in a company.

Most likely, women will be

PRELIMS left to do menial jobs compared to men of
the same qualifications – such
MODULE 1
discrimination is based solely on them being
1.1 DISCIMINATION TODAY women.
Generally speaking, in most societies,
Women in the Philippines: women are often perceived as the weaker
- Protected under the Constitution (Article sex.
II, Section 13) – women are vital to nation-
building, and their inclusion in societal 1.2 LEVELING OFF: GENDER
structures and processes is key to equality AND SEXUALITY
and development.
Sex – in the biological sense, is a category
- In 2016, the Philippines ranked 7th in the for living beings specifically related to their
world for gender equality by the World reproductive functions. For most living
Economic Forum. creatures, there are two sexes – the male and
the female.
* The Global Gender Gap Index was first
introduced by the World Economic Forum Two types of sex
in 2006 as a framework for capturing the
magnitude of gender-based disparities and Male and Female
tracking their progress over time. The index
benchmarks national gender gaps on Characteristic Males Females
economic, education, health and political Genitalia Penis Vagina
criteria and provides country rankings that Chromosomes XY XX
allow for effective comparisons across Progesterone
regions and income groups. The rankings Hormones Testosterone
and Estrogen
are designed to create global awareness of
Sex Cell Sperm Cell Egg Cell
the challenges posed by gender gaps and the
opportunities created by reducing them.
“Effeminate man”
Discrimination Today: - A man with higher levels of progesterone
- In the reproductive sphere or the and estrogen
household, childcare is a primary task
“Masculinate woman”
mainly left to women in most societies.
- A woman with higher levels of
Pay Gap – women earn less than men. In
Testosterone.
fact, in the United States, for each one dollar
($1.00) a man earns, a woman will only earn Gender – a socially learned behavior usually
80 cents ($0.80) even if they have the same associated with one’s sex. Based on how
qualifications and responsibilities. people see themselves and their tendency to
act along either a masculine or feminine
Glass Ceiling – certain attitudes and beliefs
line.
about women’s abilities limit their positions
Two types of gender: 3. Sex-Role Stereotype – the roles that men
and women are assigned based on their sex
1. Femininity – behavior that one associates and what behaviors they must possess to
with females, may not actually be tied to a fulfill these roles.
woman’s sex.
4. Compounded Stereotype – assumptions
2. Masculinity – behavior that associates about a specific group belonging to a
with males, but may not actually be tied a gender, and vice versa. Example: lady
man’s sex. guard, older men, young women, etc.
Gender Role Socialization – the process of SOGIE – Sexual Orientation and Gender
learning and internalizing culturally Identity and Expression
approved ways of thinking, feeling, and
behaving. 1. Sexual Orientation – covers three
dimensions of human sexuality. Involves
Types of Gender Roles who one is attracted to and how one
Socialization: identifies themself about this attraction,
which includes romantic and sexual feelings.
1. External Regulation – involves various
institutions (family, society, church, State, i) Sexual attraction, behavior, and fantasies
etc.) dictating what is proper and standard
ii) Emotional and social preference; self-
based on one’s identity.
identification
2. Internal Regulation/ Internalized Social
iii) Heterosexual and Homosexual lifestyle
Control – a person polices themself
according to society’s standards and norms. 2. Gender Identity – refers to one’s personal
experience of gender or social relations.
Gender Stereotypes - develop when different
institutions reinforce a biased perception of 3. Gender Expression – determines how one
a specific gender’s role. expresses their sexuality through the actions
or manner of presenting oneself.
Types of Gender Stereotypes:
LGBTQIA – an initialism movement
1. Sex Stereotype – a generalized view of meaning:
traits that should be possessed by men and
women, specifically physical and emotional 1. Lesbians – women attracted to women
roles.
2. Gays – men attracted to men
2. Sexual Stereotype – assumptions
3. Bisexuals – people who are attracted to
regarding a person’s sexuality that
either sex
reinforces dominant views.
4. Transgenders – people who are
Heteronormativity – the assumption that all
transitioning
persons are only attracted to the sex opposite
theirs. 5. Queer/Questioning – people who are not
yet sure
6. Intersex- people are born with sex seen as having both male and female spirits
characteristics (including genitals, gonads, within them.
and chromosomes patterns) that do not fit
7. Queer - is an umbrella term for sexual and
typical binary notions of male or female
gender minorities that are not heterosexual
bodies; intersex is an umbrella term used to
or cisgender. Queer was originally used
describe a wide variety of natural bodily
pejoratively against those with same-sex
variations.
desires but, beginning in the late-1980s,
7. Asexual – people who have no sexual queer scholars and activists began to reclaim
feelings the word.
LGBTQIA WORD AND DEFINITION 8. The questioning - of one’s gender, sexual
identity, sexual orientation, or all three is a
1. Lesbian - A lesbian is a female
process of exploration by people who may
homosexual: a female who experiences
be unsure, still exploring, and concerned
romantic love or sexual attraction to other
about applying a social label to themselves
females.
for various reasons.
2. Gay - is a term that primarily refers to a
9. Intersex - is a variation in sex
homosexual person or the trait of being
characteristics including chromosomes,
homosexual. Gay is often used to describe
gonads, or genitals that do not allow an
homosexual males but lesbians may also be
individual to be distinctly identified as male
referred to as gay.
or female.
3. Bisexual - is romantic attraction, sexual
10. Asexuality - (or nonsexuality) is the lack
attraction or sexual behavior toward both
of sexual attraction to anyone, or low or
males and females, or romantic or sexual
absent interest in sexual activity. It may be
attraction to people of any sex or gender
considered the lack of a sexual orientation,
identity; this latter aspect is sometimes
or one of the variations thereof, alongside
termed pansexuality.
heterosexuality, homosexuality and
4. Transgender - is an umbrella term for bisexuality.
people whose gender identity differs from
11. An Ally - is a person who considers
what is typically associated with the sex
themselves a friend to the LGBTQ+
they were assigned at birth. It is sometimes
community.
abbreviated to trans.
