Good quality sociological studies on contemporary issues in Maltese
society are not easy to come across. Professor Abela’s most recent work
on values is one such book. It is a valuable text to students and lecturers
in the social sciences, and a practical tool to researchers and policy
makers.
Values of Women and Men in the Maltese Islands
is written with policy makers in mind. One of the objectives of the book
is to identify the values of women and men in the Maltese Islands in a
comparative European perspective. Abela demonstrates how people in the
Maltese Islands share basic value orientations with other European countries
but have different value priorities on matters of religion, politics, work
and the family. Differences over values can also be observed for distinct
groups of women and men, with diverse social origin, regional belonging,
age group, level of education and marital status.
The book reports Abela’s analysis of data from four
waves of the European Values Study, which were administered over the past
fifteen years in Malta. It follows standard research methodology as in
other participant European countries. In each country, data was collected
through personal interviews to a randomly selected representative sample
of at least one thousand people.
Abela compares and contrast results from this international
survey, making use of cross tabulations, figures, statistical procedures
and interpretation of findings. The book maps out a complicated and evolving
picture of Maltese society, tracing shifting values over time.
The author gives evidence of social change by comparing
findings from the most recent survey with results from his previous studies.
Thus researchers and policy-makers are able to follow the trends and develop
new programmes for the well being of society.
The book comes up with some interesting findings.
The Maltese still value marriage and the family. Their high regard
of this institution, however, means that when their expectations are not
fulfilled, they are not as reluctant to resort to separation and annulment.
Violence and unfaithfulness are the two main factors leading to marital
break-up. Abela observes how generally, Maltese men have retained
a traditional view of the role of women in society. Younger generations
and women with a higher standard of education, however, do not adhere to
this view. In fact, the latter believe that both women and men should
have equal opportunity to participate in the labour market, and equally
to share financial and child-rearing duties. The author observes,
however, that relative to their European counterparts, the Maltese have
a traditional outlook on family issues.
With regards to the participation of women and men
in the labour market, Abela notes a more pronounced gender gap in Southern
European countries than in Eastern and Western Europe. In Southern
European countries, employed women are more likely to occupy unskilled
jobs and middle-level non-manual jobs. Abela observes how women and
men demand different things from their job. On the one hand, men seek good
pay, more initiative and responsibility, achievement and chances for promotion.
Women, on the other hand, demand job flexibility, generous hours, not much
pressure, meeting people and feeling useful to society. Abela, however,
remarks that attitudes to work depend on age, educational level and marital
status. In fact, older and lower educated individuals in Europe and
Malta adhere to a traditional work ethic, that is they regard work as a
social duty, requiring dedication, and an activity which is a dignified
way to earn a living. Higher educated Maltese respondents tend to
disapprove of gender and racial discrimination, although they favour differential
wages based on performance. On the whole, however, the Maltese are
not much in favour of equality in job opportunities for women and foreign
workers in the labour market.
Abela addressed leisure activities and voluntary
work in the chapter on women and men at work. It is interesting to note
how women and other minority groups like pensioners, part-time workers
and the unemployed, are more likely to spend their free time with church
members. Maltese men and separated people prefer to spend their free time
with their friends, in clubs or with work colleagues. With regards
to participation in social organizations, Maltese men are more likely to
be members of sports clubs, trade unions, professional associations and
political parties. Women, on the other hand, when they find the time,
take part in religious associations, or groups concerned with welfare,
health, the Third World and Women’s Rights. On the whole, single
never married respondents with a higher level of education report the highest
participation rate in these organizations.
Abela observes how religiosity varies by gender,
occupation, place of residence, standard of education and age. Religion,
for some Maltese women, is the only opportunity to widen their horizon.
Relative to other Europeans, the Maltese have the highest levels of religious
affiliation. The author observes, however, that the Maltese are less
likely to identify themselves as religious than their European counterparts,
some of whom profess to be religious irrespective of their participation
in religious services. Abela observes the predominance of cultural
religion in Malta. Most Maltese are born into a religion where attendance
at religious services is part of their cultural background. Still, relative
to other European countries, there is a low level of secularisation and
gender differences in religiosity do not seem to be very extensive in the
Maltese Islands.
Abela’s analysis of politics is not limited to participation within
political structures. He also investigates atttitudes towards other people
of a different culture or religion and towards local residents with a diversity
of social problems. He observes that the Maltese are more tolerant
of individuals with homosexual tendencies, AIDS victims and unmarried mothers,
while they tend to be more xenophobic than their European counterparts.
On the whole, Abela notes that the Maltese are less accepting of difference
than other European nations. It would be interesting to investigate
the underlying implication of these attitudes.
In another section, the author identifies the social
origins of Eurosceptics and Europhiles. Politicians will do well
to note that those in favour of Malta’ accession into the European Union
tend to be young, are from upper income groups, have a professional or
a managerial job, have a higher standard of education and are residents
of the North and Outer Harbour regions. Eurosceptics, on the
other hand, tend to be middle-aged, married, widowed, from lower income
groups, are more likely to be dependent on welfare and have a lower level
of education.
It is interesting to note that Maltese women seem to be less interested
in politics, than men in general. Maltese women are in favour of
collectivist social policies and state responsibility of social welfare.
This is not surprising since women are more likely to be dependent on the
beneficence of the state, especially where non-contributory benefits are
involved.
Abela argues that the results elicited from this survey would be of
interest to policy makers. Although the author observes that values
professed by the respondents are related to behaviour, it would be useful
to pursue the policy implication of these findings. Sociologists
observe that it is not always the case that the values espoused by respondents
inscribe people’s actions. There is often a gap between what individuals
say they believe in and their everyday behaviour. The greatest significance
of this study is the author’s delineation of how and why Maltese perceptions
have changed over time. As with any other research projects, further
studies need to be conducted – by ethnographic or other methods - to find
out the values individuals draw upon in their day-to-day life, and the
reasons to justify this action.
As the author observes in his final chapter, this
study needs to be complemented by other research with a direct focus on
institutions that offer services to women and men in society. To
date, there has not been that many instances of published research on the
delivery models of services. Future research projects would include
research on the services offered by state and non-governmental agencies
to find out which services are being offered, how these agencies are being
used by different groups in society, especially by those in need.
In this study under review, reference has been made to some of these institutions.
It is now time to find out which services are being delivered by these
institutions, who benefits from these services, how the state institutions
are managed, and their impact on specific groups.
Dr JosAnn Cutajar
The Sunday Times March 18, 2001. p.32.