Imagine a country that drafts laws requiring gender balance in public appointments, signs international conventions on gender equality and fills its speeches with promises of inclusion, but announces 20 ambassadorial postings and gives 19 of those seats to men. You do not need to imagine it. You are living in it.
This is Malawi in 2026, a whopping 13 years since lawmakers passed the Gender Equality Act which requires either gender to take at least four seats in every 10 public appointments. Strangely, out of 20 newly appointed ambassadors being scrutinised by Parliament’s Public Appointments Committee, only one is a woman. In a country with a Gender Equality Act, women hold 29 percent of Cabinet positions and 23 percent of the seats in parastatal boards.
The shortlist released by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs takes low representation of women in decision-making position to a new low. Appointment after appointment, political elites are using their power to perpetuate exclusion. The Gender Equality Act is unambiguous: no public appointments should result in more than 60 percent or less than 40 percent representation of either sex.
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Yet the sole woman on the new ambassadorial bench constitutes just five percent of the country’s envoys. Merit and gender inclusion are not competing principles. A country that cannot find qualified women is not looking.
For decades, the defence has been that the appointing authority could not find qualified candidates. In 2026, this excuse has expired. It no longer holds because women possess the competence required to serve at the highest levels.
Malawian women lead hospitals, universities, banks and civil society organisations. They argue and settle legal disputes before the High Court, negotiate trade agreements, run businesses and publish research shaping global policy.
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