12. Pansexual - Pansexuality, or
5.Transsexual - experience a gender identity
omnisexuality, is sexual attraction, romantic
inconsistent or not culturally associated with
love, or emotional attraction toward people
the sex they were assigned at birth.
of any sex or gender identity. Pansexual
6. Two-Spirit - is a modern umbrella term people may refer to themselves as gender-
used by some indigenous North Americans blind, asserting that gender and sex are
to describe gender-variant individuals in insignificant or irrelevant in determining
their communities, specifically people whether they will be sexually attracted to
within indigenous communities who are others.
13. Agender - people, also called genderless, Gender Equality -The recognition of the
genderfree, non-gendered, or ungendered State (government) that all human beings are
people are those who identify as having no free to enjoy equal conditions and fulfill
gender or being without any gender identity. their human potential to contribute to the
This category includes a very broad range of State and to the society.
identities which do not conform to
traditional gender norms. MODULE 2
14. Gender Queer - is an umbrella term for 2.1 CULTURES AND
gender identities that are not exclusively RATIONALIST
masculine or feminine identities which are
thus outside of the gender binary and Instinct and Culture
cisnormativity.
1. Human beings, unlike animals, are not
15. Bigender - is a gender identity where the heavily dependent on instinct.
person moves between feminine and
2. Humans possess systems of meanings that
masculine gender identities and behaviours,
tell what is right or wrong, and good and
possibly depending on context. Some
evil. Most of what people do is shaped or
bigender individuals express two distinct
determined by these systems
“female” and “male” personas, feminine and
masculine respectively; others find that they Culture – the system of symbols that allow
identify as two genders simultaneously. people to give meaning to experience. It is
malleable and adaptable – meaning, culture
16. Gender variance, or gender
can change.
nonconformity,- is behaviour or gender
expression by an individual that does not * Culture Provides systems of shortcuts for
match masculine and feminine gender meaningful interpretations and responses.
norms. People who exhibit gender variance
* It takes the place of instinct to give people
may be called gender variant, gender non-
a quick representation and response based
conforming, gender diverse or gender
on collective experience to the things that
atypical, and may be transgender, or
confront them
otherwise variant in their gender expression.
Some intersex people may also exhibit Microaggression – hostile, derogatory, or
gender variance. negative racial slights and insults. can cause
potentially harmful or unpleasant
17. Pangender - people are those who feel
psychological impacts on the target
they identify as all genders. The term has a
person/group.
great deal of overlap with gender queer.
Because of its all-encompassing nature, 2.2 WOMAN WAYS OF
presentation and pronoun usage varies THINGKING
between different people who identify as
pangender. Women’s Ways of Knowing
Sexism - is defined as the prejudice against a The role of universal caregiving has been
certain sex. given to women.
Girls learn by copying their mothers; boys learn to defend their beliefs and rationalize
learn through disassociation. their thoughts, and they focus on the method
more and less on the problem.
Women learn through empathy; men learn
through separation. 5. Constructed Knowledge: Integrating the
Voices – women need to reflect on and
Women’s Ways of Knowing: accept themselves. Women must learn to
1. Women and Silence – silence indicates an value their methods of knowing and their
absence of thought or reflection. Women own constructed knowledge. They must turn
who live in silence are often disconnected inward.
from their families and communities due to
2.3 GENDER FAIR LANGUAGE
their situation, which creates a lack of space
for constructive thought. Women who learn Language – a primary symbol for
through silence cannot understand abstract communication and how humans understand
ideas. They do not enjoy introspection. and participate in the world.
2. Received Knowledge: Listening to the • Language defines men and women
Voice of Others – developed by absorbing differently as seen in common adjectives
knowledge (like a sponge). Women who (his, her, her, etc.) associated with these
learn through receiving knowledge listen to genders.
friends and authorities (community leaders
Sexist Language – a tool that reinforces
and their husbands) and understand what is
unequal gender relations through sex-role
being said enough for them to repeat words.
stereotypes, microaggressions, and sexual
They can do the right thing by following the
harassment.
rules of authority figures. Still, they cannot
comprehend paradoxes (if two or more of Example: “women cannot be engineers,”
her authority figures have contradicting “men cannot take care of children.”
information, she cannot distinguish which is
correct). Invisibilization of Women – rooted in the
assumption that men are dominant and the
3. Subjective Knowledge: The Inner Voice norm of the fullness of humanity, and
and the Quest for Self – women learn to women do not exist. The generic use of
trust their “inner voice and infallible gut.” masculine pronouns or a masculine general.
Through this, women who know have
awakened to the previous abuses they have Example: “mankind” assumes that men
suffered. They realized that following rules represent all people on the planet.
would not make them happy. They depend • The assumption that men instead of both
on themselves and their experience to attain genders perform certain functions or jobs.
truth (use of intuition).
Example: “The farmers and their wives
4. Procedural Knowledge: Voice of Reason tilled the land.” This assumes that men can
and Separate and Connected Knowing – have jobs as farmers, and women who do
women who learn through the process and the same jobs are still called wives.
learn well from formal systems of
knowledge, enough for them to excel. They
• The use of male job titles or terms ending Identities and Naming Things –
in ‘man’ refers to functions that may be naming things to give them power.
given to both genders.
For example, sexual harassment was never
Example: “chairman,” “congressman” seen as an issue until it was named. The
Trivialization of Women same thing goes with “date rape,” before
calling it such, it is just referred to as “rape.”
