Veteran politician urges media to champion women participation in politics

Veteran female politician Patricia Kaliati is who is also secretary general for UTM Party is urging the media to lead the charge in promoting women’s participation in politics, aiming to increase the number of women in decision-making positions.

Women involvement in politics remain low in Malawi, with few courageous enough to seek top leadership roles in their party’s governing councils.

Additionally, the number of women representatives in parliament and local government is disproportionately low compared to men, as again few women contest for these positions during elections.

In an interview with Capital FM, Kaliati has noted that the media has been playing a part in discouraging women from actively participating in politics through negative reporting.

“We are looking forward to having more women participating in politics but as we are looking forward to this, the media should be on the forefront to promote women’s participation because they are the ones who discourage women from standing,” Kaliati said.

She added: “The reporting that you do, you go to meetings with your own stories than the stories of women, so, you better also encourage women to stand. So, as we are looking forward to having more women, make sure that the reporting about women should be friendly, should be positive, and not negative.”

Kaliati expressed her aspiration to see more women elected to decision-making positions, noting that women are particularly vulnerable and face many challenges.

She believes that by having more women in these roles, they will be better positioned to address key issues among them education, economic empowerment, and access to water.

“We know women are implementers. Even every part of the government manifesto targets women and youths. So, the women are the ones who are vulnerable and when we talk about development, we look very much at women as they are the ones who participate and patronize every program,” Kaliati said.

“If it is issues of hospitals, schools, roads, they are the ones who are patronizing those, so when you vote for women, you vote for development because they going to be the first people to look into those affairs and they are going to be addressing their challenges when they are voted in,” she said.

Kaliati elaborated on the UTM Party’s manifesto, which she said specifically addresses the needs of women.

“The manifesto of UTM also targets the needs of women. When you talk of employment for people to be independent, there are those women that we focus on very much. And when you talk of three meals a day, we focus very much on a woman because they are the ones who are suffering,” she stated.

“Men are so clever, during food shortages they know where to eat. They can eat outside and come home and pretend as if they are hungry yet they have eaten somewhere. But the women and the children are the ones who suffer. So, the manifesto that we have is so friendly to women because women are the ones who look after the family,” she added.

To boost women’s participation in politics, Kaliati mentioned efforts to mobilize women and create an enabling environment for their political involvement.