Many women still do not feel empowered enough to be able to say no to unacceptable behaviour that amounts to sexual harassment, the executive director of the National Commission for the Promotion of Equality, Sina Bugeja said yesterday.

In fact, quite a number of those who phone the commission for advice do not wish to take steps against the person harassing them, Ms Bugeja said.

Half the complaints received by the commission are related to sexual harassment. She pointed out that most of the time the perpetrators of sexual harassment are not the complainant's superiors but rather her colleagues.

Speaking during a breakfast meeting organised by Labour leadership contender Marie Louise Coleiro Preca, Ms Bugeja asked what the 110,000-odd women of working age who were not active were doing. Some, she said, were in the black economy without realising that pocketing all their money now without paying NI could have serious repercussions in the future.

She reminded members of the Għaqda Nisa Laburisti that women who do not pay NI are failing to invest in their pension.

Moreover, women working illegally do not enjoy the protection of health and safety regulations and she asked who would be liable if a woman is injured while at work.

Ms Coleiro Preca said the Labour Party had always been a big promoter of women and back in 1949 had striven to give females the right to vote. Referring to Agatha Barbara, she said it was the MLP which had the first female minister who later became President.

"I would have liked to see more women in politics, both within the Labour Party and other parties," she said, adding that women were not only needed at the grass roots of the party, but also within the party's decision-making positions.

Prejudice against women still exists, she said, lamenting her own experience of this in the race for the leadership post.

Ms Coleiro Preca pledged that, if elected party leader this week, she would work closely with the Għaqda Nisa Laburisti to find ways in which to push forward women's issues.