• Bringing attention to the gender of a
person, if and only if that person is a Towards a Gender-fair Language
woman. GABRIELA (General Assembly Binding
Example: “lady guard,” “working wives” Women for Reforms, Integrity, Equality,
Leadership, and Action) Women’s Party
• The perception that women are immature. national president and party-list
Example: “baby,” “darling” representative Liza Maza called for a ban of
sexist language in all official
• The objectification, or likening to objects, communication and documents in the House
of women. of Representatives. The creation of a
Example: “honey,” “sugar,” “tart” comprehensive gender-fair language policy
and the evaluation of the effectiveness of
Violations of Gender-fair Language gender-fair language in institutions are
indicators for a gender-fair institution. These
Fostering unequal gender relations - actions are small steps one can take in
Example: The use of “man and wife” ensuring that institutions are indeed gender-
assumes that men are still men and women’s fair.
identities subsumed and shifted into beings
in relation to their husbands
Gender polarization of words in use if
adjectives - Example: Both men and women
did the same activity but were described
differently.
Hidden Assumptions - Example: The
statement “the father is babysitting his
children” assumes that the father is not a
caregiver, and that any attempt he has at
parenting is temporary as the mother is the
main caregiver
 tertiary levels.
MIDTERM • Women are still underrepresented in
STEM.
MODULE 3
LESSON 3.1 WOMEN: A C. Women and Health
SECTOR SITUATIONER • Pregnancy and pregnancy are still
the main health concerns for women
The Beijing Platform for Action aged 15-29, and HIV/AIDS
(BPA) has provided 12 sectors where aggravates it.
women are generally oppressed. • Women’s life expectancy, on
WOMEN: A SECTOR average, is longer than that of men.
SITUATIONER
D. Expanded: Violence Against
A. Women and the Economy: Women and their Children
Women and Work (VAWC) of 2004
• Work is often understood as a form
• One in three women has
of livelihood.
experienced some form of
• Women have specific labor issues
VAW in her life, of these,
related to their gender.
one in five has experienced
• Fewer women are represented in the
attempted or actual rape and
labor force than men (since women
half of these victims are
are “expected” to stay at home and
made of girls 16 and below.
take care of their children).
• 30% of women’s first sexual
• There is a pay gap also; women have
encounter was forced or
an average of two more hours of work
non-consensual.
than men per day due to their
• Culture-specific violence
productive work at home.
like bride burning, child
brides, and female genital
B. Women and Education mutilation is still practiced
• Gender parity (equality) has been in some parts of the world.
achieved in primary education in the
Philippines.
• In places with gender disparity, E. Women and Armed Conflict
women are at a higher risk of • Rape and sexual violence are seen as
discrimination. war tactics to instill fear among
• Inequality increases at higher levels communities (e.g., Boko Haram,
of education, though there is an ISIS).
increase in female participation in
• Women in armed conflict areas are Children
prone to harassment or are made to • Girl-children are more susceptible to
enter forced domestic servitude, and harmful practices like female
most cases remain unreported due to infanticide (killing baby girls) and
the fear of the stigma attached to it. sex-selective abortion.
• Chapter 4 of Philippines’ Magna • Since many cultures value baby
Carta for Women: “all women shall boys than girls, people in poorer
be protected from all forms of countries tend to give more food to
violence as provided for in existing boys, leaving girls at risk of
laws.” malnutrition.
• Female circumcisions are still
prevalent in some cultures.
F. Women in Power and Politics
• Teenage pregnancies are still
• Globally, women compose only
prevalent due to lack of access to sex
22% of all parliaments/congresses.
education, family planning seminars,
• 143 out of 195 countries have
and contraceptives.
constitutional provisions to ensure
gender equality.
• Women in the Philippines still I. Women and the Environment
constitute less than half of the elected. • Women are more susceptible to
having less access to clean water
sanitation and energy; also, women
G. Institutional Mechanisms and
have more risk of exposure to natural
the Human Rights of Women
disasters.
• The Magna Carta for Women is
• Poor women are forced to walk for
considered the “comprehensive bill of
20 minutes to one hour to get water
rights for Filipino women.” This is a
and firewood for their families (ex.
powerful mechanism that enforces
Sub-Saharan Africa), most times,
gender equality in the country, and it
multiple times a day.
has three tracks:
1. Issuance of administrative
memorandum circulars for all Three J. Women and Disasters
Branches of the Government. • Women are more vulnerable to the
2. Issuance of guidelines to enhance effects of disasters, which are
the capacity of agencies in gender increased by the resulting poverty
planning. incidence and migration.
3. Legislative review to amend
discriminatory provisions.
K. Women in Indigenous
Communities
H. Discrimination Against Girl- • Women members of Indigenous
Peoples (IPs) have little to no access raising their general well-
to government services like health, being.
education, and housing, due to their • The quest for constant
location outside cities. This forces growth is problematic for
them to go to the cities in search of some reasons, including that
better conditions, where they are the continual desire for
exploited. change drains our natural
resources: (i) severe water
crisis caused by global
L. Filipino Women in Other Sectors
warming, (ii) loss of
• Women living in ARMM (now
thousands of species of flora
BARMM) are affected by the
and fauna, (iii) forests are
decades-long armed conflict.
disappearing rapidly every
LESSON 3.2 WOMEN, year, (iv) “peak oil” – a
state in which all the easily
DEVELOPMENT, AND accessible oil has been
THE WORLD consumed and that the only
available petroleum supply
WOMEN, DEVELOPMENT AND comes from sources that are
THE WORLD very difficult to access.
• Global Warming is caused
Growth and Development
by CO2 and other
• Development is assessed in greenhouse gases emitted by
the gross national product human modes of
(GNP – includes foreign transportation and energy-
investments) and gross intensive production
domestic product (GDP – systems (Intergovernmental
wealth produced from local Panel for Climate Change,
investments and activities). 2014).
