A job for the boys?

Nearly a year ago the Nationalist Party general council was discussing women's representation in the party structures. There was a much-heated debate to a proposal of ensuring that a percentage of sectional committee members are women. Some male councillors, myself included, argued that positive discrimination was an insult to women and that it's much better if women are elected on their own merit rather than just because they are women.

I now have a different view and believe that positive discrimination, even if it is a "necessary evil", is still required to enable women to have a greater role in politics and decision-making posts, and this so long as politics and public life remain unrepresentative of half of society.

Both in Parliament and in local councils, women are underrepresented. Out of 65 members of Parliament only six are women, although, on a positive note, one should add that on the government side the three female MPs all form part of the Cabinet, two as ministers and the other as parliamentary secretary.

We have had only one female President of the Republic, only one female Speaker of the House of Representatives, and no female ever contested the post of party leader. We have never had a woman as Prime Minister. In our first European Union parliamentary elections we only had two women contesting and none was successful.

Trade unions seem to be the worst case of female representation, with two of Malta's largest unions, the General Workers' Union and the Union Haddiema Maghqudin, having a very low percentage of women in top posts.

This situation can be seen in other EU countries such as Britain. A political correspondent in a British newspaper recently argued that Britain has tumbled out of the international top 50 countries for women's political representation with its proportion of female MPs ranking well below that of Mozambique, Iraq, Mexico, and Tunisia.

So much talk for talk of gender equality in modern democratic Europe! The correspondent points out that woman make up 19.8 per cent of the House of Commons while Rwanda leads the world with 48.8 per cent followed by Mozambique with 34.8 per cent.

There are many reasons why more women do not participate in politics. Meetings of local councils, for instance, are held in the evenings and this makes it difficult, if not impossible, for a women looking after young children to attend.

In a society were it is still expected that women take care of the house and the kids, it is extremely difficult for a woman to involve herself in politics both on a national or local level without the support of her family.

Recently, statistics have shown that the number of fathers taking parental leave in Malta is very low; this contrasts sharply with other European countries, especially Scandinavian counties such as Denmark.

We speak of a free society in which people have choice, however women seem to have little choice if any.

In my law course at the university women outnumber us, however when it comes to looking after their children and family, once and if they get married, there seems to be no choice.

Family-friendly policies are needed to provide adequate support for women to reconcile work and family life effectively. The present barriers faced by women to take an active role in decision-making are unacceptable and greater effort is needed to overcome this injustice.

Certainly, there needs to be a change in mentality and this can only be achieved by education and concrete policies. Denmark has one of the highest percentages of women elected to national Parliament within the EU and this is due to a proactive gender equality policy within all areas of government.

Quotas within political parties for female participation were also introduced; however it was decided in 1996 to end quotas once female participation had increased significantly.

During the PN general council, Lawrence Gonzi went to great lengths to explain the importance of the proposal, which eventually was carried through. He insisted that the party had to face realities, arguing that we cannot deceive ourselves into believing that everything is fine. He insisted that he wants to open the party to everyone. I disagreed with him then; today I believe he was right.