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Documents
Research
papers, case studies, situationer and other documents on Filipino
women and their involvement in politics, governance and decision-making
Bantay
Banay in Cebu City (Family Watch): Gender Responsive Local Governance
Awardee
Cebu is a city where violence against women (VAW) is not just a "domestic"
and private affair, but a battle of the entire community. What started
from a shocking revelation 12 years ago is now a multi-sectoral program
called "Community Initiatives and Partnerships to Respond to
VAW and Other Gender Concerns". Read more from this report.
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Women
in politics: Using media for good governance (2002)
At the recent Media and Transformative Leadership Congress organized
by the Center for Asia-Pacific Women in Politics in Manila, 250 participants
from the Asian region tackled ways for women in governance and policy
making to work with the media in getting it to report on women’s issues.
The key, they agreed, is transformative leadership ---that kind of
leadership that improves women's position in society and that provides
resources and opportunities for women to meet their needs and realize
their full potential. View the document
from our server.
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Daisy
Avance Fuentes: We must move forward (2001)
Daisy Avance Fuentes is the first woman deputy speaker in the Philippines
House of Representatives. When her 10-year legal term limit expired
in 2001, she ran and won for governor in her home province, South
Cotabato because women there haven’t cracked the executive
branch yet. View the document
from our server.
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The
rise of women leaders in the Philippines (2001)
Two women have risen to the presidency in the Philippines in the
last fifteen years. Corazon Aquino, the first female to ascend
to the presidency in the country’s history, was elected after
the ouster of Ferdinand Marcos amidst charges of criminal wrongdoing.
Fifteen years later, Vice President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo succeeded
Joseph Estrada, who had been accused of corruption and plundering
the Philippine economy. Not only is it rare for a woman to be
elected president, but it is also least expected in countries
like the Philippines that have a long history of patriarchy, oligarchy,
and subordination of women. Even though the Philippines has an
elected bicameral legislature and elected officials in lower levels
of government, there are few female elected officials. In 1939,
women were given suffrage and the right to stand for elections.
Since then, only 9.8% of the 224 lower-house seats have been held
by women (Who’s Who of Women in World Politics 1991). In
spite of the Philippines’ patriarchal institutions, narrow
elite class, and repression of women, other social variables such
as family ties, the Catholic Church, a context of corruption and
gender symbolism allow women to enter into the male-dominated
political arena.
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While
women have made inroads into such a male-dominated field as politics
is, the challenges still remain great. The male-centered culture is
still very ingrained in the consciousness of Filipinos, aided and
abetted by deeply entrenched political structures. Download this report,
which was presented during the 1st Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES)
Young Women Leaders Network Conference held on 3-4 November 2000 in
Bangkok, Thailand.
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Two
women in pursuit of political office in the 1998 Philippine elections:
A case study (2000)
These
studies attempt an intimate view into how women so far "without support"
have been surviving in the Philippine male-dominated political arena.
These case studies look at two women candidates who launched their
political careers without any focused or clearly organized support
from women's groups and neither whose campaigns are based upon platforms
of governance with predominant foundation on women's issues. These
are women who have gained access to and have been nominated by regular
political parties and who ran by utilizing traditional party machinery.
Their election campaigns were organized more along geographic areas
rather than sectoral concerns and along platforms that appear to treat
women's issues as somewhat additional and distinct to the more pressing
need of poverty alleviation.
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Her
father's daughter: what will another Macapagal presidency be like?
(2000)
On the threshold of the presidency, then Vice President
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo believes she is her father’s daughter. t
is not yet clear what she stands for as a politician and as a leader.
What is certain so far is that she overwhelmingly won the two electoral
races she has taken part in--for senator and for vice president--some
say, largely on the basis of her family name. Asked about her main
concerns, she said: "Poverty, globalization: the need to be
able to compete and also to provide safety nets, backwardness and
inequity in our agricultural sector in our rural areas, deteriorating
moral standards in government and in society, the politics of personality
and patronage rather than programs and consultation with the people."
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Women's
development councils: Bridging the gender gap (2000)
Republic Act 7192, enacted shortly after Corazon
C. Aquino became the country's first woman president, calls for "the
integration of women as full and equal partners of men in development
and nation-building." More than a decade has passed since its
passage, yet the law still has to be fully implemented, especially
at local government levels. Women's Features Service writes about
how gender-sensitizing projects in a southern Philippine city are
giving flesh to the liberating legislation.
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Women
in Mindanao: challenging roles in war and peace (2000)
Whether in times of conflict or peace, women in Mindanao play
a significant role--taking care of their families. The recent hostilities
between the Philippine government and the secessionist group Moro
Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) challenged them to take on another
role--lead their communities in supporting peace efforts. They can
also prove to be able partners of men in times of conflict such
as during the war between the Philippine government and then secessionist
Moro National Liberation Front. Read more from this report.
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Women's
health problems rooted in gender inequality (2000)
Gender inequality and discrimination are at the root of women's
health problems, according to the State of the World Population
Report (SWPR) 2000 recently released by the United Nations Population
Fund (UNFPA). In the Philippines, gender inequality and discrimination
begin early on in life, resulting in malnutrition among girls. The
1994 Young Adult Fertility and Sexuality Study showed that more
than 6 percent of Filipino girls are anemic compared to just 1 percent
of the boys. This can mean that girls usually get less food
than boys, especially in families with not enough food to go around
for everyone. As a consequence, girls are likely to develop health
problems as they become adults. Read more from this report.