These measure the
Women and the Dominant Economic
economic activity based on
System
how much people in a
• The pursuit for development is
country are making in terms
destructive to the world, yet people
of income-generating
insist on pursuing it despite the vast
products and services. One
ecological destruction it has caused.
can argue that more
• A more significant proportion of the
economic activity equates to
vulnerable people are women.
greater earnings of the
• The dominant system (Western
people in the country,
liberal capitalism) needs to be
reexamined because of its potential values of individualism and
for harm. aggressiveness that do not encourage
• The Western ideal has a history of or allow deep relationships.
wealth accumulation that required • Women are said to value dialogue
non-European people and land and accommodation because of the
colonization. recognition of the pluralism in the
• Women have suffered from the society, and they tend to see
violence: (i) women were made to fill personhood as “relational” instead of
the gap for cheaper labor, (ii) women “autonomous” or “individualistic.”
were generally paid less, and (iii)
women are also expected to produce
Agriculture and the Values of
and raise the future workforce for
Development
industries, often having to take on the
• A few large corporations control the
double burden of child-rearing and
food that value profit over ecology.
income generation because economic
• To mass-produce, they need farmers
development demands that their
who will grow large amounts of
husbands be paid insufficient wages.
chicken, pigs, and cows in pins.
• The monoculture system means that
Gender and Development many plant life species will eventually
• Western economic values compel get wiped out as farmers no longer
women to decide between success in cultivate them or their habitats are
the financial system and family and being destroyed to plant the
community life cultivation. commercial varieties of plants.
• Well-being based on consumption,
income growth, and the push for more
How Women Feed the World
wealth is never questioned, while
• Women are known as keepers of
well-being founded on relationships,
biodiversity as the preservation of
community, and fulfillment is set
plant species is directly tied to how
aside.
the locals utilize their understanding
• An individual is obliged to acquire a
of which species are suited to a given
certain income level to feel their value
environment without resorting to
in a community and keep up with
planting methods that impose the use
accumulation, growth, and
of artificial chemicals and processes.
consumption at levels that can support
• Women plant more nutritious food
their society.
than those produced by multinational
• A competitive market may translate
corporations, as claimed by FAO and
to less time with their children. It
UN.
takes away time from the family and
• Rural women can sustain life better
community. It pushes one to adopt
than big businesses – proof that one
need not rely on destructive, mass called destructive development.
production-based development to feed • Subsistence economies are assumed
the world. to be underdeveloped because “they
do not participate overwhelmingly in
the market economy, and do not
Women about Development
consume commodities produced for
• Development is based on aggressive
and distributed through the market
masculine values, and women act
even though they might be satisfying
together to enrich or correct this
those needs through self-provisioning
narrow view of development.
mechanisms.”
• Women empowerment and capacity-
• Women need to participate in more
building are keys to realizing self-
than just an expansion of the existing
development and achieving the well-
economic system. Action should not
being of women.
simply men the Westernization of the
• The exclusion of women in
world.
decision-making and governance
structures is a significant hindrance to LESSON 3.3 GENDER
the participation of women.
• The Women, Culture, and
INTEREST AND NEEDS
Development (WCD) approach to Gender Interests and Needs
development is a new model for
empowering women. This advances - Development plans and policies
women's liberalization by realizing often view women as one
the capacity of women to become homogenous group; this assumes that
agents of change in a holistic the needs of all women are the same.
perspective based on women’s
culture, a system of values and Gender Interests – interests that
understanding, and economic men or women develop by “virtue of
structures and social systems. their social positioning through
gender attributes.” Gender interests
are assumed by many to be the same
Pro-Women Perspectives on
for all those belonging to the same
Development
sex.
According to Shiva, an economic
Gender interests are divided
system geared toward growth and
into practical and strategic, dependin
accumulation is anti-women and anti-
g on how these gender interests are
environment.
addressed.
• The cycle of intervention,
transformation, and processing for
accumulation and consumption is
 Gender Needs - are “means by MODULE 4
which their concerns may be
satisfied.” LESSON 4.1: LAWS,
Types of Gender Needs: POLICIES, AND
PROGRAM FOR
1. Practical – concerned with
women’s immediate needs for
PHILIPPINE WOMEN
survival – nutrition, living
conditions, healthcare, and
employment. LAWS, POLICIES, AND
2. Strategic – the needs women PROGRAM FOR PHILIPPINE
identify because of their WOMEN
subordinate position to men in Human Rights Approach – the way
their society. the world is structured places some
groups (especially women) at a
- Strategic needs relate to the disadvantage; said groups have
gender division of labor, power, special rights specific to their needs,
and control, including legal rights, including sexual and reproductive
domestic violence, equal wages, health care, protection against gender-
and women’s control over their based violence, and freedom non-
bodies. discrimination education and the
workplace.
Gender Gender • This is essential as it increases
Interest Needs awareness about women’s plight and
particular needs.
In Elimination Laws and Treaties Passed to
Gender planning of gender Address Demands for Women’s
Strategic
Equality terms division in Rights Protection:
------> labor 1. Universal Declaration of Human
Rights of 1948 (UDHR) – a “common
In
standard of achievement for all
Provision of peoples and nations.” Provides all
Human planning food, water,
Practical terms people (regardless of race, sex,
Survival and
employment gender, nationality, skin color, etc.)
------> the same fundamental human rights
and has universal application to all
human beings.
2. Convention on the Elimination of home, in the workplace, and the
all Forms of Discrimination Against public sector.
