"I am an empowered Filipino woman. From the bottom, I lift my children and my country's economy. From the top, I heave them up."
We are a country of 7,107 islands and 180 indigenous languages and dialects, and an assortment of religious and sub-religious groups. Given this social and geographical diversity, it is therefore not surprising that many Filipinos have yielded to a variety of social, religious, political and cultural divide, united only in one thought -- that there is a weaker sex, the woman. This still holds true in remote and rural areas, in ultra-conservative Filipino families living in modern cities, in private corporations and in the government. To illustrate:
• In public life, women consist only 13% of the Senate, 17% of the House of Representatives and 20% of the Supreme Court. In local governments, only 8% are elected as municipal or city chief executives. In political decision-making, participation of women is especially low in Muslim-dominated municipalities and in indigenous communities.
• At work, many w omen are still suffering from discrimination and do not occupy ranks higher than or equal to men. In the private sector, w omen's salaries averaged 47% lower than their male counterparts.
• As of 2005, Women's labor force participation rate was pegged at only 50.2%. Also due to the problem of poverty in the country, the burden of working in formal and informal sectors were put on women, some of them choosing to work overseas and leaving their children behind. More than half of Overseas Filipino Workers are women working as nurses, teachers, domestic helpers, factory workers and in the hospitality sector.
• In agriculture, women consist 56.2% of the proportion of unpaid family workers. This does not account the housework rendered after working in farms or agro-industrial areas. In agrarian reform communities, only 31% of the Certificate of Land Ownership Agreement holders are women. The rest are granted to men, who are considered heads of the families.
• Almost 70% of child abuse cases reported in the Department of Social Welfare and Development are against girls, with sexual abuse topping the chart, seconded by neglect. In terms of reported cases of violence against women, wife-battering has topped the chart but has slightly decreased between 2004 and 2005. These statistics, however does not include cases in which the victims and their families have refused to report to the authorities due to fear, shame or due to doubts on the authorities' capabilities to carry out their function as law enforcers.
• In laws, women were accorded the most rights and protections. These include an act that expands the definition of crime of rape, reclassifying it as crime against persons (R.A. 8353); an act providing for benefits and privileges to solo parents and their children (RA 8972); the Anti-Violence Against Women and Children Act (RA 9262); and an act to institute policies to eliminate the trafficking in persons especially women and minors, establishing the necessary institutional mechanisms for the protection and support of trafficked persons, providing penalties for its violations, and for other purposes (RA 9208), to name a few. The gender bias here lies in the delivery of justice and law enforcement where women are concerned.
• In family planning, involvement of men is minimal. Proportion of women subjected to ligation or are using contraceptives are higher than men who have opted to undergo vasectomy. In some families, women are prevented from using contraceptives even if these are readily available, as conformity to the sexual wishes of their husbands. Many men are aware that women have the right to make decisions regarding their own lives and their own bodies but this concept is not treated with reverence.
• At home, the male share in domestic work and child care is still minimal, even in households where women also engage in economic activities, resulting to heavier responsibilities for women. In some households, women are forced to give up their career and ambitions to take care of the home and family.
• There had been a significant increase in participation of girls in school after two of the Education for All goals was included in the Millennium Development Goals in September 2000. The government has succeeded in promoting gender parity BUT not in equality. In schools, many girl-children are still being bullied by boy-children and more school administrators are still men. Gender biases are still seen in some textbooks used in basic education. The Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao, the poorest region of the country, is a record holder for adult female illiteracy.
The Government, through the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB), maintains a website ( www.nscb.gov.ph ) which shows gender disaggregated data by population, education, health and nutrition, social welfare and development, work and economic participation, public life, government and private employment, child-abuse and violence against women cases, among others. It also produces a Philippine Statistical Yearbook which is available in compact disc or in prints. Several policies and programs have already been and are continually being pushed forward or implemented by the government to promote women empowerment and gender equality in the Philippines . The current administration has produced a very wide-ranging 12-point agenda to improve the status and welfare of Filipino women. Several Non-Governmental Organizations and bilateral and multilateral donors are also present to support and implement gender programs and advocacies in the country, among which Microfinance has already impacted results on the lives of Filipino women. Despite these progresses, persistence of sexist beliefs and practices are still widespread and make it difficult for many women to advance. Much has to be done to bring everyone to a consensus that women should enjoy same social, political and economic privileges that men enjoy.
Measures to improve the system of data collection (reliability, timeliness), analysis and presentation by the local and national agencies and as well as the civil society should be devised as these are essential in showing the Filipino men and women the gendered nature of poverty and how these are experienced differently across several sectors of the society. Also, legislative measures, support mechanisms, and programs to protect and promote the judicial and economic interests and other rights of women and girls should be developed or strengthened so that women's access to reproductive health information and choices, technology, care and legal protection are ensured.
But essential to dealing with much of the forms of gender inequality is education. Linking this with poverty, many Filipino women* are poor because from the very beginning, they were not given the fair chance to claim a good education, and consequently, the chance to occupy a lucrative niche in the labor economy.
Many parents aver that they do not send their children to school because of costs associated to schooling, followed by housework for girl children and engagement into the family's economic activities for boy-children. These reasons mask the fact that many women remained poor because they didn't have the chance to engage into rewarding economic activities and to learn and earn the bargaining power brought about by a good-quality education, be it formal or non-formal.
Gender-based, sexist expectations should no longer be condoned nor tolerated. I believe that change should begin in homes, in the communities, in schools. The government, academe and the civil society should work together towards making a non-sexist learning environment and ensure enforcement of policies that would enable women to acquire effective and appropriate learning options and outcomes that would lead to equal access to better opportunities before, during and after education. This partnership should be seen as chance to introduce the concept of gender equality and to address other political, economic and socio-cultural concerns such as child labor and school drop-outs, pregnant girls who are forced to leave school, sexual and physical violence, drug abuse, lack of resources for education, etc. - concerns which, when addressed, would also help reduce poverty in both men and women and a sure key to empowering women.
Women, when educated and empowered, will bring forth and raise educated and productive children, and in so doing, will help reduce poverty in the country. Women have the capability to bring forth grown-ups who in turn are capable of giving their offspring the gift of education and better life.
-------- *As of 2000, women comprise 49.64% of Philippine population
References:
http://www.onlinewomeninpolitics.org/phil/philmain.htm
http://www.nscb.gov.ph
Country Report - Philippines : A report presented by Estrella V. Domingo, Assistant Secretary-General of the NSCB, Philippines at the First Session of the UN ESCAP Subcommittee on Statistics, 18-20 February 2004, Bangkok , Thailand
Beyond Gender Parity in Philippine Education: Achieving Gender Equality in and Through Education in the Philippines -unpublished research prepared by E-Net Philippines Working Group on Gender in Education Group and Ms. Maritona Labajo
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