Malta Loses Popularity With Female Expat Professionals

Female expats looking to further their careers are now giving Malta a miss.

As a result of a recent study shows, it seems women looking to advance their careers may well be crossing Malta off their preference list, causing the country to drop from third place to ninth in the survey’s listings. The study results are released annually on International Women’s Day, giving expat professional women looking to move countries as well as jobs a chance to choose the best location for their talents. In the 2017 survey released in 2018, Malta was placed third best for female businesswomen, but last year’s survey saw the island drop to ninth position.

Although the destination ranked highly with both sexes for its work/life balance, perhaps this was because some 25 per cent of respondents only work part-time and the working week for full-time expat professionals is 44.3 hours. As regards job security, two-thirds of women professionals claimed they were sure their jobs were safe, around the same numbers as those provided by male expatriates. Career opportunities for both groups seemed satisfactory, but women felt less confident their talents would be fully recognised, thus leading to the island’s drop in popularity over the 2017 survey results.

However, another survey released last month showed a very poor result for Malta in the personal safety criterion, an important issue for female expats considering taking a job on the island. The placing in this sector was 38th out of the 68 countries surveyed, giving female professionals a cause for concern. In other areas including quality of life, the island also failed to come up to previous years’ results, including in the important ‘ease of settling in’ sector where it fell 14 places. It’s rare for two similar surveys to come up with the same results, but the discrepancy between the two in Malta’s case is perhaps too large to ignore for women contemplating taking a job with a Maltese or international company.