Women (CEDAW) of 1979 – also
• Feminization of Poverty – the
known as the “International Bill of
phenomenon in which most of the
Rights of Women.” Affirms women's
world's poor are women.
reproductive rights and targets culture
and tradition as influential forces 4. 2000 Millennium Development
shaping gender roles and family Goals (MDGs) – a collection of eight
relations. It also seeks to identify the goals that focus on significant issues
different places where women may of the underprivileged people.
experience discrimination and suggest Concentrate on reducing poverty,
policy strategies to overcome it. hunger, disease, and gender inequality
and ensuring access to water and
• The Philippine Government, in
sanitation by 2015.
response to CEDAW, has enacted the
Magna Carta for Women to serve as • Goal 2 – achieve universal primary
the Government’s commitment. education
• CEDAW Definition of • Goal 3 – Promote gender equality
Discrimination – any distinction, and empower women
exclusion or restriction made based on • Goal 4 – improve maternal health
sex which has the effect or purpose of
impairing or nullifying the 5. 2015 Sustainable Development
recognition, enjoyment or exercise by Goals (SDGs) – addresses the causes
women, irrespective of their marital of poverty and inequality in the world
status, based on equality of men and today. Serves as the continuation of
women, of human rights and the MDG.
fundamental freedoms in the political, • SDG 5 – achieve gender equality
economic, social, cultural, civil, or and empower all women and girls
any other field. • Gender-specific targets of the SDG
3. Beijing Platform for Action of 1994 include the “end of all forms of
(BPA) – emphasizes that women discrimination against all women and
share common concerns that can be girls everywhere.”
addressed only by working together
and in partnership with men towards
to common goal of [gender] equality Laws and Policies for Women in the
for all around the world. It aims for Philippines
the full participation of women in all 1. Article II, Section 13 of the 1987
spheres of life through the shared Constitution – recognizes the vital
responsibilities of men and women at role of women in nation-building.
2. RA 7192 – Women in • How did it happen that half of the
Development and Nation Building world’s population is systematically
Act. Tasked the National Commission discriminated against?
on the Role of Women (NCRW), now • Women:
the Philippine Commission of Women
▪ Bears children and mainly raise their
(PCW), to assist in ensuring the
children from infancy and up to their
formulation and nationwide
early years.
implementation of gender-responsive
▪ A source of cultural and emotional
government policies, programs, and
education of children.
projects.
▪ Primary task of taking care of the
3. Executive Order 348 – created the family (universal caregiving).
Philippine Development Plan 1989- ▪ First healer due to their extensive
1992 knowledge of herbs.
4. Philippine Plan for Gender- • At some point in all ancient cultures,
Responsive Development – a 30-year women were hailed as mediators to
perspective plan from 1995-2025 the gods.
covering the following domains: the Rosalind Miles – a famous feminist
individual, the family, and socio- writer, journalist, and historian who
cultural, economic, political, and legal has researched the hidden role of
issues. This is the Philippines’ women throughout history. Compiled
implementing vehicle for BPA. theories to discuss the origin of
women’s oppression.
5. 2010 Harmonized Gender and
Development Guidelines
Theory 1: Goddess Worship to God
6. Women’s Empowerment,
Worship
Development, and Gender Equality
• From ancient civilizations that
(EDGE) Plan 2013-2016 promotes
worshipped the earth goddess to the
integrating a gender lens into all
male suppression of this goddess.
aspects of planning.
• Women-centric cults existed before
LESSON 4.2 THERIOES the phallocentric cults, a slow and
violent process.
ON THE ORIGIN OF • According to Miles, women were
WOMEN OPPRESSION less valued, and their status was
threatened with the expansion of
Theories on the Origin of phallus worship around 1500 BC.
Women’s Oppression • The first gods for early civilization
were women, celebrated and revered
Concept of Women’s Oppression for their fertility (dating to as far back
as 5000 years ago). Theory 3: A Shift of Production
• Goddess-Based Social Organization • The shift of production from hunter-
– the worship of mother goddesses gathering to agriculture has
lasted for as long as people contributed to the oppression of
experienced the development of life women. How? Reproduction became
as a mystery and a gift. Men realized an essential task in society as it was
that they, too, played a part in needed for workers. Women had to be
infertility. Eventually, societies watched, protected, and controlled.
concluded that the energy source was • Sexuality had to be overseen so the
the penis, not the womb. community could be assured that the
• People started believing that males children they produce will be loyal to
bore the creative power in which the the community.
seed of men developed inside the • A shift from food production to
female, who served as a receptive laborer production has oppressed
vessel of life. As male power grew, women
inequality also increased.
LESSON 4.3 THE WESTERN
• Women became seen not as active
WOMEN MOVEMENT.
partners but only as passive
incubators. The Western Women’s
Movement
Theory 2: Eve and the Other • Exposed the structural inequality
• Western Religion influenced a faced by women in a particular era.
negative perception of women.
• The Story of Eve – since she is of
Adam’s flesh (rib), she is his equal. Feminism – a way of looking at the
• The story shows how a woman had world through a woman’s perspective.
deprived all of humankind of the The patriarchal nature of society has
abundance that the Garden of Eden driven feminism to concern itself with
had to offer. Ultimately, a woman’s issues about women's oppression,
folly brought suffering to men. with an end goal of liberating women
• According to Miles, the links fall to through gender equality.
the goddess cult to the rise of
First Wave: Women and Civil Rights
discriminatory treatment against
women. • Called for women’s equal rights
• Women are perceived to be feeble- with men, focusing on the right to
minded, of lesser value to men, and vote.
ultimately, women could cause the • Originated during the French
downfall of great men. Revolution – Parisian women
marched to the Paris City Hall in 1789
to demand the right to cheaper bread. - Rooted in the movements of
• The theoretical root is Liberal liberation in the 1960s and 1970s and
Feminism. Women became the heightened feminist
articulated of their equality with men. consciousness.
This is inspired by the political
thoughts of Kant, Mill, and Rousseau. - Socialist Feminism – believes that
women are opposed in all aspects of
their lives, not only in the economic
A. Women and the Anti-Slavery part. Women’s subjugation is rooted
Movement in the concept of having a
• The idea that a woman is her monogamous family, and
husband's property may explain the monogamous women are confined in
strong connection between the their homes and discouraged from
women’s liberation movement and the participating in productive labor.
anti-slavery in the West.
