VALLETTA (MALTA) (ITALPRESS/MNA) – Malta is making steady progress on gender equality, yet women continue to face steep economic disadvantages, according to the European Institute for Gender Equality’s revamped 2025 Index. The country scored 58.9 out of 100, ranking 16th in the EU and below the bloc’s average of 63.4. Its weakest areas remain money and time.
The data reveals a stark pay imbalance within Maltese households. While women across the EU earn 77% of men’s annual income, Maltese women in couples earn just 66%. This “ghost quarter” of unpaid labour means women effectively work nearly four extra months to match their partner’s yearly earnings.
Although this reflects improvement from 2015, when women earned only half their partner’s income, gaps remain widest among older couples and families with children.
These disparities follow women into retirement. Malta registers the EU’s largest gender pension gap, with men receiving pensions 40% higher than women. Lower lifetime earnings and reduced pension contributions leave women significantly more vulnerable in old age.
The imbalance is rooted in daily routines: women shoulder most unpaid care work. Among parents, 37% of women spend more than five hours a day on childcare, compared with 14% of men. Women are also twice as likely to perform daily housework.
Despite economic setbacks, Malta recorded its biggest improvement since 2020 in the power domain, rising 14.2 points due to gains in political and social representation and the introduction of the gender correction mechanism in Parliament.
Malta also ranks 8th in health and knowledge, with women’s tertiary education rates far outstripping men’s. Women’s full-time equivalent employment rate has climbed to 52%, among the highest in Europe.
Yet challenges persist. Women’s political participation has dipped, and the gender gap in self-perceived health is widening, with only 75% of women rating their health as good compared to 83% of men. Women aged 65 can now expect to live just 54% of their remaining years in good health, a decline since 2020.
– photo IPA Agency –
(ITALPRESS).
