The first female President

On this day in 1982 Agatha Barbara was elected as the first female President of Malta. Remembered by many as an explosive and abrasive politician she became a legend in her own right playing an important part in the reforms of post-war Malta. She became President of the Republic at a highly turbulent period when Malta was ruled by a Government which did not have a majority of Maltese voters behind it. Few people know how hard Ms Barbara worked behind the scenes in those difficult times trying to build bridges between the Labour Party and the Nationalist Party. She has her fingerprints on the historic constitutional amendments which avoided a repeat of the unfair electoral result of the 1981 election. From her last interview before her death:

She grew up in difficult times, when much of the population was blighted by poverty, illness, illiteracy and unemployment. She had to plead with her parents to find the money to send her to secondary school, since the reforms she would play a major role in implementing which would ensure free education for all were still a long way off. And she also witnessed her father lose the wage rise he should have been awarded when promoted to tug master, because he couldn't read or write.

No wonder that as a young woman, the former Labour education and social security minister and President of the Republic, Agatha Barbara, was looking for a vehicle that would enable her to help make the changes and reforms that post-war Malta so desperately needed. "After the war, we had many people unemployed – former soldiers, the Drydocks workers - and no Constitution in place," she explains. "The people governing us were not bothered about how these people were going to live. At the time, there was no social justice at all. I wanted to help put things right. I wanted to help people. That was why I accepted people's encouragement to enter politics."

Agatha Barbara profile from searchmalta

When Maltese women voted for the first time - by Sonia Attard for aboutmalta