• Women had no political voice, and - Radical Feminism – sought to
during the 1840 World Anti-Slavery ensure women’s differences from men
Convention, women delegates were were recognized and celebrated.
even made to listen behind curtains. Came about as a reaction to the lack
• Attendees like Lucretia Mott and of attention given to sex and sexuality
Elizabeth Cady Stanton say this is in the women’s struggle.
similar to women’s situation with
enslaved people. Third Wave
B. Women’s Right to Vote • Shifted focus to include the needs of
• Participants in the first wave of the women from developing countries in
women’s emancipation movement light of the effect of globalization and
fought for the right to vote, equal neoliberalist economic policies.
opportunity for employment and • Call for feminism that embraced the
commerce, and the right to education. plurality of women’s experience.
• Seneca Falls Convention – the first • Deemed to be more inclusive, as
women’s rights convention in New voices from post-colony and post-
York City in 1848. Produced the socialist countries were involved in
Declaration of Sentiments and the movement.
eventually led to what would be
known as the suffrage (suffragette)
movement.
Second Wave
LESSON 5.1 WOMEN IN hearts and given special
THE PHILIPPINES powers to engage the unseen
beings of nature. A culture
Women in the Philippines bearer, priestess, and myth
keeper healing one’s body
and soul and relationship
The pre-colonial Philippines
with the spirits and nature.
• There was no discrimination
between sons and daughters, and
parents took pride in their children.
All children are equal in terms of Hispanic Period
inheritance. • Spanish clergy saw early Filipinas as
• All children are educated equally, too sensuous and free with their
and each took an active role in society behavior but were appreciated for
when they grew up. being intelligent, strong-willed, and
• Marriages were arranged, and the practical.
groom paid the wife’s family a dowry. • Friars admonished women to remain
The woman kept her name, and if she pure.
was exceptionally meritorious, the • Women were taught to avoid sin by
husband took her name. Spouses are keeping chaste, not being vain,
viewed as equal partners in marriage. dressing modestly, keeping busy at
• Divorce was available, and both had home, and being self-sacrificing.
equal rights to property and children. • Spaniards created a woman who was
only active at home and withdrawn
• Sexual inhibitions regarding from the public sphere.
virginity in marriage were • Filipinas were reduced to an
not universally valued; sex instrument for propagating the
education was prescribed colonial system and producing the
duty of mothers to daughters next generation to ensure its survival.
(Code of Kalantiaw). • Maria Clara – the embodiment of a
• Women were free to Filipina during the Spanish Era. A
exercise their decisions sweet, docile, obedient, self-
concerning reproduction, sacrificing woman.
with abortion an option. • Logia de Adoption – an 1890s
• Women played an essential masonic lodge of intellectual women
role in the economic with anti-Spanish sentiments.
• Babaylan – individuals who
hold special knowledge or American Period
can converse with spirits. • From 1900 to the 1920s, most
Supposedly chosen by the women’s groups furthered the
presence of women in the public
sphere by focusing on charity work mainstreaming women’s concerns in
and social services. the transformation of society.
• Men had primarily done decision- 3. KALAYAAN – Katipunan ng
making at top levels in all these Kababaihan Pasa sa Kalayaan. I have
movements. worked within the national liberation
plan to ensure that the women’s
Three Insights (American Period to
liberation issues were not made
Martial Law):
secondary in the movement.
1. Movements were begun and
4. SAMAKA – Samahand Makabayan
dominated by men
ng Kabataang Pilipina. A women’s
2. The women’s involvement in these
group from the University of the
movements gave them liberties and
Philippines.
roles that were traditionally denied to
5. GABRIELA – General Assembly
them.
Binding Women for Reforms,
3. The goals and objectiveness of
Integrity, Equality, Leadership, and
these movements were valid for and
Action. A political party is focusing
essential to a smaller or significant
on women.
section of Filipino women.
The Birth of Militant Groups with a
Ten Filipinas Who Advanced
Feminist Agenda
Modern Feminism in the Country
• Revolutionary groups that emerged
1. Leticia Ramos-Shahani – a former
in the 1960s and 1970s were
Senator, chairperson of National
associated with the communist and
Commission on the Role of Filipina
socialist movements.
Women, country representative to the
The Nationalist and Militant
first Commission on the Status of
Movements
Women, and one of the women who
• Believed that the only way to
spearheaded and solely drafted
achieve equality in the society was to
CEDAW.
liberate the nation from exploiting the
2. Patricia Benitez-Licuanan – a
elite and the United States.
former chairperson of CHED,
Militant Groups: National Commission on the Role of
1. MAKIBAKA – Malayang Kilisan Filipina Women, Commission on the
ng Bagong Kababaihan. A group of Status of Women, Main Committee
student activists showed that the root Fourth World Conference of Women,
of women’s problems lay in and co-founder of the Asia Pacific
feudalism, capitalism, and Women’s Watch, the convener of the
colonialism. Asia-Pacific NGO Forum.
2. PILIPINA – Kilusan ng 3. Teresita Quintos-Delez – a peace
Kababaihang Pilipino. Focused on advocate, former chair, and co-
founder of Coalition for Peace, Education – a fundamental human
National Peace Conference. right, according to the UDHR,
4. Sister Mary John Mananzan, OSB essential for the progress of society.
– a feminist activist, former
• 2nd Millennium Development Goal
GABRIELA chairperson, and former
– right to universal primary education
president of St. Scholastica’s College.
to eliminate gender disparity in
One of the top 100 Inspiring People in
primary and secondary education.
the World in 2011.
