The initiative LEAD launched by Partit Laburista brought the issue of gender inequality to the forefront of its political agenda. LEAD represents the first step towards addressing this issue. It is an initiative geared at providing women the opportunity to be involved in the political sphere and get hands on political experience. It gave most women like me that extra incentive to have the courage to make that all-important first step.
The experience gained in these past 5 months has been truly invaluable, both from a personal perspective and from a socio-cultural one. The sessions are held on a monthly basis and provide both theoretical and practical insight on Maltese politics, Maltese Parliament and also European Parliament. One of the main aims of this program is to encourage women to contest the upcoming local council and European parliament elections.
As a LEAD participant, with no prior experience in the political arena, this program is giving me the opportunity to learn the basic yet fundamental factors that a politically active person is required to embrace while at the same time continue to strengthen my political values and beliefs.
If one compares the previous legislature to the current one, female representation only increased by 2 percentage points, reaching a rate of 15 per cent, with the remaining 85 per cent being men representatives. These statistics show the lopsided state of our Parliament in terms of gender. Thus, it is clear that more measures are required in order to incentivise women to get more actively involved in politics.
Whether it is cultural or religious influence that is causing women’s lack of participation in politics, the present administration is promoting measures to address this gender inequality. Two main reasons that were affecting women when it comes to deciding whether or not to pursue a political career revolved around the lack of state-financed childcare services and the unsocial hours of parliamentary sittings and other political gatherings. To great satisfaction, the current government addressed both issues.
Nevertheless, female political representation still lags behind. Society still expects women to bear most household responsibilities related to primary care, housework, and the provision of care for the elderly. These social expectations pose a barrier for many women to pursue a political career.
The rhetorical question as to why we need to address this gender inequality in politics and improve women’s representation is often answered by focusing on equality and rights; to have more equitable decision-making institutions. Nonetheless, other reasons may be more important than just addressing inequality. Men and women have different judgments and use emotional intelligence differently to tackle policy problems. This diversity results in an optimal outcome for society in general.
There are various ways of how to overcome this issue. The initiative LEAD is a very effective start. However, although training and mentoring is expected to generate positive results, it will not automatically transform into electability. Given that politics in Malta is still very closely tied to community networks, media exposure is also essential. Ensuring that women actively participate in debates and discussions relating to political issues are essential to representing women as worthy representatives.
Furthermore, other measures are being formulated such as gender quotas, which is key to guaranteeing a higher number of women representatives. However, I firmly believe that such measure should only be a short-term solution and should immediately be removed once a target of women participation is attained. It is essential however, that other measures be implemented alongside the measure of quotas so as to ensure real, successful change.
As Her Excellency, Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca once said: “Without equality between men and women, our democracy will lack strength”.