Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/922844
maltatoday SUNDAY 7 JANUARY 2018 News 17 reinforced the position of the Church and also served to keep clergy-members on message. After the war, the newspaper had come under the direction of Mgr Salvino Bartoli Galea who embarked on a 30-year stint as its editor. An examination of Leħen is-Sewwa's coverage of the debates of the Assembly, relevant articles and Letters to the Editor, show that the Church in Malta intensely resented the notions of "equal rights" for women and "women's emanci- pation". The proponents of women's suffrage had a gargantuan task in the face of this power- ful opposition. In November 1945, the new Archbish- op delivered a speech aimed at 'married women and mothers' where he cleverly ex- pressed "his intense love of a loving father" who had the duty to warn and counsel his children. He dismissed women's claims for a political role but instead, celebrated the power of mothers' virtues. He described mothers as the "head of the family" … the wife as "the queen of the home" who ex- erts influence and exercises her mission to safeguard her own children from the decay that was experienced in countries that have turned their back on religion; "A man is 'morally shaped by his wife'… The purpose of marriage is offspring"… Do not be scared by the number of children that you bear… God will send you offspring and God will help you provide for them. Big families are an ultimate homage to mothers." When women's suffrage finally arrived with the MacMichael Constitution, the Church turned its attention to guiding women on how to exercise their newly ac- quired right. MacMichael Sir Harold MacMichael was a seasoned Cambridge-educated colonial administra- tor who had cut his teeth in Khartoum and as Governor of Tanganyika. Two days after his arrival in Malta Mac- Michael addressed the population on Rediffusion (cable radio) where he ac- knowledged that his main challenge as Constitutional Commissioner was to rec- oncile Maltese aspirations for self-govern- ment with the imperial interests of Britain. It was on the 17 July 1947 that the Chair- man of the Assembly presented MacMi- chael with a draft Constitution, the result of two long years of intense and heated debates. Later that year MacMichael pub- lished his report, stating: "The most im- portant [change] was the inclusion of the principle of female suffrage on a basis of equality between the sexes in all respects." The electoral campaign for the first re- sponsible government under the new con- stitution took place throughout the sum- mer of 1947. For the first time ever the parties needed to appeal to a wider electoral base. A to- tal of 140,000 electors were entitled to go to the polls, 54.4% of which were women. They needed to elect 40 members to sit in the Legislative Assembly. When a general election was announced between the 25-27 October 1947, there was no stampede by women to run for Parlia- ment but all parties needed to canvass des- perately to clinch the female vote. The five parties that contested only fielded a total of two female candidates. Two women were conspicuous by their absence: Mabel Strickland did not contest because the Constitutional party was far too weak to make electoral in roads. Josephine Burns de Bono did not appear on the list of candidates and just one month before the election, she resigned from the Women of Malta Association, because she said that her mission was now accomplished. The ballot list featured Hélène Buhagiar and a young new unknown candidate who contested with the Labour Party. Her name was Agatha Barbara. Two female candidates Hélène Buhagiar contested with the Dem- ocratic Action Party, a party that had gained ground because of the vacuum left by the Constitutionals and because of the state of the Nationalist Party at that time. This was composed of traditional entitled elites that included landowners and respected professionals who wanted to preserve their privileges. They fiercely opposed social and economic reform, particularly the introduc- tion of any form of taxation, and during this period they greatly feared prospects of na- tionalisation. Hélène Buhagiar was of course instrumen- tal because of her appeal to female voters. From a woman's point of view she promised to devote all her attention to housing and food supplies. She also dreamed of national unity where parties cooperate so that the best brains in Malta give their input to solve difficulties, in an effort that would resemble a 'National Government'. In its electoral programme her party promised to defend female workers via new laws that would be enacted "to regulate the employment of women and children in in- dustry". Agatha Barbara came from a background that was completely alien to the elite mem- bership of the Women of Malta Associa- tion. Barbara, a young teacher with solid work-class roots from Zabbar, entered the political arena with the Labour Party after gaining sympathy within her own commu- nity because of voluntary work. The Times of Malta (12th August 1947) published a report of a Labour meeting in Paola, where Barbara appears in a party ac- tivity. The newspaper observed: "Miss Bar- bara is the first woman to address a public meeting since the enfranchisement of wom- en in Malta". Barbara campaigned in the working-class districts of the inner harbour areas with im- mediate success. In her meetings and early contributions in the press Barbara, never disconnected the plight of women from that of the working class. Although there are no records that she was sympathetic with the struggles of the international feminist movement, Barbara was in line with social- ist feminist perspectives that deem gender to be deeply embedded in the condition of the working class and its political demands. At 75.42% the turnout for the 1947 elec- tion was very high, a sign that people were eager to participate in political life and they knew how to exercise their newly acquired right. The result tendered the biggest electoral victory ever for the Labour Party with a 59.9% of the votes. Labour elected Barbara, who wrote history when she succeeded to win a seat and she obtained the required quota in the first count. Being the first woman in the Legislative Assembly changed her life prospects. Wom- en had obtained suffrage and the right to participate in politics but social and cultural norms still set strict parameters for wom- en in political life and she was bearing the brunt of all this on her own without much support… without any role models. Her parliamentary seat afforded her one privilege: the right for equal pay with men. Other Maltese women had to wait another 27 years before a clause was introduced in the Republican Constitution of 1974. When Paul Boffa's Labour cabinet was formed in 1947, Agatha Barbara was not named among his ministers and some complained in the press, saying that "given her great personal commitment, perseverance and hard work Barbara deserved to become Minister… at least in recognition of women's important role in getting the Labour Party elected". She did eventually become the first Mal- tese cabinet minister in 1955. After 35 years as a parliamentarian Agatha Barbara was appointed as the first woman president on 15th February, 1982. A series of firsts… where she mostly stood alone. A slow process The vote to women did in some ways help to re-define the political landscape but the process was slow. Seventy years after the MacMichael Constitution, we can argue that the dearth of female representation in Parliament amounts to a serious democratic deficit. In 2017 the percentage of female Parlia- mentarians is almost the same as that of the election of 1950. The Inter-Parliamen- tary Union Index (2017) ranks Malta in the 148th place out of 193 countries. Across the years Malta steadily slipped down this index. While other countries advanced, the participation rate in Malta remained frozen in time. With exceptions, women were often rendered politically invisible. In domestic politics Malta is far from achieving the required critical mass of 30% that is deemed essential to register regular and unassisted advancement. We are far from achieving a gender-balanced represen- tation in Parliament, where both sexes need to have a minimum of 40% representation. History shows that we need to shake the tree. Change may require temporary posi- tive measures, a topic that is now thankfully on the national political agenda. Throughout the years, the inadequate fe- male representation in the public sphere has been reinforced by the invisibility of women in the narratives that are transmit- ted through national commemorations, rit- uals, monuments, texts and the images that people are exposed to. Collective memory is mirrored in discourse, literature and the media that shape our perceptions of past events, which we did not directly experi- ence. The Central Bank's commemorative coin contributes to the celebration of the role of women and is a reminder of their present-day challenges in the contemporary political and constitutional trajectory. This is an arbidged version of the presen- tation by Dr Carmen Sammut, Pro Rector for Student and Staff Affairs and Outreach., on the occasion of the 70th anniversary since Maltese women were given the right to vote, at the Central Bank of Malta. Mabel Strickland, leader of the Constitutionalist Party President Agatha Barbara (1982-1987) Women make policy, not coffee.. an activist at a recent feminist rally in Valletta sends a clear message