• 4th Sustainable Development Goal –
5. Sister Christine Tan – first Filipina
aims to ensure inclusive and equal
to head the Philippine Province of the
education for all and promote lifelong
Religious of the Good Shepherd.
learning.
6. Joi Barrios (Maria Josephine
Barrios) – a famous poet, actress,
scriptwriter, and activist. Her works Gender can influence an individual’s
include To Be A Woman is to Live at experience with education (how a
A Time of War. person gets, what kind of quality of
7. Lorena Barros – one of the education a person receives, etc.).
founders of MAKIBAKA.
8. Raisa Jajurie – advocate of Muslim • In some countries, women are still
women’s rights. Founded Nisa Ul- fighting for their right to education
Haqq fi Bangsamoro (women for (example: the story of Malala)
Justice in the Bangsamoro). • Some struggle for the fundamental
9. Roselle Ambubuyog – first privilege to take up a non-traditional
visually-impaired Filipina summa course/program (a course/program
cum laude. She was granted a full that is not usually associated with a
scholarship at the Ateneo de Manila particular gender).
University for a bachelor’s degree in • It should be noted that gender parity
Mathematics. in education does not mean gender
10. Rosa Henson – a comfort woman. equality. This creates a more just and
Her autobiography Comfort Women: equitable society for all.
Slave of Destiny was published in • Some benefits for women include
1992. She joined Hukbalahap in the better economic opportunities,
WW2. delayed marriage, reduced fertility,
better sexual and reproductive health
LESSON 5.2 WOMEN AND and rights, and equality and
EDUCATION empowerment.
Women and Education The Importance of Education: An
International Perspective
1. UDHR – Article 26 provides that
Gender and Education education is everyone’s fundamental
right. Primary education is a non- Evaluation (2010). Identifies other
negotiable right that must be free for recommendations to achieve a
all. Higher, technical and professional gender-fair system of education.
education should be accessible and Designed to help monitor the gender
based on merits and skills. responsiveness of academic programs.
2. CEDAW – necessitates the
elimination of discrimination against
Gender and Development Markers in
women, specifically
Education
the elimination of discriminatory
Multispectral
laws, practices, and acts against
• Primary and Secondary –
women in educational institutions.
participation, enrollment, and positive
3. MDG and SDG – education is the
performance in standardized tests are
only formal institution (outside of the
used as indicators.
family) that all individuals are
• Higher Education – performance of
required to pass through. Education is
male and female students in licensing
the root of, or a powerful tool, for
and board exams, enrollees,
social transformation.
graduates, and distribution of gender
4. BPfA – prioritizes equal access to
per academic degree or program.
quality education, as education is
• Employment in the Education Sector
viewed as key to helping people
– the number of teachers and
achieve their full potential.
administrators per gender is evaluated
for public, private, and vocational
Philippine Laws on gender- institutions.
Responsive and Gender-Fair
Education
Gender Issues in Education
1. 1987 Constitution – access to
• Gender parity is present in the
education is a fundamental right,
Philippines, with girls even
regardless of status in life. The
outperforming boys in test scores and
Constitution provides that education
degree completion.
should always receive the highest
• Beijing +20 NGO Report –
budgetary allocation.
education issues have more to do with
2. Philippine Development Plan for
discrimination caused by cultural
Women (1989-1992)
beliefs and gender biases.
3. Philippine Plan for Gender-
• Thelma Kintanar – Gender Concerns
Responsive Development (1995-
on Campus – An Information Kit for
2025)
College Administrators and
4. NEDA Handbook – Harmonized
Educators. It is necessary to analyze
Gender and Development for Project
the quality of education given to
Implementation, Monitoring, and
women.
 achievements, thus creating a gap
Different Issues Concerning Gender between genders represented in
and Education science books. This will not relate to
1. Stereotyping as a Violation of women's lived experiences, making it
Human Rights harder for them to see themselves in
• 2013 Report of High Commissioner this field.
of Human Rights – declares gender 3. Sexual Violence in Education
stereotyping as a violation of one’s • Happens mostly against women.
human rights. It hurts women’s • This contributes to higher and earlier
education quality, access, and the drop-out rates and lower academic
field they will enter. achievement.
• Stereotypes are enforced by • Anti-Sexual Harassment Law of
numerous institutions like family, 1995 – defines sexual harassment as
community, church, school, and mass the demand of a sexual act or favor in
media. an institution, wherein the person who
2. Issues in STEM demands the action is in moral
• Philippine Beijing +20 NGO Report ascendancy or influence over the
– the promotion of women’s STEM person being solicited.
success is lacking. The textbooks
overlooked female researchers and
LESSON 5.3 WOMEN • Ignoring the needs of women about
their unpaid reproductive work
AND WORK IN THE ignores their actual gender needs.
PHILIPPINES
1. New laws that recognize the rights
Women and Work in the of paid and unpaid care workers.
Philippines 2. Pro-reproductive sector tax
reforms.
Women in the Productive Sphere 3. Gender-responsive public financial
• “A women’s work is never done.” management reforms.
• Women contribute to the economy 4. Official statistical systems that are
in all forms, from those who work in more sensitive to the care economy.
the productive sphere to those who
support workers in the reproductive The Nature of Women’s Paid Work
sphere.
• Women still face the same pay gap, • Women’s lack of choice in work
poverty, and lack of decent work may force them to take dangerous
opportunities. jobs, assume jobs that
do not offer job security, or migrate
elsewhere for better work
Right to Decent Work opportunities.
• Magna Carta for Women – Section • Women also find themselves in part-
22 (women shall have the right to time jobs to balance their reproductive
decent work). needs.
• Decent work entails support services • Women head 25% of households
that consider their maternal functions, globally but are generally poorer due
family obligations, and work. to wage discrimination and other
gender-specific forms of
discrimination against women.