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Must
battered women continue to suffer? (2000)
A growing body of statistical evidence, gathered from government
agencies and non-government organizations, indicates that many married
women, whether legally or living in with partners, are battered, and
not just physically. The office of Rep. Patricia Sarenas of the
all women's party, Abanse! Pinay, disclosed that, from 1991 to 1997,
the Bureau of Women's Welfare of the Department of Social Welfare
and Development (DSWD) documented 35,505 cases of spouse abuse, for
a yearly average of about 5,000. The actual number of reported cases
per year has been increasing over the seven-year period-from 850 cases
in 1991 to 7,850 cases by 1997. Read more from this report.
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Filipino
women 'misrepresented at UN conference, NGOs charge (2000)
Filipino women delegates from non-government
organizations who attended "Beijing+5" conference in New
York say that the Philippine government "misrepresented"
Filipino women at the international gathering. One NGO delegate said
the Philippines' country report failed to present accurately the problems
and concerns affecting women in the labor, agriculture and services
sectors.
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The
unchanging role of women (2000)
Housework and trade union activities seem to be worlds apart.
The home, unlike the union, does not concern itself with such issues
as collective bargaining, job security, and empowerment of workers.
But, a study by the Department of Labor attests that whether at home
or in the workplace, the role many Filipino women assume remains essentially
the same: that of a second-in-command who holds the purse, supports
the leader, and subjugates her needs to his wishes. Read more from
this report.
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Filipino
women face uphill battle for equality (2000)
What do an administration with misplaced priorities, a society
hopelessly mired in poverty, a religious sector acknowledged as conservative,
and a culture that is certified macho have in common? Taken together,
they explain why the Philippines has fared poorly in implementing
the Beijing Platform for Action five years after the Philippines,
along with 188 other countries, adopted it during the United Nations
Fourth World Conference on Women. Download the PDF
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Women's
rising clamor: "Out with Erap" (2000)
Meet Sion. A housewife, a mother, a worker, a farmer, an OFW,
a student, an activist. Today’s Filipino Everywoman. CyberDyaryo reports
on how thousands of women like her poured onto the streets, both to
mark International Day of Women and to press their demand for a change
in the country’s leadership.
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Muslim
women join Filipino jobseekers abroad (2000)
The increasing number of Filipino women who work abroad undocumented
or are forced into prostitution by illegal recruiters now count among
themselves the conservative Muslims, who leave Mindanao hoping to
lift their families out of severe poverty. In its campaign against
poverty and violence, Kilos Kabaro, a network of 31 women’s groups
and organizations campaigning against poverty and against violence
on women, highlighted the case of Muslim women, who have joined the
wave of jobseekers abroad. Read more from this report.
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Cooperatives:
changing the lives of women (2000)
Cooperatives have helped many women reclaim control over their
economic lives. It has also proved to be an effective coping mechanism,
for Filipinas as well as for other women in Southeast Asia, who, as
household managers in a time of inflation and other economic woes,
are expected to see to the family's survival from day to day. Women's
Feature Service reports on the gains from cooperativism.
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Womens'
political participation in the Philippines (1999)
While there has been quite a wider consciousness for the need
to have more women participating in the decision-making processes
in formal and informal structures since 1995, a female city legislator
still see limited political participation. In the national government
alone, in the Philippines, appointments to cabinet positions are still
male dominated. Read more from this account by Celia Flor, a city
legislator.
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A
front row seat to women's history (1999)
From joining a breast-feeding coalition in the 1970s, then marching
with other women against the Marcos dictatorship to joining a feminist
group in the 1980s, Pennie Azarcon-dela Cruz gives a front row seat
to women's movement in the Philippines in this piece published by
the Sunday Inquirer Magazine.
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Back
to the future (1999)
It turns out Philippines had equal rights before the Spaniards
arrived. Take a look at history from a woman's perspective in this
timeline compiled by Women's Feature Service-Philippines. Download
the PDF file now
(114
kb).
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Letter
to my daughter (1999)
In our "malakas at maganda" culture, women are taught
that they have to be beautiful and their main goal in life is to attract
and keep a man. Patricia Licuanan happens to believe there are more
important goals for a woman. In this letter Patricia shares with her
daughter Andrea her thoughts about growing up us a woman in the Philippines.
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Their
own worst enemies:
Gender politics in the Philippines (1998)
Quirina Tablo, a 65-year-old
mother of nine from Manila, has seldom missed voting in an election.
But her candidates of preference have always been men because she
believes that "politics is not for women." Although there
are several women running in May elections -- including two of 11
presidential candidates -- this year will be no different. Tablo's
comments are typical among women here. Since receiving the right to
vote in 1933, Filipino women have always been an important electoral
force. In the 1992 elections, a whopping 84 percent of the 12.1 million
eligible female voters cast ballots, compared to only 60 percent of
male voters. Turnout among women next month is likely to be just as
high. But Corazon Aquino's presidency during the 1980's notwithstanding,
this high female voter turnout has not translated into electing female
candidates.
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Impact
of new world trade regime on peasant women in the Philippines (1997)
Globalization
and the new trade regime imposed by the World Trade Organization are
having a devastating impact on peasant women in the Philippines. But
the women are fighting back. Read more from this feature article from
the Third World Network. Download
the PDF File now
(91 kb).
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Women
publishing in the Philippines
Profiles and weblinks to organizations with substantial collection
of data and published materials on women, gender and feminism in
the Philippines.
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Fact
sheet on Philippine women, agriculture and rural development (1996)
interesting facts and figures on Filipino women's participation
in rural development.
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