More than 18,000 women joined the workforce in the last four years
Minister for Education Evarist Bartolo and Minister for the Economy Chris Cardona yesterday visited the site of a fibreglass manufacturing company to praise the work of director Angela Xerri and to promote women at the workplace.
Yesterday, the National Statistics Office (NSO), Malta’s statistical office, published the most recent employment figures. It was found that over the past four years more than 18,000 women have entered the workplace.
Malta has historically registered high inequality between the ratio of men to women at the workplace. It has consistently registered among the highest percentages of female unemployment.
Director Angela Xerri, addressing the press, described how in an industry dominated by men, it has been of great satisfaction to see the company grow and develop under her family’s leadership, with Xerri and her brother at the helm.
Silvercraft Products Ltd has been in operation for 45 years, with Xerri joining the company at just 18 years of age.
She recounted dealing with Arabic companies that found it very difficult to cooperate with a woman. Xerri spoke of how a deal was once concluded with a company from Saudi Arabia and the men visiting Malta did not want to speak to her because she was a woman. They instead negotiated with the company’s male financial controller, who was receiving instructions from Xerri.
She also described a particularly difficult incident where three company containers worth roughly €200,000 (Lm 90,000) were stuck in Saudi Arabia because registration letters had mistakenly been sent to Israel during a boycott of the region. Xerri said she had to bring her five-year-old son with her to the United Kingdom in order to negotiate getting the containers back to Malta.
Xerri is mostly responsible for the financial and marketing decisions, and is also the legal representative of the company.
Minister Bartolo, while addressing members of the press, spoke of the prejudices in many industries, such as engineering and sciences. He said that prejudice did not only take place between men and women, but noted that women were also prejudiced among themselves.
He spoke of the government’s commitment to bringing more women into top positions. Women tend to do better, on average, than their male counterparts within the education system, but you still find a disproportionately high number of men in the workplace, he added.
Bartolo thanked the company for investing in Malta’s educational sector, something which is not done enough by major employers in Malta.
Cardona cited government measures for being a solid push in the fight to get more women active in the workplace, such as the initiative of free childcare.
The minister said that it did not make sense for almost half the population – women – to be wasted as a human resource. He said that the island cannot afford to waste the innovation and creativity that women bring to the table.
Cardona expressed his wish to see more women take risks and enter the world of entrepreneurship to take risks in the “jungle” known as the business world.