Agatha Barbara, First Woman President of the Republic of Malta

Malta is a small independent nation to the south of Italy and east of Egypt. It is comprised of the islands Malta, Gozo and Comino. It is only 316 square kilometers but it has a population of about 400,000.

At the time Agatha Barbara was born in 1923, Malta was under British rule and was not yet its own nation. Some of the homes in Zabbar where she was born, still bore cannon scars from Zabbar's uprising against the French around 1800.

Barbara was one of nine children born to a tug master and his wife. She attended public school in Valletta, the capital of Malta. At that time, attending high school in Malta was not free, but Barbara convinced her parents to pay for her further education. Even though Barbara attended high school, science classes were limited to males.

Barbara's hopes of attending college were vanquished when World War II broke out.

Malta is uniquely positioned, having access to both northern Africa and Italy by boat. It became a center for the British, and a bombing target for the Nazis.

Barbara worked as an Air Raid Warden during the war and also helped to supervise a Victory Kitchen, set up by the British to help feed the Maltese. After the war, the British awarded the George Cross - the highest civilian honor from Britain - to the entire Malta nation, the only time the Cross has ever been awarded to an entire population.

The British also granted Malta self-rule after the war. For the first time since 1000 BC, Malta was its own nation.

Barbara became a teacher at Flores College once the war was over. But the call of politics beckoned her. Social unrest and high unemployment were issues that resulted from going from a state of being governed by others to a self-governing state.

Barbara joined the Malta Labour Party (MLP or Partit Laburista), a Social Democrat party. A new constitution went into effect in 1947, granting Maltese women the right to vote for the first time.

Legislative elections were held that same year and Barbara was the first woman elected to serve in Malta's legislature. A few years later, Barbara was appointed as Education Minister, becoming the first woman to serve as a cabinet member in Malta.

During her tenure as Education Minister, Barbara implemented full-time schooling for all children under the age of 14. She then went to work supervising the massive hiring of teachers and the construction of 44 new educational facilities.

But her work in the educational system of Malta did not stop there. A teacher's training college was developed under Barbara's supervision. Medical care and transportation services were set up for students. A survey on Barbara's orders was conducted of developmentally disabled as well as vision and hearing impaired students in the country. The first schools for those students were also established in Malta under Barbara's supervision.

Because Barbara had not been allowed to attend science classes when she went to high school, she made sure that science classes on her watch were open to students of both genders.

Barbara was known to be fiercely committed to the ideals of her party. It was reported in her Times of London obituary that "Barbara once threw an inkpot at an opponent during a parliamentary debate. He ducked, and the pot hit a painting, where the stain remains to this day."[1]

Although the British had granted Malta self-rule, they continued to rule the islands directly. This prompted an uprising of the Maltese in protest of the British direct rule.

Barbara and the former health minister attempted to turn back an ambulance in May of 1958. They were afraid that protestors would overturn the vehicle. However, Barbara and the former health minister ended up being arrested and charged with obstructing the path of an ambulance.

Barbara was sentenced to 43 days of hard labor, serving 32 days with 11 days as time already served.

In 1962, the British finally relinquished their direct-rule hold over Malta and the islands were granted full independence two years later.

In 1971, Barbara was once again appointed Education Minister. Again, Barbara was up for the challenge, establishing trade and technical schools and raising the age limit for compulsory education to 16. She also managed to have university fees abolished and to establish grants to poorer students. The schools of Music and Drama and the Felinberg Institute of Electronic Technology were set up in 1973.[2]

In 1974, Malta became a full democratic society with executive authority in the president. It was now known as the Republic of Malta. For the next decade, Barbara was the minister for labor, culture and welfare.

During that decade, Barbara managed to established paid maternity leave for women, retirement pensions and unemployment benefits. She also helped establish a law which required women to be paid the same amount as a man for the same job. She also cut the work week hours down to forty and established a yearly bonus and children's allowances.

Barbara was elected by the House of Representatives as President of Malta for a five year term in 1982. She was the first Maltese woman to serve as President of Malta.

Barbara retired from the political arena in 1987, retiring to her hometown of Zabbar. She died February 4, 2002 at the age of 78.

Sources:

[1] Encyclopedia of World Biography
[2] Department of Information - Malta