CHAPTER 9: Laws, Policies, and Programs
for Philippine Women
INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTS
ADVOCATING GENDER EQUALITY AND
HUMAN DEVELOPMENT:
1. UDHR - 1948
2. CEDAW - 1979
3. BPfA - 1994
4. MDGs - 2000
5. SDGs - 2015
UDHR - is a common standard of
achievements for all for all people's and all
nations.
PCW - the government agency that promotes
gender equality and women's empowerment.
CEDAW (also known as the International
Bill of Rights of Women) - is the only human
rights treaty which affirms the reproductive
rights of women and targets culture and
tradition as influential forces shaping gender
roles and family relations.
MCW - establishes the Philippine government's
pledge of commitment to the CEDAW.
BPfA - emphasizes that women share common
concerns that can be addressed only by working
together and in partnership with men towards
the common goal of gender equality around the
world. It aims for the complete participation aof
women in all spheres of life.
BPfA - is a landmark act.
FEMINIZATION OF POVERTY - the
phenomenon in which majority of the world's
poorare women.
GENDER MAINSTREAMING - a strategy
for gender equality. The most important
mechanism.
MDGs - a collection of eight goals that focus on
major issues of the underprivileged people
around the globe.
TREE of the EIGHT MDGs:
 Goal 2: to achieve universal primary
education
 Goal 3: to promote gender equality
and empower women
 Goal 5: to improve maternal health
SDGs - aim to address the root causes of
poverty and inequality in the world today. Are
built from MDGs and aimed at continuing the
latter's goals and completing the targets by
2030.
Post-Martial Law Era - formalization women's
rights started.
1987 Constitution - declared the equality og
women and men before the law.
R.A. 7192 - Women in Development and
Nation-Building Act
THEN: NCRFW NOW: PCW
National Commission on the Role of Filipino
Women (NCRFW) - is the primary policy-
making and coordinating body on women and
gender equality concerns.
PCW - is an advisory body to the President and
Cabinet members on issues concerning gender
and development. PCW addresses the concerns
and issues highlighted in the CEDAW.
Order No. 348 - created PDPW for the period
1989-1982.
Philippine Development Plan for Women
(PDPW) - the first development plan to
integrate women's interest.
Philippine Plan for Gender-Responsive
Development (PPGD) - drafted to supplement
the PDPW.
SUCCESSORS of PDPW and PPGD:
 Harmonized Gender and
Development Guidelines - published
in 2010 by the National Economic and
Development Authority (NEDA), PCW
and Official Development Assistance
Gender and Development Network.
 Women's Empowerment,
Development and Gender Equality
(EDGE) Plan 2013-2016 - published by
the PCW. It addresses previous gaps in
the PDPW and PPGD.
- it also promotes the integration of a
gender lens.
Senator Risa Hontiveros - filed three
bills to combat sexual harassment and
violence against women called Tres
Marias bills (November 22, 2016).
TRES MaRIAS BILLS:
 the Anti-Rape Act (Senate Bill No.
1252)
 the Anti-Sexual Harassment Bill
(Senate Bill No. 1250)
 the Gender-based Electronic
Violence (Senate Bill No. 1251)
CHAPTER 10: Theories on the Origin of
Women's Oppression
SHIFT OF PARADIGMS: from ancient
civilizations that worshipped the earth goddess
to the male suppression of this goddess.
MILES - women are kess valued and their status
wee threatened with the expansion of phallus
worship around 1500 BC.
- she explains that early civilizations first great
gods were women.
The theory of early GODDESS-BASED SOCIAL
ORGANIZATION - stipulates that the worship of
the mother goddess lasted for as long as people
experienced the development of life as a
mystery and a gift.
PHALLUS CULTS - pre-eminence of the
male and his organ began to assert itself.
-belief of continuously treating women lowly.
MOTHER GODDESS CULT - theory that
seems highly speculative.
- the appearance of female deities, their
prevalence, as well s their destruction.
Stories where women perceived as the
cause of the downfall of making because of
their weakness:
 Story of and Eve
 Story of Pandora
PANDORA - first women create dby ZEUS.
PROMETHEUS - whom they received the gift
of fire.
EPIMETHEUS - warned by Prometheus not to
accept any gift from Zeus.
St. Paul in Timothy 2:12 - said that he would
not "suffer a woman to teach in Church" or
have authority over man.
1 Corinthians 11 - St. Paul stated that women
should be silent in Church and should be subject
to man.
FEAR THEORY - world's religions are biased
against women.
SHIFT TO AGRICULTURE - a plausable
theory for the suppression of women.
OPPRESSION - is often justified by
ESSENTIALIST REASONS (most plausible
theory).
CHAPTER 11: THE WESTERN WOMEN'S
MOVEMENT
STRUCTURAL INEQUALITY - faced by women in
particular eras.
Social Justice Warriors - who wrote various
issues-including women's issues.
FEMINISM - is a way of looking at the world
through a woman's perspective.
- is a concept popularized by Western
societies, with many feminist issues articulated
by Western- educated women and even men.
KANT & MILL - defined the Western concept of
LIBERAL DEMOCRACY & PHILOSOPHY OF EQUAL
RIGHTS.
WAVES of feminism - Western women's
movement
THREE WAVES OF FEMINISM:
1. Women's Equal Rights - women's right
to vote.
2. Radical Feminism - post-World War II
era of feminism.
3. Recognition of Intersectionational -
considers women's struggle from
different parts of the globe.
- rooted in the recognition of various
theories and variousodes of being.
1990s - end of discussion of the waves of
feminism.
The First Wave of Feminism - Women and Civil
Rights
French Revolution (1700s) - the start of the
documented feminist movement.
- was a movement that overthrew the Bourbon
monarchy, a powerful family that ruled France
for over a century and controlled most of
French resources.
Bourbon dynasty - most France was poor and
starving.
Paris City Hall in 1789 - thousands of women in
Paris, housewives, mothers, and workers,
marched to demand the right to cheaper bread,
a right they were deprived of under the
Bourbon monarchy.
Western women's movement - Citoyennes
Republicaines, Revolutionnaires (Revolutionary
Republican Women Citizens)
Citoyennes Republicaines, Revolutionnaires -
demanded that women be granted the right to
vote and hold civilian and military positions like
men.
Male Revolutionaries - ignored these calls.
Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen
(1789) - only focused on men and men's rights.
Considered an important text in the history of
human rights, this declaration supposedly
proclaiming the scope of one's freedom in the
French society had excloded women.

Olympia de Gouges - was a French feminist,

writer, and political activist who believed
strongly in justice and equality for all.

- responded to the National Assembly's

Declaration by publishing in 1791 her own
Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the
Female Citizen.

Manifesto of de Gouges - inspired what can be

considered the keystone te