How Minority Groups in Malta are Kept Oppressed and Potential Solutions through Education

Abstract

Women have had an extremely difficult time gaining equality in many scenarios in Malta, especially those in STEM fields. Likewise, various minorities have also struggled to gain equal rights and opporunities. Physical abuse or simple lack of education are a couple of the many factors that keep these minority groups where they are in the social ladder. In addition to exploring further causes to how and why these groups are kept as lower class citizens than the working white male, I hope to uncover potential progress in more contemporary scenarios, as well as possible solutions. While I am a fan of further and complete education to solve problems including these, other methods are brought up and discussed through various sources, so I anticipate a wide variety of options.

Annotated Bibliography

Attard, G. (2010, June 16). Maternity, paternity leave – the other side of the coin. Retrieved February 6, 2011, from National Council of Women of Malta: http://www.ncwmalta.com/maternitypaternityleave

This article, written by president of the National Council of Women of Malta, stresses the importance of equality for women with dependent children in the workplace. Even recently, there is an overwhelming gap between employment rates of men compared to that of women (over 25%). In the article, Attard stresses the importance of keeping women in the labor market: mainly due to the fact that when women are forced to leave jobs due to pregnancy, they often do no return. This article in particular will be useful in my research because it is a prime example of how women are far from equal to men (in the workplace in particular). It also provides slight suggestions to go about possibly remedying this problem in the Maltese society. Unfortunately, it is only one of the many problem areas that women face, but, according to Attard, is one on the forefront of being remedied. I believe that the solution will be a stepping stone to fixing various other problems as well, so I understand Attard's focus and commitment.

Attard, G. (2008, July 25). Sending a strong message against violence – More action for less violence. Retrieved February 6, 2011, from National Council of Women of Malta: http://www.ncwmalta.com/councilviews?id=6

Another large problem women face is one of domestic violence. Statistics show that "one in three women will be victims of violence during their lifetime" and that "more women die from the consequences of violence than from cancer." This is a horrible problem that women face in not just Malta but Europe as a whole. It is also a problem that creates fundamental problems of equality between women and men: one that cannot be overcome without significant outside influence. It is a problem that perpetuates the dominant image of the male. This is an extremely important point in my research and gives one fundamental cause (or continuation) of this drastic inequality. I think the method of solving this problem provided by Attard is an important: one that is the responsibility of all society to combat, which I believe will play a large role in my research.

Caruana-Dingli, M. (2005). Integrating ICT and multicultural aspects within a classroom: the SAIL project. Intercultural Education , 16 (4), 395-404.

This article focuses on using Information and Communication Technology in the classroom to more effectively teach, but more importantly, stress the involvement and education of minority groups. There is an important overlap here between minority groups and technology, although maybe not the traditional one (in the workforce). This article brings education into the picture, which I would also like to focus on somewhat for my research project. Fundamentally, I believe with better, or maybe more appropriate, education, many problems that exist can begin to be dissolved. Notably, when the education of minority groups is becoming more effective, which is where the SAIL (Specialized Animated Interactive Learning) program becomes important.

Fenech, D. (1999). Malta. European Journal of Political Research , 457-463.

Fenech, D. (2000). Malta. European Journal of Political Research , 458-461.

Fenech, D. (2001). Malta. European Journal of Political Research , 361-364.

Fenech, D. (2002). Malta. European Journal of Political Research , 1033-1036.

Fenech, D. (2003). Malta. European Journal of Political Research , 1026-1028.

Fenech, D. (2004). Malta. European Journal of Political Research , 1078-1083.

Fenech, D. (2005). Malta. European Journal of Political Research , 1119-1123.

Fenech, D. (2006). Malta. European Journal of Political Research , 1198-1200.

Fenech, D. (2007). Malta. European Journal of Political Research , 1038-1040.

Fenech, D. (2008). Malta. European Journal of Political Research , 1071-1073.

Fenech, D. (2009). Malta. European Journal of Political Research , 1047-1051.

Fenech, D. (2010). Malta. European Journal of Political Research , 1089-1094.

The above twelve articles are going to used essentially as a single reference. They are mostly short articles of statistics about demographics within Malta over various years. These statistics include significant amounts of data about elections and political proceedings throughout their respective years. What I found interesting, and hope to use to my advantage, are the statistics about the political offices held during each year. Also provided (and arguably the most important part to me and my research project), is the gender of the office holder. I think it will be interesting and insightful to compare all of the years provided to one another to see if female prevalence in political offices increases at all over the 12 years I have. Also noted in the last 6, are prevalent issues in national policies throughout the year: these may touch on issues both about women and people of color, which would aid towards my project.

Knepper, P. (2009). The 'White Slave Trade and the Music Hall Affair in 1930 Malta. Journal of Contemporary History , 44 (2), 205-220.

This article focuses on the 1930s in Malta which aroused allegations of prostitution of English women who were present due to jobs at the Music Hall. These happened to be false, but spawned an investigation of these types of practices which aimed at foreigners. This article is especially interesting because the military forces from Britain that came in to deal with the problem shifted focus to the “immoral character of women” rather than the problem at hand. This is a point which has many implications and will hopefully contribute to my research project with some useful points. This Music Hall Affair did not end up directly affecting human rights for immigrants coming to Malta, but showed the fears of foreigners in the face of a “limited world view” as shown by those in the military.

Research Progress Report #1 - Joseph White

I will be researching the areas of gender and race differences in Malta. This will focus on positions of these demographics in both professional and households fields as well as in, specifically, science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. One note: in the household environment, I have found that domestic violence is exceedingly prevalent. It seems that this fact may give a sign as to where the rest of these topics currently lie. These topics will also include historical as well as contemporary patterns of these statuses.

I am currently focused on various papers which include topics such as slavery (historical) and SAIL, a multicultural engineering project initiative (contemporary) to name just a couple. Other papers I have found do not focus directly on these topics, but I hope to find useful information within them such as specific breakdowns by year of things including population, or gender and age of political offices. This data is given for many consecutive years; therefore, I hope to see some kind of pattern or maybe see a drastic change in women’s or other civil rights as time progresses, possibly even correlating with times of other civil rights movements around the world. Interestingly, Malta did not grant women suffrage until the late 1940’s (compare this to the 1921 granting of women’s suffrage in the US). Women also did not have equal right in family law until the 1990s. It will be interesting to see how these comparatively late movements for women play into their current place in the professional fields. In regards to this, I have found that at the very least, women are extremely under-represented in management positions.

It is a bit difficult to find data due to a small amount of research done on these topics in Malta. Another challenge is looking specifically for STEM areas of interest when they concern women or people of color. This is due to the fact that most papers or sources of information simply talk about the field and the research done, rather than who is performing the research: making it difficult to identify how significant a role women and people of color played in these fields.

Concepts and themes I am focusing on include whether or not there is a significant segregation in the workforce based upon gender or ethnicity (especially in STEM fields). The approach I have found (and believe will be) most successful is not to look for articles relating to STEM and see if they touch on the subjects I am focused on: this is unrealistic. But rather look for articles focusing on women and people of color in Malta, and STEM fields will be a bonus.

I have also found a prevalence of contemporary articles as opposed to historical articles. This, I believe is for 2 reasons. One, research from Malta is somewhat rare and most research has occurred in the recent past. Second, there is more of a focus now than ever on STEM fields which promotes further publications of such topics.

I hope to narrow down my searching and specify what I should be concentrating on based on knowledge I gain from some of the articles I have. A lot of the (somewhat) historical data has given me a better idea of what to look for in regards to these topics.