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Engendering Development:: An Overview of The Philippine Experience

The document discusses gender inequality and poverty in the Philippines. It outlines the biological, social, and economic factors that contribute to the oppression and deprivation of freedoms that women face. It also describes the evolution of approaches to promote gender equality, from a welfare model to a system that aims to empower women and address inequality at various levels of society through policies, programs, and legal reforms.

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YieMaghirang
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81 views

Engendering Development:: An Overview of The Philippine Experience

The document discusses gender inequality and poverty in the Philippines. It outlines the biological, social, and economic factors that contribute to the oppression and deprivation of freedoms that women face. It also describes the evolution of approaches to promote gender equality, from a welfare model to a system that aims to empower women and address inequality at various levels of society through policies, programs, and legal reforms.

Uploaded by

YieMaghirang
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Engendering

Development:
An Overview of the Philippine Experience
Marilyn B. Barua Yap
Atty. Marilyn B. Barua Yap

• A lawyer who served more than 35 years in the government, 28


years of which were in the legislature
• Elected as Secretary General of the House of Representatives in the
14th Congress- the first woman to occupy the position; and in the
15th Congress.
Introduction
• Development is a process of expanding the real freedoms that people
enjoy. It requires the removal of major sources of unfreedom:
poverty as well as tyranny, poor economic opportunities as well as
systematic social deprivation, neglect of public facilities as well as
intolerance or over-activity of repressive states.

- Amartya Sen
Poverty
• Poverty embraces the spectrum of conditions where these freedoms
are diminished, at best, and denied at worst.
• The bigger tragedy is that within the circles of the poor, the denial
and diminution of these freedoms, the deprivation of opportunities
for development, and the burden of social inequality have been and
continue to be more oppressive and dehumanizing on women.
Gender Inequality and the Feminization
• Biological Determinism
• Gender Stereotyping
• Private/Public Role Dichotomy
Sexual Division of Labor
Biological Determinism
The biological nature of women is used to confine them to their
reproductive functions, restrict their capacities for doing and being,
confer on men’s superior physical attributes and legitimize men’s
domination of women
Gender Stereotyping
• Particular traits, characteristics and roles are ascribed distinctly and
strictly to women and men.
• Any transgression of these ascribed traits, characteristics and roles is
deemed deviant or abnormal behavior.
• The socialization process in the family, educational system, the
portrayal of women in media, the legal system and the teachings of
various religions, among others, perpetuate women’s captivity in the
trap of gender stereotyping.
Private/Public Role Dichotomy
• The home is the private sphere where women must be.
• The public sphere – politics and the electoral arena, government, the
bureaucracy, public enterprise, even the hierarchy of institutionalized
religions among others – is the natural domain of men.
Sexual division of labor
(Production vs Reproduction)
• Production pertains to the public sphere
-Creation of goods and services in exchange for cash
• Reproduction
-care of maintenance of household, pregnancy, child bearing, food
preparation, etc.
(In the Philippines, production is given more value than reproduction)
Statistics
• By the end of 2001, poverty incidence rose from 40%-45%
• According to Philippine Human Development Report of 2002, Slightly
more than half of the unemployed in the country are women.
• Among the poor, women are 81% of the non-labor force.
Addressing Gender Concerns: From
Integration to Gender Equality
• United Nations triggered the pursuit of gender equality in the period
of 1976-1985 as a women’s decade.
• NGO’s were made
- Civic Assembly of Women of the Philippines (CAWP)
- National Commisssion on the Role of Filipino Women (NCRFW)
- NCRF was influenced by the Women in Development (WID/WAD)
framework that focused on improving women’s welfare and other
programs.
Some Laws in the Philippines for the
advancement of welfare of women
• Anti-Rape Law of 1997 (RA8353)
• Assistance and Protection for Rape Victims Act (RA8505)
• Anti-Sexual Harassment Act of 1995 (RA 7877)
• Women in Development and Nation Building Act (RA7192)
• Anti-Discrimination Against Women In Terms Of Employment Act
(RA6725)
• Increased Maternity Benefits Act (RA 7322)
Gender and Development (GAD) Paradigm
• GAD Budget Policy was championed by then Senator Leticia Shahani
and contained n Section 28 of the General Appropriations Act of
1995.
• Contained concerns for the advancement of women
Gender and Development (GAD) Paradigm
concerned in six major spheres
• Individual
• Family
• Socio-Cultural
• Economic
• Political
• Legal
Individual Sphere
• Personal Development is the thrust
• Programs that improve women’s self worth and child support systems
are priority
Family Sphere
• The goal is to encourage the child-rearing and parenting to
breadwinning to domestic work so that multiple burden of women
would be eliminated.
Socio-Cultural Sphere
• Consciousness raising through educational system and the media so
that gender stereotyping and discrimination can cease to persist.
• Programs are also intended to address women’s concerns on health,
nutrition, and family planning.
Economic Sphere
• The thrust is equality in economic opportunities between men and
women.
• Programs creating support systems for women to enable them to be
economically productive such as credit, women-friendly technology
and facilities, and training are significant priorities.
5 Levels of The GAD Approach
• Material Welfare
• Access to Resources
• Conscientization
• Participation
• Control
Material Welfare

- Involves health and Nutritional Status


- It is manifested in regard for women as passive recipients of welfare
benefits
Access to resources
• Empowerment activities are essential to afford women equal access
to appropriate and enabling resources like skills, knowledge, credit
and commodities.
• If women are empowered to overcome the obstacles to access, they
are also enabled to confront the systematic roots of discrimination
Participation
• To merely have a share in resources is not participation
• To take part in making decisions is a means individuals are enabled to
chart directions for improving their lives.
Control
• Women must have the capacity to ensure that decisions they make
are carried out. It requires the institutionalization and mainstreaming
of all interventions at the first four levels.
Gender Mainstreaming Strategy
Key Elements
- Sex disaggregated data and statistics
- Skills and opportunities to undertake gender analysis
- Effective monitoring and evaluations systems and tools
- National/subnational/local structures which clearly defined roles for
leadership and support for gender mainstreaming
- Effective communication networks and linkages
- A skilled human resource base
- Sustained civil society participation
Reflections and Recommendations
• To achieve women empowerment and gender equality requires
radical social change. Considering that unequal gender relations are
rooted in our historical experience, and imbedded and perpetuated
and across our socio-cultural, political and economic institutions and
systems, mainstreaming gender and development concerns is,
conceptually or theoretically, the most appropriate and responsive
strategy.
Reflections and Recommendations
The three branches of government must work together to achieve
gender equality.
Engendering Development is indeed no easy task. We need a
government that has the political will to pursue a genuine social reform
agenda and the informed resolve to craft development policies that
would support the resolute implementation of authentic social reform
initiatives.

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