavily female-dominated area), it remained stable at 11% in manufacturing – a male-dominated sector.

The trend is reinforced in Malta with the number of industrial workers with a female boss falling from 12% in 2000 to 9% in 2010. On the other hand, the number of employees with a female boss in the services sector has increased from 16% to 22%.