The impact of the gender corrective mechanism on women’s representation in Maltese politics

Abstract

The importance of female representation in the Maltese Parliament reached a pinnacle point with the introduction of the gender corrective mechanism in Malta in 2021. Prior to the introduction of the mechanism, Malta had been a European country with one of the lowest female representation in Parliament. Literature shows the importance of women in parliament together with the significance and limitations of the gender corrective mechanisms. Moreover, literature depicts variations of the gender corrective mechanism applied in other European countries. To understand the impact the mechanism has had in the Maltese context, elite semi-structured interviews were employed. The interviews with 14 stakeholders were with female politicians elected with the mechanism, current male and female parliamentarians who did not benefit from the mechanism, minority party members, people who publically spoke about the mechanism, members of the consultative committee, individuals who contested the 2022 election but did not get elected and former members of parliament. One of the key main findings which stemmed from the interviews was a consensus on the lack of understanding on the mechanism resulting in a misconception of how it worked, which potentially reflected poorly on women’s potential in politics. Despite this, the findings indicate that women are still capable to be elected on their own steam in European Parliamentary elections. Furthermore, the findings also shed light on the dichotomy found between the aim of the mechanism to increase female representation yet excluding female minority members from the potential of benefitting from such a process. Despite reaching the aim of increasing the number of female members in the Maltese Parliament, the mechanism does not address the root problems contributing to the lack of female representation in all levels of public life.