Study underway to identify barriers for female political participation in local councils

A study is currently underway to identify the prevalent factors holding back female participation within local council elections and to come up with recommendations to try and eliminate this political gender imbalance, the Parliamentary Secretariats for Reforms and Equality as well as for Local Government said.

This scientific research was revealed by the two Parliamentary Secretaries during a joint press conference. Parliamentary Secretaries Rebecca Buttigieg and Alison Zerafa Civelli said that during the local council elections held earlier this June, female candidates made up just around 27% of the field, and that from those elected, only 28% of councillors were women.

Parliamentary Secretary Zerafa Civelli expressed her commitment to seeing more just representation between the sexes in politics, even on a local government basis. She also mentioned that this would be fulfilling measure 971 of the government's manifesto.

She described that the government shall continue to support local councils and work against this issue by providing the necessary tools to allow these people to be drivers for societal change.

"This research should therefore be paired with a series of other activities that encourage the increased visibility of women in political life, because we truly believe in the potential of women for important decisions," Zerafa Civelli said.

Parliamentary Secretary Rebecca Buttigieg stressed the importance of having a female perspective in local councils. She also noted that there are currently six localities that have no female representation.

Buttigieg added that the parliamentary secretariat is implementing a proposal put forward by the technical committee that carried out a preliminary evaluation on the candidacies and results of the local council elections held earlier this year.

This study should be concluded by the coming September and is being headed by Professor Carmen Sammut. She said that the gender corrective mechanism that was first implemented in the 2022 general election cannot necessarily be implemented in local council elections.

Sammut concluded that based on research, other methods can be identified to ensure a more "appropriate" balance in local councils.