Accents
Recognition, Reverence, Respect
In the run-up to International Women’s Day, March 8, many schools, clubs, and associations are geared up to honor womankind. This is especially a prolonged commemoration here in the States, March having been proclaimed since 1987 as the United States’ Women’s History Month. America’s women must have experienced the scope of the uneven playing field for both sexes that they worked for the legislation of the entire month of March as Women’s History Month. This quote shows how awful it was then: “In the early nineteenth century, women in the United States were considered second-class citizens whose existence was limited to the interior life of the home and care of the children. Women were considered sub-sets of their husbands, and after marriage they did not have the right to own property, maintain their wages, or sign a contract, much less vote. It was expected that women be obedient wives, never to hold a thought or opinion independent of their husbands.”
For 2009, the National Women History Project has this theme: Women Taking the Lead to Save our Planet. Truly laudable in its universality. Honorees come from all over America—women who have distinguished themselves in the “green movement.” Nationwide programs and events are slated in the month-long celebrations.
Being far from Bayan Ko, I can just wonder how my friends at UPV’s Gender Desk will celebrate, March 8, the historic date for women. In our part of the Philippines, how far has UP in the Visayas fared in pushing for the three R’s for women: Recognition? Reverence? Respect? All of the foregoing? In the silence of the heart, I can only shout: Long live womankind! 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. In this digital age, women in many parts of the world still struggle for equality with men. For as long as gender bias exists, we need more substantive measures from UP’s Gender Desks and from other progressive organizations to advance the equality of women with men.
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. Ouch! (Aray!) Moreover, 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. Many of womankind are far more qualified to occupy higher echelons of governance than the male of the species. Count among them women who refuse to come out of the box because of mental conditioning that have caged them in ages past and continue to wall them in. Indeed, mental demolition takes time.
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.
On a lighter vein, I would like to share this email I received last Christmas. It’s about the Three Wise Women:
“Do you know what would have happened if there had been three wise WOMEN instead of three wise MEN?
They would have asked for directions, arrived on time, helped deliver the Baby, cleaned the stable, made a casserole, and given practical gifts.”
See, what three wise men can do, three wise women can do better. Rings true in many other instances. So, give due recognition, reverence, and respect that humanity’s other half deserves.
(Email: lagoc@hargray.com)