Cha-cha-cha for women

As yesterday’s editorial pointed out, it hasn’t been a straightforward, unimpeded march toward gender equality in the country.

If anything, for every step forward, for every groundbreaking development for Filipino women and girls, there has been a corresponding stumbling block, a regression, the return of old troubles and hurts.

For every gain women have made in laws and achievements, there have been dismaying revelations about the persistence of old crimes (rape, incest, trafficking and exploitation) and the emergence of new ones (cyberporn, cyberprostitution).

And so, while women around the world celebrated International Women’s Day yesterday, the celebration was tempered by a tinge of regret (we could have done more) and a frisson of anger (why are change and progress so difficult to achieve)?

Indeed, why celebrate IWD at all? (Locally, we celebrate women for the entire month of March.)

The British newspaper The Independent insists that “we need International Women’s Day to remind ourselves that hundreds of millions of boys and girls are growing up in a world where violence against women is acceptable, female subjugation is the norm.”

And that, as Anjali Kwatra of the international development charity ActionAid said: “International Women’s Day is a time to celebrate women and all their achievements, but also to highlight what still needs to change. There are still so many issues to fight for.”

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For Filipino women, declares Sen. Loren Legarda, mere “presence” is already an achievement: “Filipino women are involved in all sectors of our society. In fact, they are present in more than a hundred countries around the world, caring for children and parents not their own, and operating businesses and industries as part of the force that drives the growth of the global community. We are sharing 10 million Filipinos with the rest of the world, and 60 percent of them are women.”

That in itself represents the complicated cha-cha-cha involved in changing the status of women. True, Filipino women (and men) are contributing to the national coffers by their hard work in foreign climes, and spreading goodwill and affable relations while doing so (Rose “Osang” Fontanes, the caregiver and singing sensation in Israel comes to mind). But they are also enduring loneliness, abuse, and discrimination—even as they try to mask their ordeals with cheery messages home and balikbayan  boxes filled with goodies.

US Secretary of State John Kerry underscores the need to improve and elevate the status of women, not just for the women themselves, but also for countries as a whole.

“Countries that value and empower women to participate fully in decision-making are more stable, prosperous, and secure,” said Kerry in a statement. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon expands the concept: “Countries with more gender equality have better economic growth, companies with more women leaders perform better, peace agreements that include women are more durable, and parliaments with more women enact more legislation on key social issues such as health, education, anti-discrimination and child support.”

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In the Philippines, writes Miyen Verzosa, executive director of the Philippine Commission on Women, the theme for Women’s Month is “Juana: Ang tatag mo ay tatag natin sa pagbangon at pagsulong!” (Juana: Your strength is our strength in rising from adversity and moving forward)

This theme, and the spirit of rising above challenges and fashioning responses from the rubble of disaster will be carried forward by the Philippine delegation to the 58th Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women, which opens tomorrow. Our delegation is headed by Neda Deputy Director General Margarita Songco. Ambassador Libran Cabactulan, head of the Philippine Mission to the United Nations, will also preside over the negotiations.

With the Millennium Development Goals due for an overall assessment next year, this year’s CSW priority theme is “Challenges and Achievements in the Implementation of the Millennium Development Goals for women and girls.” This early, it is foreseen that the Philippine delegation will take active part in articulating the need to mainstream women and girls in overall plans for prevention, response, mitigation and reconstruction related to disasters, particularly in side events that have to do with postdisaster responses and the need to protect women and girls in the aftermath (including sexual exploitation,

trafficking and reproductive health challenges).

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I write of the CSW58 because I will be joining the Philippine delegation as one of many representatives of nongovernment organizations (for my women’s group Pilipina).

And so, as I fly out to New York early next week, I will be carrying with me thoughts of everything that we as women have achieved, as well as the difficulties and challenges we still face, particularly in the aftermath of natural and human-made disasters.

I will be thinking in particular of young women, the women our generation raised from babies to girls to the women achievers they have become.

Indeed, it’s been a cha-cha-cha the last few decades, one step forward that we have cheered on, two steps back for news of yet another girl child raped, exploited, killed. But the dance has taken place against the backdrop of a personal and social sea change that has seen women break free of the “braces on their minds” to envision futures and selves we could only dream of in our time.

Finally, let me quote as affirmation and celebration from poet Katie Makkai, as posted by my friend Rej Layug Rosero on her FB wall: “You will be pretty intelligent,/pretty creative,/pretty amazing/But you will never be merely pretty.”