Equal partners in marriage : updating of the family law

Abstract

Family policies are profoundly rooted in the reality of the national circumstances. They necessarily take into account a whole range of factors - historical, geographical (population density), ideological, sociological, psychological and administrative - which vary from country to country. In the light of the changing roles of men and women and the consequent di vision of labour and sharing of responsibilities between the sexes, far reaching trends are discernible, even if they are out of step with one another in terms of their time scale and the extent to which they have taken hold in various European countries, including Malta.