Today, the worldis observing the100th International Women’s Day. Activities around the world are organised to celebrate the economic, social and political achievements of women.

In Malta, women have reasons to celebrate their achievements in a number of fields. Successive governments contributed towards the emancipation of women. In 2003, the Maltese Parliament enacted a law the purpose of which was to promote gender equality in Malta. The law sought to rectify all forms of discrimination against women. In accordance with this law, a National Commission for the Promotion of Equality for men and women was appointed.

Despite this, eight years later, women are still lagging behind men, certainly in terms of their representation in Parliament. Women are under-represented in Parliaments across the world and Malta ranks as one of the worst performers. EU figures (see figure 1) show Malta ranks the lowest among the 27 members of the EU on the scale of women representation in Parliament.

In 1995, when only one woman was elected in Parliament, John C. Lane found that the paucity of Maltese women could not be attributed to voters’ prejudice at the polls.

In my research of the last four general elections since Prof. Lane’s study, I found the same evidence. So why are women failing to get elected in sufficient numbers? Is our electoral system to blame?

Studies have not attributed the low representation of women to the electoral system but sought to find explanations in other factors. Although not the most ideal for women’s representation, our electoral system does not put female candidates at a disadvantage. If the electoral system is not to blame then why are women as a group failing to fill more seats in Parliament?

Culture has been mentioned as the invisible hurdle. The traditional role assigned to women makes it difficult for them to enter public office because the role of mother and homemaker is mistakenly perceived not to converge well with being a politician.

That is perhaps why, for many years, valid women did not enter the political realm.

Once nominated, women fare as well as men. However, since women became eligible to contest elections in 1947, only 81 actually ran. Election results suggest there is a relationship between the number of women candidates and seats won. When the number of nominated women increased, so did their success as a group (see figures 2). So the problem appears to be in the proportion of female candidacies. Parties seem to be failing to attract an adequate number of female candidates. Furthermore, only a few women contest more than one election and fewer are those who contest more than two. As a result, women are not allowing time to establish themselves in a district.

Are Maltese women as good as men in politics?

Maltese women who in the past had the courage to take the plunge into politics proved they are as good as men. When Marie Louise Coleiro Preca was elected secretary general of the Labour Party she performed as well as her predecessors and successors and so did the women who held ministerial and parliamentary secretaries’ posts. They all were and are as capable as men.

At the polls, the present six women did very well. Dolores Cristina and Helena Dalli were successful in two districts, Giovanna Debono and Ms Coleiro Preca exceeded the quota on the first count while Justyne Caruana and Marlene Pullicino won their seats comfortably, notwithstanding the tough competition from male candidates in their district.

What can be done to attract more women to politics?

The responsibility lies with the parties. The two main parties have reserved seats quotas for women in their respective executive committees. Still, no party has yet proposed a similar quota for women in Parliament. Constitutional and legal gender quotas have in recent years been adopted in about 40 countries. The concept of quotas has, however, provoked considerable controversy in many countries as they have been seen as bypassing the competitive process and the merit principle and, therefore, can become a form of discrimination against men.

There are a million and one arguments for and against their adoption and I am not going to add another one today. There is, however, another way to tackle the issue. If parties’ elites cannot bind themselves on providing more room for women in Parliament, they should at least pledge to have more women on their list on the ballot paper in the next general election.

In other words, they ought to commit themselves to have a bigger proportion of female candidates. In more than 50 countries, although under no legal obligation, political parties have adopted their own gender quotas and Maltese parties should do the same. Valid women, on the other hand, have to grasp the opportunity whenever parties approach them to contest elections.

Our Parliament would perform better with more women MPs. Furthermore, having more women in Parliament will possibly see a spillover of more women reaching positions of responsibility in other spheres of society.