• Embed Doc
  • Copy Link
  • Readcast
  • Collections
  • 1
    CommentGo Back
Download
 
WOMEN’S PROBLEMS ANDTHE FEMINIST MOVEMENTS
By Ramon T. AycoAugust 2006
 
I.IntroductionT
he weather was bad with a slight shower of rain and thunderstorm. A young girl was running hurriedly,gasping for her breath because she was being chased by a serial killer-rapist. Suddenly she turned into analley, but it was a dead end. So without wasting time, she nally did what she had to do. She took a smallwhite stone in her pocket, swallowed it and with a thundering voice she shouted: “Darnaaaaaaaa!” Meanwhile, the “serial killer-rapist” felt so glad because he knew that the girl he was chasing entereda dead-ended alley. So as soon as he entered the alley, he suddenly shouted “Huli ka!” (“You’recaptured!”). But he was surprised because now the girl he was chasing was wearing only bra and tights.So what could he say but “Wow, so beautiful, so sexy!” Yes, the girl he was chasing was really so beautiful and sexy. But he is dead now. That was the end of his monstrous career because the girl he attempted to victimize was no other than “Darna,” the WOMANSUPERHERO of the people.The last “Darna,” a TV series in Channel 7, was played by Angel Locsin, one of the most popularyoung stars in the Philippines today. Now Angel Locsin is again playing the role of another WOMANSUPERHERO by the name of Sabina in a tele-fantasy series “Majika” in the same channel. Here,Sabina is not only a woman superhero but WOMAN SUPERHERO OF WOMEN. She is destined tochange Saladin, the world where they live, the world where only men are leaders and women arelike those in the old feudal society. Stereotypically, the women do all the house chores and prepareeverything that are needed by their men. Women in Saladin have many prohibitions like eatingtogether with men; they have to wait until the men nish eating before they can eat. And the worstthing is that women are not allowed to use magic.Those are good examples of a woman becoming a hero or superhero. But these are only in fantasies.In reality …, yes in reality … what? Hey, in reality women can really become heroes like Gabriela Silang,Melchora Aquino etc., don’t they? In reality, women can also become the top leaders of their country.From 1945-2005, there are already 35 women who became Presidents (including Corazon Aquino andGloria Macapagal-Arroyo of the Philippines) and 39 women who became Prime Ministers in their respectivecountries all over the world. (See Annexes I and II).
From 1945 to 1995:
 • The number of sovereign States having a Parliament has increased
seven-fold
 • The percentage of women MPs worldwide has increased
four-fold
 The record average level was reached in
1988
with
14.8%
of women MPs.
Year194519551965197519851995Number of Parliaments
266194115136176
% of women MPs
3.07.58.110.912.011.6
% of women Senators
2.27.79.310.512.79.4
Women in Philippine Politics
According to the latest gender disaggregated data, women constitute 37.9-million (49.6%) of the 76.5million Filipinos as of May 2000. Almost 15.5-million are between ages 15 to 40 reecting a young femalepopulation. However, while women constitute nearly half of the population, its status in the Philippinesociety is still characterized by sharp contradictions of obvious gains, on one hand, and glaring inequalitieson the other.
 
One can nd both major advancements for women’s role and graphic gender inequality in specic areas of the society. The Human Development Report 2002 (UNDP) revealed that 35% of Filipino administratorsand managers are women -- which is one of the highest in the world. Additionally, approximately 17.2%of all the legislative seats are occupied by women and 2/3 of professionals and technical workers arewomen. This puts the country’s Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM) of 0.523 as the highest in EastAsia.
Table 2: Percentage of Women in Government, Congress, and Judiciary
Field Percentage
Women government personnel by levels of position (CSC,1999; * NCRFW, 2002)
First level 34.6%Second level 71.9%Third level 34.8%Cabinet (Head of Department) 18.2%*
Women in government elective posts (COMELEC,2001;**House of Representatives, 2003)
Senate 07.7%Congress 19.0%**Governor 19.5%Vice-Governor 13.0%Board Member 16.5%Mayor 15.6%Vice-Mayor 12.4%Councilors 17.4%
Incumbent women judges in Philippine courts (SupremeCourt, 2001)
21.4%The Philippines appears to be ahead of its neighboring countries by having 2 women presidents already:Corazon C. Aquino and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. There is also a perceptible increase in the number of women elected into government posts.In the House of Congress, there was a slight increase in the number of women senators, makingrepresentation 12.5% (3 out of 24). In the lower house, there are 27 women congress persons, with 93male ones. A signicant development in the house of congress is the entry of elected party list congresspersons who represent certain sectors such as women, the urban poor, cooperatives, etc. There is now asectoral representative for women, chairing the house committee on women. Here, legislations concerningwomen are pushed and discussed and participation by women, not only from the government but alsofrom non-governmental organizations and people’s organizations, are fully encouraged.There is an incremental increase of women in various elds of public service. Table 2 shows that there areindeed many gains in the appointment, election, and career advancement of women. While comparativegures are not available, the conventional wisdom and general observation is that women have becomemore present in the many elds of governance.These presences are sometimes consolidated into ad hoc groupings of women. Women judges have aformal national organization while a network of local women ofcials are grouped under the so-called “4-L” which stand for League of Local Lady Legislators. We have to count also under this category the existingwomen’s party as an interface of politicians and civil society activists. However, the most prominent
of 00

Leave a Comment

You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...
You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...