The Democratic Party wants more women MPs but believes this can be achieved without gender quotas, proposing instead measures to encourage female participation.

The State financing of political parties, having full-time MPs supported by research assistants and encouraging political parties to field gender-balanced lists for the election are some of the proposals made by the PD.

The party, led by Marlene Farrugia, is the first since Mabel Strickland’s Progressive Constitutional Party, which disbanded after the 1971 election, to be led by a woman. In the last election, four of the 11 candidates fielded by the PD – 36 per cent – were women.

The argument for gender quotas, to ensure more women make it to Parliament, was put on the national agenda by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat.

In the last election, 10 women were elected to Parliament, occupying 15 per cent of the seats.

But while affirming that it “strongly” favours the increased participation of women in the public sphere, the PD said it preferred positive measures to ensure equal participation.

“Positive affirmation will in-crease equal participation without the need to introduce quotas and leave it up to the electorate to choose their representatives freely but at the same time encourage participation,” the PD said in a statement yesterday.

It suggested changes to Parliament’s family-unfriendly set-up by proposing full-time MPs with fixed parliamentary hours and flexible office hours and a salary that “should reflect the level of commitment and the responsibility demanded by the position”.

The PD has proposed a childcare centre in Parliament for MPs with young children.

However, some of the measures went beyond the narrow confines of parliamentary representation and politics, targeting all women. The PD argued in favour of equal parental paid leave for public and private companies.

“It should be left up to the parents alone to decide the amount of time taken off from work after a baby is born,” the PD said.

“The parents should have an amount of time which is shared between both as they deem fit.”

The PD also proposed extending working times for childcare centres to help families where parents are working evenings to make ends meet.

All politically appointed people should be gender balanced on government boards, the statement added.

“It is only through the introduction of measures which make it easier for people to equally participate in our public sphere that we will achieve gender balance in our country,” the PD said, adding its two MPs – Marlene Farrugia and Godfrey Farrugia – were ready to listen and discuss these measures and put them forward for implementation.

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