Of the 39 candidates angling for a seat at the European Parliament in next month’s election, fewer than a quarter will be women, just as has been the case in every EP election held in Malta to date.

Only nine women will be standing for election, despite initiatives to bolster women’s political participation, including the gender quota mechanism put in place for 2022’s general elections.

June’s MEP elections will see a record 13 independent candidates putting their name forward, all of them men.

Meanwhile the Labour Party, which currently holds four of Malta’s six EP seats, is only fielding two women among its nine candidates. Back in 2019, the party had five women on the ballot, with two of them, Miriam Dalli and Josianne Cutajar, eventually being elected.

The PN, which had only fielded two women in 2019, fares better this year, with half of its eight candidates being women, including incumbent Roberta Metsola.

ADPD’s candidate list is equally balanced, with two women (party leader Sandra Gauci and Rachelle Deguara) on the four-strong list. Another of the party’s candidates, Mina Jack Tolu, identifies as a non-binary trans person.

The only other woman on the ballot sheet will be ABBA’s Antonia Gauci, one of the party’s two candidates.

Things are scarcely better in the local council elections, with only some 160 women among the over 700 candidates.

Women face ‘unequal access to resources’

Experts who spoke to Times of Malta say that while the issue is too complex to point to a single factor, the low number of female candidates suggests that Malta is still struggling to shake off gender stereotypes and expectations that have been ingrained for generations.

Many argue that the problem is twofold – women are reluctant to dip their toes into the political sphere in the first place and, when they do, they find it exceedingly difficult to get their campaigns off the ground.

Nikita Zammit Alamango, who heads Nisa Laburisti, PL’s women’s movement, argues that women face “subconscious biases and overt discrimination in all political environments, from assumptions about their capabilities to unequal access to resources and opportunities”.

Marie Claire Zammit, chair of the PN’s women’s section MNPN, broadly agrees, saying that caregiving and family responsibilities make it difficult for women to plunge into civic and political life.

This is especially true of poorly paid local council posts, she says, where the sums simply don’t add up. Being a local councillor requires a “high level of commitment and a high level of expectation from residents”, far beyond a councillor’s meagre honoraria.

Things are a little better when it comes to MEP elections, Zammit says, probably because the role “involves better pay, a whole package to employ assistants and better conditions for working mothers”.

But, she wonders, would anybody, either male or female, want to enter Malta’s current political environment, “obscured by constant scandals and corruption”?

Zammit Alamango believes that even when women do decide to step into the political sphere, they face an uphill struggle.

“Women often encounter barriers in accessing the resources necessary to launch successful political campaigns, including financial support.”

Visibility in the media is also often harder to come by for women compared to men,

Zammit Alamango says, making it harder for women to engage with voters.

Malta’s ‘male political environment’

Ultimately, Equality Commission chair Renee Laiviera says, Malta has a “predominantly male political environment”, with male incumbency just one of the many factors driving women’s underrepresentation.

Lawyer and former MEP Therese Comodini Cachia agrees, suggesting that Malta’s politics is still steeped in a macho ethos. If elected, she says, women face the additional challenge of steering clear of “the same male style of politics as their male counterparts”.

The low number of female candidates “says a lot about the state of gender equality in Malta”, Comodini Cachia says drily.

Sociologist and former MEP candidate Michael Briguglio is less categorical.

Gender equality has broadly improved in Malta in recent years, he argues, pointing to the rise of women in the workplace, but “sometimes, there can be a culture where men are more encouraged and make more noise, like in unions and political parties”.

But we shouldn’t reduce everything to gender, he warns, even though this is “a very important variable”. There are other issues that are also at play when choosing to stand for public office, he argues, from social class to lifestyle choices and better professional opportunities outside of politics.

Has the gender quota mechanism failed?

Not according to Zammit Alamango, who believes that it is too soon to judge. The gender quota has “played a pivotal role in reshaping the landscape for female candidates”, she says, but its true impact will only be seen “in the long term”.

Laiviera agrees, describing any assessment of the mechanism’s impact as “premature”. Even the simple fact of having more women MPs marks an important step forward on a symbolic level, she says.

“No longer do we see all male parliamentary sittings; these now send a clear message that our country takes on board the perspectives of both women and men in the legislative and policy-making processes.”

While admitting that “not everyone agrees with the mechanism used and if they should have been introduced”, Zammit believes that having more women MPs than ever is “a definite catalyst to attract potential women candidates”.

Still, she says, efforts towards greater gender balance need to be deliberate. “An effort was made to ensure that the electorate has an adequate choice of both female and male candidates on the PN’s list,” she says.