Abigail Agius Mamo warns gender quotas may be needed until 2046 at current pace

Business adviser and former Chamber of SMEs President Abigail Agius Mamo warned that Malta’s MP gender quota system might need to remain in place until 2046 at the current rate of progress. 

Ms Agius Mamo said she has always disagreed with the gender mechanism, arguing it reinforces the stereotype it claims to fight, ie that women are the weaker sex and need a helping hand.

Now in its second election, gender elections kick in if the less-represented gender (historically women) secures less than 40 per cent of parliamentary seats. In that case, up to 12 additional seats are granted to the highest polling candidates who ran for PL and PN.

Directly elected women at the 2026 election stood at 19 per cent of all MPs, up from 13 per cent in 2022, but still triggering the maximum quota of 12 additional seats. 

Out of the 12 women first elected by quota in 2022, four got elected directly this year while one got in through a casual election, three needed the mechanism, three were not elected, and one didn’t contest. 

“Progress, yes. But the target is 40 per cent,” Ms Agius Mamo warned. 

"At this rate, the mechanism will be needed until 2046. Another 20 years of a sticking plaster.”

Ms Agius Mamo warned that some voters may have chosen not to give their first-preference vote to female candidates because they assumed they would be elected through the gender-corrective mechanism anyway.

"That attitude costs women votes, pushes them further down the count. The mechanism is undermining the very candidates it is meant to help,” she warned.

Ms Agius Mamo said that although women in Malta are seeking leadership roles and the country is producing more female graduates than ever, structural barriers to entering politics remain.

These barriers include a poor wage for a very demanding role, the after-work hours of most parliamentary sessions, the lack of childcare facilities at Parliament, and the lack of a full-time option for MPs.

And she argued that politicians could be viewing the gender mechanism as a means of papering over the cracks without actually tackling the underlying issues behind a lack of female participation of politics. 

“The gender corrective mechanism was always meant to be temporary. The danger that we treat it as permanent is real, ticking a box, and doing nothing about the conditions that produce those numbers in the first place,” she said.

Cover photo: Abigail Agius Mamo/ LinkedIn