It is 2025 and here are some Cyprus women alarming figures: 51% of the Population, 50.8% of the voters, just 14% in Parliament. At the bottom of Europe in female representation alongside Hungary and Romania, and political parties still treat women as optional. Will they fail them again in 2026?
Our editorial team, driven by the belief that gender equality is important in progress, is actively supporting a campaign for women’s participation and will continue to do so through ethical journalism.
Parties that once experimented with quotas are using them in a very vague context. Women’s branches exist inside political parties, but too often as polite sidelines rather than engines of change. After decades of promises, representation has not advanced. What was once a glass ceiling has become a concrete lid. It’s 2025 and in Cyprus, being the only woman on the panel is no longer awkward, it’s expected. So, unless something shifts, Cyprus will go into another election where half its people are represented by little more than token figures.
Voices for Equality
Politis to the point opens the discussion on women’s political representation as a matter of urgency, by turning first to Josie Christodoulou to portray the key challenges and the deeper truths behind the numbers. Few know the terrain better than the Presidential Commissioner for Gender Equality, whose activist background makes her particularly attuned to both the frustrations and the stakes of the moment.
Long before her appointment in March 2023, Christodoulou was an activist deeply engaged in women’s rights and equality struggles. With a background in racial equality studies, she became an expert on women’s rights, gender equality, and human trafficking. She worked with the Mediterranean Institute of Gender Studies (MIGS), served on the board of the Cyprus Women’s Lobby, and helped create the European Network of Migrant Women in Brussels. From 2019 to 2022, she advised the Foreign Minister, focusing on mainstreaming gender into foreign policy. It has not been an easy ride, but she tackles one battle at a time. Today, as Commissioner, she brings the activist’s edge to the policymaker’s desk. “My voice has neither softened nor been silenced following my appointment”, she says. “I now have the opportunity to try and challenge the system from within and this is what I am doing”.
Beyond the Numbers: Party Structures and Quotas
For Josie Christodoulou, the problem is not only statistical. It cuts to the heart of party structures and cultural norms that have long kept women out. Quotas, she argues, remain one of the most effective tools to accelerate change, but they are not enough on their own.
“The real question is what parties have done internally, beyond adopting voluntary quotas, to genuinely support, and encourage women’s political participation.”
Patriarchal System
With Cyprus ranking near the bottom of the EU, Christodoulou does not hesitate to call the system for what it is.
“We live in a patriarchal society where sexist prejudices and unconscious biases still prevail,” she says, stressing that patriarchy is embedded in social norms, institutional practices, that sustain unequal power relations.
Acknowledging the system as structurally sexist, she argues, it is about tackling the roots of the problem. “Recognising the system as structurally sexist allows us to focus on comprehensive reforms that address root causes rather than just symptoms”.
Excuses Don’t Wash Anymore
To party leaders, boards, and corporate organisations, claiming they “can’t find enough women,” Christodoulou is blunt.
“Gender equality and equal representation is not about competition between women and men, but about creating a fairer and stronger society, economically and ethically.”
She argues that parties and businesses must overhaul internal processes, dismantle invisible barriers, and build truly gendered working environments where advancement is possible for all.
Likewise, to those who say “women did not accept” when invited to participate, she flips the question: “If women do not accept, what should we do?” Declining often signals structural barriers lack of childcare, inflexible hours, or simply an unsafe, male-dominated arena.
“Our socio-political system is still tailored to ‘masculinity’, to a patriarchal structure, and this is one of the main reasons why women reject such invitations.”
The Commissioner points to a shift under President Christodoulides. “Gender equality has become a horizontal priority,” she says, noting that women make up 37% of the cabinet, and her office’s stronger mandate as proof that culture change must run through every layer of public life. Recent reforms include extended maternity, compulsory preschool from age four, full-day schooling, new childcare centers via the RRF, anti-stereotype campaigns in schools and workplaces,
Asked why her office hasn’t pushed to cut public funding to male-dominated parties, Christodoulou replies: “The challenge is structural and we need structural solutions.” Penalties alone won’t suffice. Instead, she engages parties through their women’s wings and the National Machinery for Women’s Rights, to create inclusive internal cultures.
Fighting for Binding Quotas
On whether she supports mandatory quotas with electable placement, Christodoulou is unequivocal: “Legally binding quotas help as a temporary measure and I support them, and I will fight for them.”
Furthermore, she believes Cyprus’ proportional representation system makes quotas feasible, especially through the zipper system (alternating male and female candidates, with a minimum 35–40% from the under-represented sex). This addresses both numbers and placement, avoiding filler slots.
“This is a fair, transparent and impactful reform that directly addresses structural imbalances in candidate selection,” she argues.
She also recalls the failed 2014 attempt to legislate quotas for semi-governmental organisations, deemed unconstitutional. But she points to momentum at EU level: the new Directive on Gender Balance on Corporate Boards, which Cyprus is currently working to transpose into its law, sets binding targets for listed companies (at least 40% of non-executive directors or 33% of all directors from the underrepresented sex). This “shows that structural change is possible when there is political will”.
Concrete Action
Christodoulou is clear: symbolism is not enough. “Soft measures are important as they send the right messages, but our focus is on concrete policies and actions,” she insists. Besides the policies outlines above, her office has introduced gender budgeting with EU support and pushed through a 0% VAT rate on sanitary products, extended until December 2025.
Most recently the Commissioner’s office ensured that gender considerations were included in the proposed tax reform, securing deductions for both women and men in a family and that benefits single-parent families.
In addition, her office works closely with civil society, women’s wings of parties, and gender focal points across government in what she describes as “constant substantive dialogue.”
Her office also monitors the 2020 law against sexism and online sexism, with formal charges already filed for sexist rhetoric and incitement to violence against women. Campaigns, school lectures, and workplace collaborations aim to raise awareness and encourage reporting.
Asked how her office engages with women, Christodoulou insists the key is not endless new laws but implementing what already exists. “Our legal toolbox is well equipped. What we need is implementation.”
Her office works through consultations and outreach, listening to women’s lived realities. This participatory approach shaped the National Strategy for Gender Equality, built after dialogue with women’s organisations, civil society, trade unions, academia, employers, and the private sector.
She argues parliament, too, must act: by creating a political academy for women and adopting a zero-tolerance declaration against sexism modelled on European Parliament practice. “The responsibility lies with the parties as well. They must prove through their internal processes that they truly subscribe to gender equality in politics.”
Elections 2026
As elections approach, Christodoulou is currently meeting with all party leaders to discuss the urgency of gender-balanced candidate lists.
“We should wait and see how they address the issue through their internal processes. The lists themselves will show their commitment or lack of it. This is not about shaming for the sake of headlines. It’s about transparency.”
Her message is aimed above all at younger women and men: “they must see that institutions are fighting to ensure half the population is not ignored in a process that will shape their future”.
She also made a call to the media: “What they present, whom they present and the angle they take influence the way the public perceives reality. This is why we need the media to join us in the effort to promote gender equality at all levels.”
In Politis' newsroom, we share the urgency and the agony not only through our women’s editorial team, but also with our young readership. This is not a debate to be postponed until after the ballots are cast. As a media team, we commit to going the extra mile, to keep women’s voices present, to empower them, and to hold parties accountable until equal representation becomes reality. We will continue to track candidate lists, press the parties, and challenge institutions, openly and persistently, so that in 2026 women in Cyprus are no longer offered token invitations to appear on lists without real power.