The event targets female entrepreneurs and at those who would like to promote their respective established or even startup business through networking. 

BNI says it has supported hundreds of women entrepreneurs to grow their business in the 70+ countries where it is active, whether it is just a startup or an already recognised business. It has given the opportunity to expand and grow businesses in other countries as well through its system of more than 9,500 chapters, as the press release says. 

“This networking event is a great opportunity to pay tribute to all the wonderful women who, with great commitment and facing added challenges, endeavour towards their brand’s success, while contributing to the Maltese economy, not least by offering employment to other women and men. The reality is that some of these businesses cannot afford to advertise — at least, not extensively — so Malta BNI would like to offer them a different visibility opportunity to generate more business for them and to help gain further credibility and growth,” said Malta BNI national director David Bullock.

“The brainchild of our ambassador and public affairs director Carmel Bonello, this event will pay tribute to women entrepreneurs, and in particular to those who have launched their business this century. Through its core values, Malta BNI can offer them recognition, lifelong learning, innovation, mentoring, connections, ability to speak in public, and a positive attitude – all in the spirit of givers’ gain,” added Mr Bullock. “Many are those who speak about women’s empowerment but at BNI we have been actually making this a reality for the last 30 years globally and for the last seven years in Malta. Through this event, Malta BNI is offering them a platform for their creativity, innovation and passion and a level and equal playing field with men,” he said. 

“This follows the highly successful BNI National Networking Day and the BNI Awards Dinner held respectively in January and March this year. BNI now has five chapters in Malta,” said BNI Ambassador and Public Affairs Director Carmel Bonello. “We are encouraging our members to bring visitors to this innovative event to create even more opportunities for increased networking, and the opportunity to pass and receive quality business referrals. If you have not yet experienced BNI for yourself, I personally invite you to attend our event on 11th July, be welcomed, enjoy an excellent buffet dinner including drinks, while doing business networking,” added Mr Bonello. 

Registration for the event is open via Malta BNI Chapters’ social event coordinators or by sending a €35 early bird cheque per person addressed to Malta BNI by 5 July 2019. 

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Minister Dalli highlighted a number of measures that the Maltese government introduced over the past years in order to promote equality between women and men. She explained that the introduction of these measures was possible thanks to the support of Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, who has promoted equality and women’s emancipation in his politics, the DOI press release notes. The government has expressed willingness to increase the number of women in the Maltese Parliament and on government boards.

With regard to European politics, Ms Dalli reiterated Malta’s call for the introduction of gender-budgeting with regard to the Multi-Annual Financial Framework, in order to address gender in all of the areas, and ensure that it becomes the priority that it deserves to be. In addition, the Minister added that there is a great need that the new European Commission adopts a gender equality strategy that binds both the EC and the member states to promote equality for women and men and implement measures in this direction.

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The project was launched by Parliamentary Secretary for Financial Services, Digital Economy and Innovation Silvio Schembri and Parliamentary Secretary for European Funds and Social Dialogue Aaron Farrugia.

The lack of women participation in the IT sector is a problem experienced all across the European Union, and the whole world, nowadays. In 2017, the employment rate for men in this sector in the European Union was 76.9%, while for women it was 65.3%. Therefore, the target for 2020 in the EU is to reach 75% for both genders.

The initiative will be implemented in many countries, like Greece, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Romania and Spain with €2.7m as the total budget allocated for this purpose. Out of this fund, Malta can call for €346,672 between September 2018 and August 2021.

The project is hoped to develop digital competencies and employability of young women vulnerable of getting out of a job, as well as to provide innovative solutions to increase the numbers of young women in ICT careers and in the digital economy. Special focus will fall on unemployed young women, women returning to work after maternity leave and women coming from low income or disadvantaged families. The main tools used are awareness-raising, skills assessment, innovative partnerships with employers, development of a new online employability profiling tool and training in digital jobs, according to the DOI release.

“As a country, we have improved a lot within the digital space, now becoming a main point of reference, yet we are still lagging behind in women participation. If addressed now, the digital sector could be the first sector where we could see women on par with men”, said Mr Schembri.

“This is an exciting time for women. After registering a spike in the number of women elected to the European Parliament, I look forward to the next legislature to see the fruit of the positive measures being taken locally to increase the number of women in the Maltese Parliament”, said Mr Farrugia.

“It is encouraging to see the government fully committed to reducing the digital divide and organisations coming together today to support this collaborative framework. Thanks to this commitment we can ensure that women and young girls are truly allowed to decide their future and regain their destiny” said Dana Farrugia the CEO at Tech.MT, an organisation launched by the Malta Chamber of Commerce in cooperation with the government, aiming to help support further growth of the local technology sector.

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Parliamentary Secretary for Financial Services, Digital Economy and Innovation Silvio Schembri launched the initiative, which is done through a collaboration with Malta Business Network, with the involvement of stakeholders active in the industry.

Since the lack of female participation in the sector is a challenge across Europe, with this move, Malta is hoping to strengthen its position on a global scale further. Despite comprising 52% of Europe’s population, women only hold 15% of ICT-related jobs in the continent, which figure is even lower for Malta: 2.7%.

“The past few years have seen an unprecedented rise in digital and communications technologies, which, together with the digital economy, have dramatically changed every aspect of life as we know it,” Mr Schembri said. At the same time, the skills and competency levels of ICT professionals have undergone a substantial deficit, which issue the government hopes to remedy through higher female participation in this industry, the parliamentary secretary added.

Mr Schembri also noted that Malta was the first European Union member state who launched a National eSkills Strategy, aspiring to address the need for continuous professional development and upskilling specialisation of the workforce in the sector.

The parliamentary secretary also underscored the importance of making existing initiatives more accessible to young women. “We need to collectively strive to end gender stereotyping and cultural discouragement which negatively affects our young women and their opportunities in the digital labour market,” Mr Schembri concluded.

Efforts to include women to a higher ratio in the IT industry appear to come in time. On the one hand, women have traditionally been discouraged from choosing a career related to engineering or information and communications technology globally. On the other hand, the pay gap has been significant between men and women internationally, favouring men over women in the same positions; an issue that is recently being addressed on a broader scale by companies and legislators.

The post Maltese initiative aims to attract more women to IT jobs first appeared on The Malta Business Weekly.

Despite a growing percentage of women holding seats in the Maltese Parliament rising over the past years, female parliamentary representation still falls short of the EU28 average, the NSO says. “Women currently hold 14.5% of the seats in Parliament, half the EU28 average of 29 seats,” the NSO report says.

In 2017, women accounted for 21.9% of all local council representation. Out of a total of 69 mayors, only 13 were women. Deputy mayors totalled 68, of whom 12 were women, while of 319 councillors, only 75 were women, NSO statistics reveal.

Public sector-wise, women were mostly employed as service and sales workers, in 2017. Women in managerial positions accounted for 7.4% of the total female workforce, according to NSO figures. “Of the highly-educated female component of the workforce, only 13.4% held managerial roles, compared to 25.1% of their male counterparts,” the NSO says.

As at the end of December 2017, the female population in Malta and Gozo stood at 235,102 making up 49.4% of the total population, NSO figures show.

The full report including charts and visual representation of data is available for download at the website of NSO.

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