Historic landmark

There should be no doubt the gender bill approved in Parliament with cross-party support was a historic landmark and, as the Prime Minister said immediately after, a step forward to achieve what for many was, sadly, a pipedream.

Not because they were not for equality inside our highest institution, but for despairing of voter hesitation every time we go to the hustings and ending up with a puerile representation of elected women candidates.

The Labour Government, however, has had to have the courage of its conviction, certainly not for the first time in Malta’s history. Introducing a gender-corrective structure that would automatically kick in if the lesser represented gender gains under 40% of the total seats in an election was a challenge it set itself to, for as we all know, there were sceptics among followers within both major parties. The main “anti” argument was that seats needed to be earned and not given out as freebies.

Equality rights could hardly wait any longer. The gush of change that has occurred under Labour since 2013 has seen rights and responsibilities being granted at an unprecedented rate. Many of them obviously benefited women from all sectors – mothers and single mothers, carers, disabled, LGBTIQ – as well as within the national network of authorities, committees and boards, but the one big void that still exists at the House of Representatives needed to be addressed if we were to be credible not with ourselves in Malta and Gozo, but also in the eyes of the rest of the world.

Bear in mind the fact that just 13% of our MPs are female in this legislature. The new setup means that up to 12 seats, split evenly between the two parties, would be added for women or gender-neutral people who fail to get elected in the first round, and so ensure a minimum 40% representation of the underrepresented gender.

In a nutshell, it means that equality will be established in a way that will later hopefully be reflected in the bodywork of a future new-look Parliament in the span of its period of existence. I am convinced that the new female voices, added courtesy of this new formula, would gradually win the attention of constituents everywhere, leading to a more natural and fairer representation of women through the ballot. As happened elsewhere in the world, particularly in countries like Sweden and Finland, where equality was achieved as part of gradual and effective voter self-persuasion, there is every possibility the desired balance will become standard regime in future elections, with the gender quota mechanism used only for when it’s needed.

In 2019, the European Institute for Gender Equality assessed the gender-sensitivity of the national parliaments of all 27 EU member states, and the European Parliament. Malta’s meagre 29.8% score was an eye-opener, not that we all were unaware that as a nation we needed to take the cue from such worrying statistics and realities and do something about them. We did, and it is to the merit of both sides of the House of Representatives that we can look forward to a gender-sensitive Parliament that displays an equal share of representation.

As legislators we have achieved a historic landmark, but of course the proof of the pudding will be in the eating, when the time comes to test this law and, more importantly, to savour its results within the psyche of Maltese and Gozitan voters of whichever political pursuasion. I am honoured to have been part of this reform. Let the momentum begin.