Malta is riding on the crest of a Pink Wave generated by the winds of change that have been gathering a momentum for generations. Millennial women are a well-educated cohort. This autumn, 61 per cent of all University graduates are female but these will still face some of the challenges and barriers faced by women in the past.

It is not surprising that the new generation is providing the impetus for change. Younger women are often surprised when they encounter existent shackles that frustrate their ambitions because in some respects the advancement of Maltese women had remained frozen in time.

It was high time that the reform on gender balance in Parliament appeared on the national agenda. While the European Parliament has now become almost gender-balanced when it comes to Maltese representation, in the national Parliament, women’s advancement has been slow. It is estimated that will take on average, another 107 years to reach a gender balance in European national parliaments and given that the representation of women in Malta is the lowest in the whole EU, it will take even longer.

Society simply cannot afford to wait another century for women to achieve critical influence in political decision-making.

According to the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, there are 127 countries that have introduced positive measures, either voluntary or mandatory, to ensure that a given percentage of elected candidates are women. In Malta the main parties, civil society and many academics support this effort.

There is ample opportunity for a consensus especially since the support of a two-thirds majority is required to amend the Constitution for additional seats that accommodate the under-represented sex.

Under Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, the Labour government has achieved unanimity within Cabinet, the Parliamentary group and the Labour party executive. In its position paper the Nationalist Party agreed in principle and stated that if the number of women remains so low, there is a need for a temporary mechanism that should be introduced if the 40 per cent gender balance is not reached.

Maltese women have embraced change and they expect it to impinge positively on their everyday life

Two representatives of the Nationalist Party were formally appointed to help finalise the reforms before they are tabled in Parliament.

It was significant that 19 organisations jointly called “upon our legislators to introduce legal and structural changes that will alleviate and possibly remove the barriers that discourage many women from participation and success in political life”. Similarly, the National Commission for the Promotion of Equality (NCPE) observed that “the implementation of the proposed wide range of measures would constitute a historical turning point towards the achievement of gender equality in practice, making Malta a more democratic society with the full and equal participation of women and men in the political sphere”.  

Nonetheless, we cannot dismiss resentments that need to be addressed.

A significant information campaign will take place next year, which will be co-financed by the Equal Project of the European Commission. The reform will need to address old cultural traits that include forms of masculinities that may now feel vulnerable. “L-ugwaljanza ma tiddipendix minn numri imma minn ħiliet u kapaċitajiet,” wrote a respondent who was clearly unaware of the barriers faced by highly competent women who may wish to enter politics.

Another respondent expressed concern that positive measures are not in women’s best interests: “... women who were supposed to benefit from such a discrimination-tackling programme found themselves unprepared and under added pressure to perform in an occupation which was granted to them simply because of their genital organs.” Another man purported that the dearth of women in Parliament is caused by women’s envy against each other.

The fact that across party lines ‘sisters’ are working together on this reform is an important message for the rest of society.

I feel honoured that I was appointed to lead one of the most substantive political changes since Independence. Addressing long-established restrictive social norms is not an easy endeavour but it is of tremendous benefit to society.

It can help restore the notion of public service and break up gender segregation; it is likely to increase security, improve health, encourage greater equality in relationships and lead to less violence. At the helm, women are known to emphasize the quality of life, the value of education, healthcare, and social welfare.

While gender equality policy has emerged in response to the struggle of the women’s movement against the oppression of women and for women’s rights, social media is now amplifying fresh perspectives of new generational lifestyles. Women feel entitled to live the change. It is hence not surprising that the drive for the reform is also organically pushed from grassroots.

Maltese women have embraced change and they expect it to impinge positively on their everyday life. Parliament must fulfil the expectations of contemporary society. We surely cannot wait for another 107 years.

Julia Farrugia Portelli is Parliamentary Secretary for Reforms, Citizenship and Simplification of Administrative Processes.