Prime Minister Edi Rama was invited this Tuesday to the “World Government Summit 2023” in Dubai, where he spoke about the role of women’s governance in the 21st century.

During his speech at the panel, Rama revealed how he managed to create a cabinet with more women than men.

Rama said that in his first mandate he had as his objective a cabinet with 50% women and 50% men. Then he adds that everything happened naturally as the right people for that post were only women.

Excerpt from the interview:

Dubai Abulhoul: Your Excellency, while Albania’s efforts in this direction are innovative and sincere, what is your advice for leaders in different countries, multilateral organizations or in the private sector. How would you advise them not to use the women’s card as a card to score political points, and how do you differentiate between authentic women’s empowerment and more theatrical ones?

Rama: Look, there are two things I can say about your very interesting but not easy question. The first is that for now, we should not worry about what you call theatrics, because whatever is done in this direction is a good thing. Highlighting women more, giving them more space, giving them more opportunities to participate and represent is of fundamental importance and sometimes this has to happen through means that may seem imposed or forced by the authorities of the parliament or the authority of the state or the authority of the leader/ruler himself when it comes to some Arab countries, but it has to happen. This is something that also applies to quotas. One can argue whether quotas are the perfect thing to do, but at the same time, they are a good thing to do.

Then comes the actual exercise. You mentioned it at the beginning and I saw it written in the presentation as well. The number of women in our government, which is practically the most exaggerated in the world, is over 70%, but it is not something that came as a result of us wanting it to be like that, it came very naturally. At first when I created the first government, it was something I wanted to have, 50/50%, but then in trying to select the right person for the right job, I realized that finally there were more women than men who were suitable for the work to be done, so it just came naturally. I would be much more open even in those cases where it is, as you call it, theatrical, because, through this theatricality, things begin and become natural. Look at for example what is happening in Saudi Arabia these days, with all the discussions and criticisms that you can face, while the discussions take place in the Western world, but the developments are really impressive and of course, in some way, it has to start with theatrics.