Accents
Long live womankind!
March 8 this month, Women's Month, was International Women's Day, and I say, Hurray! Long live womankind! Yes, Long live the woman! or Vive le femme! as the French would have it—when the women of Paris shouted Liberte! Egalite! Fraternite! as they marched in Versailles demanding women's suffrage. There—I've just written a paragraph with the most exclamation points if only to stress that, in this digital age, women in many parts of the world still struggle for equality with men. So, hark ye! The surfeit of exclamations and the clenched fist raised in protest will flourish for as long as gender bias exists.
An International Day for Women? And March as Women's Month? In themselves, these proclamations already bespeak unequal regard for women—the world's acknowledgment of the obvious. I remember male friends mockingly say, "Okay, you have one month. We have eleven." Huh? And my retort: Oh, yes, we can abolish Women's Month, but let us both, male and female, have all of the twelve months. That's 365 days of pushing for human rights, men's and women's.
Gender equality as a fundamental human right is explicit in the Charter of the United Nations. The UN affirms: "No enduring solution to society's most threatening social, economic and political problems can be found without the full participation, and the full empowerment, of the world's women." And no less than the UN recognizes the fact that gender inequality still prevails in some countries despite the global dimension to advance women's rights.
In the Philippines, female discrimination in employment opportunities and in pay are felt by some women I know. Female job applicants are of low priority and are generally given lower pay than their male counterparts occupying the same job. Tales of woe especially in the semi-skilled and unskilled work areas rarely surface in the media. Why? Hordes of working women choose to suffer the unfairness in silence. Be noisy, complain, and lose your ticket to a meal. The scarcity of jobs and the swelling ranks of applicants contribute to the smugness of employers. Government must come in to check the discrimination against women workers or, for that matter, the broad injustice against labor whether provided by women or men.
Politics in our country has established a level playing field for both sexes, and we showed that by having a woman president in Cory Aquino, although she was not of the caliber we would have wanted. If to be recalled, Cory Aquino was praised for being good at making coffee and blending with the curtains. (Aray!) Still the Philippines has another woman president, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Her being a Ph.D. degree holder is all for naught, however. (But that's another story.)
A few more of womankind have made it in the Upper and Lower Houses of Congress. But the title Representative and Senator is still dominated by the male of the species. Same story in the gubernatorial and mayoral strata, down to the councilors in the municipal and barangay level. The imbalance is really skewed against women. However, gender bias does not play here. Nevertheless, voter education is imperative, if only to demolish the culture of guns, goons, and gold.
Sometimes we hear of John or Paul or Peter crying out reverse discrimination or reverse exploitation. Well, well, this is an individual problem for John and Paul and Peter to do something about. Customs and traditions have been in their favor since time immemorial, and if one of them feels under the saya (henpecked), that indeed is a personal problem. As for Mr. Chauvinist Pig who gets out of hand, better do something about that overreaching, pitiable, disgraceful personality flaw or face the wrath of a woman scorned, if not the law.
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As my way of celebrating this year's Women's Month, I'm reprinting below African-American activist Maya Angelou's poem, Phenomenal Woman. Angelou's early childhood was filled with tragedy that only a formidable spirit could overcome. Here is a woman emerging from what she herself described as a "roller coaster of challenges and triumphs" to become a best-selling author, educator, historian, actress, and a strong voice for blacks and women worldwide.
Phenomenal Woman
Pretty women wonder where my secret lies/I'm not cute or built to suit a model's fashion size/But when I start to tell them/They think I'm telling lies./I say.../It's in the reach of my arms/The span of my hips/The stride of my steps/The curl of my lips./I'm a woman/ Phenomenally/Phenomenal woman/That's me.
I walk into a room/Just as cool as you please/And to a man/The fellows stand or/Fall down on their knees/Then they swarm around me/A hive of honey bees./I say.../It's the fire in my eyes/And the flash of my teeth/The swing of my waist/And the joy in my feet./I'm a woman/Phenomenal woman/That's me.
Men themselves have wondered/What they see in me/They try so much/But they can't touch/My inner mystery./When I try to show them/They say they still can't see./I say/It's in the arch of my back/The sun of my smile/The ride of my breasts/The grace of my style./I'm a woman/Phenomenally/Phenomenal woman/That's me.
Now you understand/Just why my head's not bowed/I don't shout or jump about/Or have to talk real loud/When you see me passing/It ought to make you proud./I say/It's in the click of my heels/The bend of my hair/The palm of my hand/The need for my care./'Cause I'm a woman/Phenomenally/Phenomenal woman/That's me.
Phenomenal Woman resonates with the mystique of womankind and the recognition, reverence, and respect that humanity's other half deserves. (Comments to lagoc@hargray.com)