• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Isles of the Left

For socially just, egalitarian and greener Malta

Menu
  • Home
  • Manifesto
  • About
    • WHO WE ARE
    • CONTACT US
  • Magazine
    • LONG READ
    • CULTUREEverything you like to know about culture
    • ECONOMY
    • ENVIRONMENT
    • SOCIETY & POLITICS
    • EDUcation & OPPortunity
    • SEXUALITY & GENDER
    • TECHNOLOGY
    • HUMOUR
    • POETRYPoetry and essays
    • VOICES
  • Reading Lists
  • Podcasts
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram

Agatha Barbara: Malta’s First Woman Socialist and Feminist Role Model

March 7, 2018 · Rachael Scicluna ·

Agatha Barbara’s legacy in relation to gender equality struggle should be acknowledged, remembered and kept alive.

by Rachael Scicluna

Image by the IotL Magazine

 

Reading the biography, Agatha – Il-Mara ta’ l-Azzar by Elizabeth Ebejer, one feels that Agatha’s revolutionary social and economic reform in women’s rights, employment and education ought to be celebrated more. Barbara was Malta’s first female legislator, five times cabinet minister, and the first Maltese woman to become president of the Republic in 1982.

Despite that 71 years have passed since Maltese women obtained the constitutional right to vote, and that the presence of women in politics has improved, according to Carmen Sammut’s The Road to Suffrage and Beyond, in 2017 ‘the percentage of female Parliamentarians is almost the same as that of the election of 1950.

 

Socialism and Feminism

The social and political climate in the 1940s was rather patriarchal and anti-socialist. Despite the fact that women had obtained suffrage and the right to participate in politics, the social and cultural norms were still lagging behind. It was widely perceived that women’s duty and loyalty should be towards the husband and not politics.

Thus, women’s entry in politics was not supported. Women’s place was in the domestic sphere. For example, in 1947 an article titled, Women in Politics by Jos. Grech Marguerat, which appeared in the Bulletin journal, stated:

It is a historical fact that women are an inferior class and without men they are failures.”

 

However, such patriarchal notions did not impede Agatha Barbara from being a socialist and feminist. A story which caught my attention was from the time when she worked at the Ammunition Depot. Here, she noticed that women worked in appalling conditions:

They worked under military discipline and had no facilities, not even toilets or changing rooms.”

 

Upon seeing this, Agatha spoke to the Captain and demanded that these conditions are improved. After a few days a tent was built for them.

On another occasion, a woman was sacked. Agatha immediately took to her defence with the Sergeant. This time, she ‘got the sack’. Being as determined as she was, the following day she waited for the Captain to inform him of the situation. Eventually, the Captain gave her the job back but advised her not to act so erratically in the future. One cannot wonder if the Captain would have sacked a man and told him to be quiet.

 

Injustice

Her entry in the Parliament meant that Agatha Barbara was the first woman to address the Gender Pay Gap. She was the first woman to earn the same wage as men. Taking such a feminist and socialist position was not easy at the time. Malta was undergoing uncertain political times as it was seeking constitutional independence from the British colonial rule. There was political schism.

On the 28th of April 1958, there was a national strike organised by the General Workers Union. Agatha always attended political meetings and protests. On the day of the strike, she spoke to a group of hospital workers who were on their way to work in a van. She advised them to avoid the crowds in order not to get attacked. This action was misinterpreted. A couple of weeks later she was arrested on the basis of trying to stop workers from going to work, intimidation and persecution. In prison she was treated inhumanely and would eat a can of corned beef every two days. Rats were purposely put in her cell. However, as Dom Mintoff stated:

Agatha Barbara took her post with dignity and showed bravery more than many men. She ended up in prison scared by rats, which were left in her cell purposely and she emerged out of prison a Socialist more than before.”

 

In a few weeks time, she was pleaded not guilty and released.

 

Education Reformation

Her devotion to minority rights and against any form of injustice morphed into education reformation. Education became obligatory and free for all students. She also ordered a survey of children with learning difficulties, and the vision- and hearing-impaired in the country, and established the first schools for them. Importantly, she ensured that science classes were open to students of both genders, unlike the high school that she had attended, which was restricted to males. Her agenda as a Minister of Education was progressive and inspired by strong democratic egalitarian principles which must be kept alive and develop further.

