Gabriela, a party-list group forwarding the interests of women, has consistently won a congressional seat in the past elections. The "Party-list System Act" also open doors for more awareness about the needs of women in the Lower House. The Senate and the House of Representatives also have its women legislators, like Senators Miriam Defensor-Santiago, Pia Cayetano and Loren Legarda. Former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was its second. It is the Philippines who produced the first female president in Asia- Corazon C. Although men mostly hold public offices, women have likewise made their presence felt. Since the Commonwealth, Filipino women have been enjoying the right to suffrage and eligibility to public offices through the Act No. This is shift from the stereotype housewives to emerging group pf professionals. A lot of women are now making their way up in the ladder of corporate bureaucracies. She is the head of the Magsaysay Maritime, the largest manning company in the Philippines. The latter, on the other hand, is a 'shipping heiress'. She is the vice-chairman of SM Investments and hailed by the Fortune Magazine as one of the 50 Most Powerful Women in the World. There are also top female business executives, like members of the Asia Society Philippines' Board of Trustees: Ms. Some companies in the Philippines actually prefer to hire females due to their consistent work ethic and professionalism. Females in business are actually on the rise. Business and industries are still male-dominated fields, but this does not mean that the women in the Philippines are just on the sidelines. This does not imply a somehow 'battle of the sexes', but shows that the Philippines hosts a sphere of gender equality for a healthy academic competition.Įconomics. According to the National Statistics Office of the Philippines (as of 2003), the basic and functional literacies of women in the country are 90.4% and 86.3% compared to the 80.6% and 81.9% of that of the males. Not only are the girls in this contemporary period enjoy equality but also outshines their biological counterparts. Education has been, for a long time, open to all gender since the American Thomasites have started their academic institutions, which the Spanish tradition of primarily accepting male students. This is probably one of the areas that women have excelled on in the Philippines. The challenge is to effectively improve and implement them.Įducation. There is still a need to solidify policies for prostitution, cyber and media exploitation of women, but this does not mean that no such laws exists to protect them. In short, the Philippines has, not enough but, ample number of laws that ensure the protection of women. One of its key components is the concept of 'marital rape', which protects married women from sexual abuse by their husbands. The 'Anti-Rape Law of 1997' is also a good example. 9262, known as the "Anti-Violence Against Women and Their Children Act of 2004", that provides the penalties for such offenses. The Philippines has a handful of legislations that address the problems of abuse and violence against women. This is characterized, according to Newsweek, by 'laws protecting women from domestic violence, adolescent marriage and marital rape, and also women’s access to land and bank loans'. It would be an understatement that this could all be attributed to the efforts of the government, but it could not be denied that a democratic state stamped the gateway of the formalization of women protection through the Constitution and its supporting statutes. Nevertheless, the country has evolved from depicting women as only subservient and modest individuals to powerful nation builders and leaders. The last is still a debatable topic, with the current issue of the Reproductive Health Bill in the Philippine Congress. Although this is only a small portion of a large and competitive professional community, reflections of the nation's recognition of the role and importance of women are evident on aspects such as justice, education, economics, politics and health. This is somehow an affirmation of the 'women-friendly' societal conditions of the country. Here in Asia Society Philippines, positions are held mostly by women.
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