Women in the Philippines

IT’S THE SMALL THINGS

In continuing on with Women’s Month, I too am writing another piece themed around women. This time, closer to home – women, and how I view them, and their roles in the Philippines. To be quite honest, because I was raised in a very matriarchal family, I did not realize that alpha women did not exist everywhere else. In fact, because I spent most of my life in a co-ed school, it was not until I went to college in an all-girls institution that I was awakened to the reality of suffrage movements, the activism and the extra step so many have had to take in the past for women’s rights and empowerment.  

Perhaps, having grown-up in the Philippines as well has contributed to my view of women in the world and in society. For starters, I think the Philippines has been a prime player in debunking gender roles and norms. In fact, I do feel that the Philippines is one of the leaders in gender equality. For one, women hold positions of power in government – at present, our second most powerful government leader in the country is a woman, and if we look at the current candidates for the May elections, there are women vying for both the presidency and the vice-presidency. A lot of women are heads of businesses and conglomerates; in the corporate world, they hold executive and managerial positions. Indeed, discrimination among genders does not seem to be an issue in Philippine society, and this is something we as Filipinos can definitely be proud of.

Having said this though, vestiges of machismo still do exist that we consistently need to work on to over-turn. For instance, there is still a looming notion that women must stay home. In this post-pandemic era where work from home became the new norm, I think that it is suffice to say that this is indeed a myth. Unknowingly, this new culture brought about by the new normal worked as an equalizer of sorts, and as we constantly broaden our perspectives and open our minds, we will find that women are equally as capable in the workplace, and even those who choose to stay at home have the potential to be just as entrepreneurial. In other words, it is productivity we should look to as a component to define success, and not gender.

The fact that we continuously fight towards ultimately shattering the glass ceiling and referring to one in our constant battle to eliminate gender norms, and discrimination in the workplace inevitably means that one still exists. And while we are definitely ahead of the game in comparison to other societies, we still have work to do in completely getting rid of gender biases that exist across various industries. Perhaps this begins at home, and in the manner in which we were raised, and we choose to raise our children? I will ponder over it this week, and next week, I shall share my thoughts with all of you.