 

Agatha’s Love Letters

In 2014, love letters written by Malta’s so-called Iron Lady were discovered. These letters written by a young woman in love in her mid-twenties, shed light on her sensitive side. Agatha had met a Royal Navy officer, Derek Barnes who was stationed in Malta in the late 1940s. She consciously renounced to having a family in order to pursue her career in politics. This was not an easy decision. In fact, she expresses sadness about not being able to see this British chap again:

I am very pleased to have met you, but now I shall regret that meeting because most probably I shall not be able to see you again, unless of course you are again posted here or I come over there.”

 

Unfortunately, Derek at the tender age of 23 years old had a motorcycle accident and we have no information of whether Agatha ever found out.

It is in such a patriarchal and oppressive context that Agatha Barbara fought her way towards equality. Agatha was bearing the brunt of all this on her own without much support, without any role models. Thus, it is important to acknowledge her legacy in relation to the gender equality struggle! She was the voice of the muted groups—women, working-class, children, and disabled individuals.

 

Further reading:

Ebejer, Elizabeth. 2002. Agatha – il-Mara ta’ l-Azzar. Marsas Press: SKS

 

Read More!

Tagged With: Agatha Barbara, feminism, socialism

Rachael Scicluna

is a social anthropologist. She sees her profession as an identity which she practices. Issues of social injustice concern her deeply. She seeks every opportunity to create awareness at an individual, social and academic level. As a scholar, Rachael has an obligation to pass on knowledge and sees social media as one of the greatest inventions to reach the wider public. Her research interests are sexuality and gender, alternative family formations, housing, home and the built environment, and policy. Her recent monograph is titled, Home and Sexuality: the 'Other' Side of the Kitchen (2017, Palgrave Macmillan).

View all posts

While we have you...

...We have a high opinion of our readers and thus post no clickbait. If you like what you read here, kindly help us to protect our content from the bias of social media filters. Not to miss any of our posts, hover over the button "Following" on our Facebook page and check "See first", "Notifications - All On". That way we will always feature on your timeline.

Thank you!

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Michael Grech says

    March 8, 2018 at 12:46 pm

    Super article Rachel. Writing about important figures on the Left in an appreciative, but at the same time critical (in the sense of considering the possibilities and limits) and non-hagiographic manner is vital to progressive thinking on our islands. Now expect the usual right-wing (be this of the conservative or pseudo-liberal kind) ‘anecdotal wisdom’ ‘proving’ that the character in question was not worth the article.

Primary Sidebar

    POPULAR ARTICLES

  • Promise & Betrayal: A Former American University of Malta Lecturer Speaks Out
    May 31, 2018
    By Former lecturer at AUM
    We were given time-consuming tasks to complete over the holidays, including the organization of Spring’s student orientation. Little did we...
  • Ħamalli And Non-Ħamalli: A Tale Of Two Public Spheres
    December 12, 2017
    By Bernard Cauchi | 2 Comments
    Why we dismiss experiences of people whose tastes and behavior do not fit the accepted norms. (more…)
  • Parenting Dilemmas: State or Private Schools?
    May 30, 2018
    By Rita M. | 11 Comments
    Here, for the record, I will spell out what nobody in this country seems even remotely willing to mention: how...
  • What Does it Mean to Be a Foreigner in Malta?
    April 12, 2018
    By Raisa Galea | 5 Comments
    Although they are uniformly referred to as “foreigners”, foreign nationals receive contrasting treatment, depending on their social status and nationality....
  • The Not-So-Maltese Cross
    January 17, 2018
    By Michael Grech | 2 Comments
    How the emblem of debauched foreign aristocracy became the ultimate symbol of Maltese identity. (more…)
My Tweets

 Essential  Read:           

Racist Rants, ‘Authentic Emotions’ and Fake News

Kathrin Schödel

 Get Our Top Stories
 Right in Your Inbox 
 

 Our  Friends: 

Footer

WE ARE:

-.. . -.. .. -.-. .- – . -.. / .- -. -.. / . -. – …. ..- … .. .- … – .. -.-.

Raisa
Galea
Michael
Grech
Francois
Zammit
Kurt
Borg
Josephine
Burden
Rachael
Scicluna
Daiva
Repečkaitė
Joseph
Abela
Martin
Galea
Abigail
Muscat
Bernard
Cauchi
Alicia
Said
Maria
Theuma

WE FOLLOW:

WE DISCUSS:

social awareness utopia International Women's Day transportation tax avoidance populism Malta Dockyard neoliberalism social enterprise religion corruption expats borders Moviment Graffitti strategy public space machine learning Lovin Malta kindness Marxism stigma Mediterranean Literature Festival urban planning cryptocurrency crisis

For a socially just, egalitarian and greener Malta © 2022 · Log in

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
 

Loading Comments...
 

You must be logged in to post a comment.