Malta’s leading gender equality organisations and experts are calling on Parliament to introduce gender quotas to bring more women into politics and business.

The calls were made independently and came in response to questions The Times asked concerning gender quotas, hinted at by Nationalist Party in its latest policy document.

The document, titled Our Roots, spells out the PN’s political vision. Among other things, it suggests “positive measures” in the public and economic spheres to bring about greater gender equality.

The PN has not been one to embrace the concept of quotas and in 2004, Lawrence Gonzi, party leader and Prime Minister, had said: “I do not believe in quotas and I consider them to be a certificate of failure. I fear that if we opt to introduce quotas we would be choosing the easy way out... We have to emphasise women’s abilities first, before reserving posts for them.”

Although the PN declined to directly mention the word “quotas” in its document, when asked to clarify its call for positive measures, it reiterated its willingness to “take new steps, including through positive action, for more equality between women and men”.

Positive action refers to measures which go beyond equal treatment of genders, recognising the structural factors leading to existing inequalities. Gender quotas are a form of such positive action, and have grown increasingly popular over the past couple of decades. Today, some form of electoral gender quota is used in more than half the world.

“Political parties should commit themselves to further develop the use of quotas,” the Malta Confederation of Women’s Organisations said, remarking that statistics showed how “Maltese women excel by their low participation”.

The confederation called on political parties to “study local scenarios, identify priorities and introduce quotas”, adding that in January 2010, EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding had warned publicly listed companies to voluntarily increase women’s presence on corporate boards by 2012 or “count on my regulatory creativity”.

The president of the Foundation for Women Entrepreneurs, Angele Giuliano, agreed, saying quotas were a “lesser evil” necessitated by the lack of Maltese women present within boardrooms.

“I sincerely hope that in time...we would be able to get rid of quotas. Until we get there, however, we’ll have to keep pushing,” Ms Giuliano said. Labour studies lecturer Anna Borg also favoured quotas. “Those arguing against quotas are not aware of the invisible hurdles women face. Men’s structural head-start dates back thousands of years – positive action such as quotas simply seeks to address the imbalance,” she said.

The National Commission for the Promotion of Equality said it was in favour of quotas but warned these would not be the panacea to all gender discrimination issues. Any quotas would need to be bolstered with action challenging gender stereotypes and discriminatory attitudes, they said.

Both the Labour Party and Alternattiva Demokratika spoke along similar lines.

Labour equality spokesman Helena Dalli described quotas as a “necessary evil” which had been proven to work. “The countries which have made the greatest progress in ensuring gender equality are those which have introduced some form of quotas”.

Ms Dalli feels that despite the rhetoric, there is a lack of political and social will to increase equality within decision-making bodies. “If the government really wanted to encourage equality, it could simply nominate an equal number of women and men to sit on its boards,” she said.

“Given that we continue to live in a world where women are discriminated against, quotas in both politics and economics would be welcomed,” AD social policy spokesman Angele Deguara said.

She insisted any quotas had to be buttressed by a genuine desire to foster equality: “Any women who benefit must be as well-qualified as their male counterparts. Quotas can’t be an exercise in tokenism, with women brought in just to make up the numbers.”

In 2010 the UN Committee overseeing the international convention for the elimination of discrimination against women, said it was concerned by the government’s “insufficient understanding of the need for the adoption of temporary special measures” to accelerate the advancement of women. Although all three local political parties already use gender quotas to varying degrees within their internal structures, these quotas are voluntary and debate concerning their introduction for high office is still in its infancy.

The PN’s suggestion of “positive measures” will now be discussed by the relevant Academy for the Development of a Democratic Environment working group.

Gender quotas in practice

Spain: At least 40 per cent of a party’s electoral candidate list must come from either gender.

Rwanda: At least 24 of its 80 parliamentary members must be women. Rwanda is the only country in the world where the majority of Parliament is female.

Norway: Has gender quotas in multiple sectors. At least 40 per cent of all board directors in publicly listed companies must be female.

Belgium: There must be an equal number of female and male electoral candidates. The first two candidates on a party list cannot be of the same gender.

Paying lip service to gender equality?

In Malta almost 60 per cent of graduates are female BUT:
• Only 40 per cent of women are active in the workforce.
• Only six out of 69 MPs are women.
• Only three per cent of board of directors are women.
• An NCPE study found that women earned 23.25 per cent less than men.