Women in power

Women in national politics

Rank    Country            Elections           Seats                Women            % of women

1          Rwanda            2008                80                    45                    56.3

2          Andorra            2011                28                    15                    53.6

3          Seychelles        2011                31                    14                    45.2

4          Sweden            2010                349                  157                  45

5          South Africa      2009                400                  178                  44.5

6          Cuba               2008                586                  253                  43.2

7          Iceland   2009                63                    27                    42.9

8          Finland   2011                200                  85                    42.5

9          Norway            2009                169                   67                    39.6

10        Belgium           2010                150                  59                    39.3

10        Netherlands      2010                150                  59                    39.3

108      Malta               2008                  69                    6                      8.7

Source: Inter-Parliamentary Union

Rwanda has a female majority with 56.3%. The country set aside 24 of 80 seats in parliament, but in the 2008 elections, female candidates were also elected to seats where both men and women were free to compete.

Malta ranks 108th in the world for female participation in parliament, with six of its 69 members being female. This statistic accounts for just 8.7%, well below the world average of 19.4%.

Other countries across the world have introduced quotas that require a number of seats in parliament to be filled by women. However, talk of the possibility of Malta introducing a quota system has been met with some opposition with a number of people painting the possibility as discriminatory.

An ideal world has no need for quotas, where male and female candidates compete for parliamentary seats according to merit. However, such equal footing is just that – an ideal scenario. History has shown that quotas are a short-term measure that encourage female participation, and after time the quotas are no longer necessary to encourage female politicians.

Spokesperson for AD on Social Development and Health, Nighat Urpani said: “Quotas are a necessary evil, which encourage female participation in politics. Different countries have adopted different methods.

“Scandinavian countries like Denmark, Norway and Sweden, which rank highly on the Inter-Parliamentary Union list of female participation in world parliaments, manage to have a very high representation of women in politics by having adopted a method of introducing quotas through Political Parties.

“Other countries have introduced quotas, which are written into the Constitution or National Legislation. India, Argentina and Uganda adopted that method. Countries like Bangladesh, Eritrea and Tanzania also mandate some form of parliamentary representation for women.”

60% of Maltese graduates are female. Chairperson of the Malta Confederation of Women’s Organisations (MCWO), Renee Laiviera said that increasing female participation in politics makes better use of the countries’ resources.

“Malta is not making full use of women’s potential, despite the high outlay that taxpayers invest in women’s education and women’s high success rate at university.

“In other countries all over the world – including EU member States – progress was registered when positive discrimination including quotas was introduced together with the necessary support structures. After a few years, the playing field levels itself out and positive discrimination is a thing of the past. 

“International institutions, such as the UN and the EU have recommended that the Maltese government take special temporary measures to address the de facto inequalities in our society. This is very much in line the Constitution of Malta. It is about time that action is taken to address the democratic deficit and ensure that the whole population is taking part in the decision-making process.”

Why does Malta fare so badly in gender equality?

Helena Dalli, shadow minister for public service, government investments and gender equality attributes the low statistic of female participation to the reluctance of women to take on an active role in politics for a number of reasons.

“Proportionately, we elect as many women as men, but since there have always been many more male candidates than female, we end up with a small number of women in parliament.  It is understandable that it is harder to convince a woman than it is to convince a man to contest in a general election.”

The reason for this lack of female participation, she claims, is the result of seriously lacking family support structures and domestic and child-rearing responsibilities falling largely on the woman, and while this also affects women in high level management jobs – only 3% of board directors in Malta are female – a certain flexibility allows for more women to enter the business world than the political one.

“Politics is a 24-hour commitment. You are at the services of your constituents around the clock, so this discourages women more than it does men, since for many families, most of the domestic and child-rearing responsibilities are the woman’s domain only. In the business world women can be their own bosses, allowing for flexibility that can accommodate familial responsibility, therefore we are slowly seeing more women venturing into this area.”

What needs to be done to increase female participation?

To see a realistic increase in female participation in decision-making, Laiviera said a number of issues need to be addressed. 

“Setting up of supportive structures for working parents is of primary concern. Accessible and affordable childcare of quality is still lacking. Flexibility at work is a dream still to come true. The same goes for job sharing. Teleworking is only available to the lucky few. After school programmes are still sparse and still lack effective management for parents to find a work/life balance. 

“Management still lacks the necessary training to implement family-friendly measures even in the public sector where these have been available for a number of years. The private sector, which employs two out of three working women, has still a long way to go to develop family-friendly measures.”

Changing culture is also of importance to spread familial responsibility to both parents allowing for both mother and father to enjoy careers and family responsibilities.  

Laiviera said “the role of the father should be given due attention. The EU proposal for the introduction of two weeks of paternity leave was aimed at giving fathers a clear message about their important role within the family and their relationship with their children. Malta is still opposing such an initiative. We are ready to fork out money to address family problems but not to forestall them and offer better quality of life to men, women and children.

“Stereotyping of gender roles is still culturally ingrained in our society. Much work needs to be done to effectively address this state of affairs from day one of a child’s life to the years spent at school and later on in life.” 

Both Dalli and Urpani echo the same views of increasing family support and changing ingrained stereotyping of roles.

“AD support is strongly in favour of policies which allow both women and men to make their choices regarding how they would like to balance their work/personal responsibilities. We support the idea of the universal carer where both men and women find the time to enjoy their family and share responsibilities in the public and private spheres, related to both paid and unpaid work” Urpani said.