Opinion: No, Men And Women Will Never Be Truly Equal
Let’s stop pretending. Absolute equality between men and women is a fantasy. It’s not about being anti-feminist or dismissing progress, because let’s be real, feminism has done the heavy lifting when it comes to rights, opportunities and representation.
But the idea that men and women will ever have identical roles in society—a neat 50/50 split in every aspect of life—is unrealistic. Hear me out.
Before people start yelling at me, let’s be clear: equal rights and absolute equality are not the same thing.
Equal rights mean that men and women should have access to the same legal, social, and economic opportunities—a goal that Malta and many other societies have worked toward and, in many ways, achieved. But absolute equality would mean men and women ending up in identical roles, fields, and leadership positions at the same rate. And that’s where reality kicks in.
No, this isn’t some Andrew Tate-esque spin-off. It’s basic science. Testosterone forms physical strength, risk-taking tendencies, and even career preferences. Studies consistently show men dominate high-risk, high stress fields like construction, finance and tech, while women lean towards caregiving and education.
It’s not oppression; it’s biology. If absolute equality was natural, we wouldn’t need policies forcing women into boardrooms or men into nurseries.
Take the 2022 general election. We had four women elected. Four. Let that sink in for a moment. And this was after years of pushing for more female representation mind you.
Now thanks to the gender mechanism we ended up with at least 20 women in Parliament. But it’s not because voters chose them. The mechanism force-fed the process, handing out seats to women because they were women, not because they won the votes.
Some women in politics even saw it as a step backwards. PN MP Claudette Buttigieg warned that quotas could discourage voters from electing women, assuming they’d get in anyway. She wasn’t wrong.
Minister Miriam Dalli tried to paint a silver lining, pointing out that women contesting with PL received nearly 20,000 first-count votes – an increase from 2017. But did it change the fact that most of them still needed the gender mechanism to make it in? Nope
The United Nations itself has acknowledged that Malta is still weighed down by patriarchal attitudes. Women are underrepresented in politics and leadership, not due to lack of capability, but because of deep-seated societal norms that subtly push them toward other roles.
Malta ranks 13th in the EU on the Gender Equality Index, sitting at 17th in economic and political power. In political decision-making, we’re down at 20th place. These numbers prove that while progress is happening, society isn’t, and probably never will be, perfectly balanced.
To cut this short, women should have the right to choose their paths, without being forced into roles to “correct” statistics. If a woman wants to enter politics, great. If she prefers a career in STEM, fantastic. If she chooses to be a stay-at-home mum, that’s her right too.
But let’s stop pretending that we can create this utopia of a society where there’s absolute equality. It’s neither natural nor necessary.
What truly matters is that everyone man or woman has the freedom to choose without artificial barriers or forced incentives.
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