‘Full-time Parliament will help get more women into politics’

Female MPs from both major parties believe a full-time Parliament will help more women enter politics but disagree on the value of quotas for bringing about the much-needed change. Only eight women were elected to Parliament in last week’s election, although that number could rise after the upcoming casual elections. The last legislature included 10 women among its 69 MPs, a significant increase on previous years, but still leaving Malta at a miserable 143rd place worldwide for female representation. Further analysis suggests, however, that the problem does not lie with the electorate: female candidates performed no worse than men. Their share of the vote – 11 per cent – was roughly equivalent to the percentage of women on the candidate list. For newly appointed Equality Minister Helena Dalli, the reasons so few women put themselves forward for election are “obvious”. Dr Dalli told The Sunday Times of Malta that while the Labour government had done a lot to help women enter the workplace – such as free childcare and flexitime incentives – too little had been done so far to cater for activities beyond people’s main jobs. “We need to help people find this balance between work,...