The Multiple Burden of Women
• Women have both reproductive and Sex-Role Stereotyping at Work
productive work, called by feminists
as “double day” or “multiple • Men are predominantly employed in
burdens.” labor-intensive jobs.
• Women are likely to take on jobs
related to their assumed traits –
Women Friendly Workspaces patience, understanding, care.
• A gender-responsive organization
gives importance to women’s actual
gender needs.
The Sex Trade and provided regular
employment and benefits.
• Usually refers to the reproductive
activity called coitus or sex in
exchange for payment.
• Viewed as a dominantly female
issue, most sex workers are female,
and most buyers are males.
• Recreational sex and sex outside of
marriage were only socially
acceptable to men but not women –
called the double standard sex.
• Sex work is rooted in the double
standard of sex – where men are free
to have sexual relations outside of
marriage, women are not. The
“querida” mentality.
Selected Laws to Address Problems
of Women and Work in the
Philippines
1. RA 9501 – the Magna Carta for
Micro, Small, and Medium
Enterprises. Creates policies to
ensure women entrepreneurs
are assisted.
2. RA 10151 – An Act
Allowing the Employment of
Night Workers. Lifted the ban
under Article 130 and 131 of
the Labor Code on women's
employment at night due to
their productive roles.
3. RA 10361 – Domestic
Workers Act (Kasambahay
Law). Defines labor rights of
domestic household workers –
a vast majority are females.
Increased the minimum wage
 family members or closely-related
FINALS persons.
LESSON: 6.1 WOMEN • Sexual Harassment – a specific form
of sexual violence that occurs outside
AND VIOLENCE one’s home, including manipulation,
intimidation, and blackmail.

Violence Against Women (VAW) 2. Physical Violence – involves

causing physical harm against another
person.
Definition under the Magna Carta for 3. Psychological Violence – involves
Women: causing harm to a victim through
“Any act of gender-based violence emotional manipulation, resulting in
that results in, or is likely to result in, mental suffering.
physical, sexual, or psychological 4. Economic Abuse/Violence – the
harm or suffering to women, deprivation of a woman’s financial
including the threat of such acts, independence.
coercion, or arbitrary deprivation of 5. Spiritual Violence – uses religion
liberty, whether occurring in public or or spirituality to discredit, harm, or
private life.” disempower women.

• Maybe one of the first crimes Pornography – a representation

committed against a person because through publication, exhibition,
of their gender. cinematography, indecent shows,
• Rooted in the unequal relationships information technology, or by
and structuralized oppression against whatever means of a person engaged
women. in actual or simulated explicit sexual
activities or any representation of the
Types of VAW: sexual parts of a person for primarily
sexual purposes.
1. Sexual Violence – the forcing of
Prostitution – any act, transaction,
unwanted sexual acts upon a person
scheme, or design involving the use of
• Rape – forced or coerced penetration a person by another for sexual
of the vulva or anus using a penis, intercourse or lascivious conduct in
other body parts, or an object. An exchange for money, profit, or any
unsuccessful rape is an attempted other consideration.
rape; if more than one person
commits rape, it is gang rape; and if
Impacts of VAW
rape happens between a married
couple, it is marital rape. • Influences on how a woman
• Incest – sexual acts done between participates in the public sphere.
• Can lead to unwanted pregnancies, starting point for studying women in
miscarriages, STDs, and other sexual Western Art.
and reproductive health issues.
The Male Gaze
Lawson VAW - The idea of “looked-at-ness” was
1. Anti-Sexual Harassment Act of discussed by Laura Mulvey’s essay Visual
Pleasure and
1995
Narrative Cinema.
2. Anti-Rape Act of 1997
3. Rape Victims Assistance Act of - Discusses the Freudian term called
1998 Scopophilia, in which the act of looking
4. Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of has become a form of pleasure (taking
2003 other people as objects, subjecting them
5. Anti-Violence Against Women and to controlling and curious gaze.)
their Children Act of 2004
Women in Advertising
LESSON 6.2
- The insight about the display of the
REPRESENTATION OF female nude is true not only for art but
WOMEN IN THE ARTS for every
a medium where women are displayed.
OF MEDIA
- Women are often presented as sex
Representation of Women in the Arts objects in the advertisement, even for
and Media products that have
nothing to do with their sexuality or
their bodies.
Women in Western Art: The Beginning
of Female Objectification
Women and Sexualization
- Women are constantly being made the
objects of one’s viewing pleasure. They - Media has a way of defining how a
are made the object of one’s desires or person perceives reality and oneself.
have learned to scrutinize themselves
using the standards of other women. - Sexualization is understood to occur in
women when:
- The idea of women's representation
started with women’s role in Western 1. a person’s value comes only from
Art – women become the “muse” or their sexual appeal or behavior, to
subject of various art forms. the exclusion of other
characteristics;
- The painting “The Judgment of Paris”
by Peter Paul Rubens presents a strong
 2. a person is held to a standard that What Makes a Man a Man?
equates physical attractiveness
with being sexy; • One can say that a man is strong, but
3. a person is sexually objectified – the degree of strength depends on age,
made into a thing for other’s biology, and physical ability.
sexual use, rather than seen as a • No sissy stuff – masculinity is based on
person with the capacity for the relentless repudiation of the
independent action and decision feminine.
making; • Be a big wheel – we measure
4. sexuality is inappropriately masculinity by the size of the paycheck.
imposed upon a person. Wealth, power, and status are all
markers of masculinity.
• Be a sturdy oak – what makes a man a
man is reliable in times of crisis.
• Give them hell – exude an aura of
LESSON 6.3 daring and aggression. Take risks, live life
MASCULINITY on the edge.
• According to Vandello and Bosson,
there are various forms of masculinity,
Masculinity
although, at a given time, only one
Beginnings of Masculinity masculinity dominates the gender
hierarchy above all femininities
• Carol Gilligan noted that women’s and masculinities – the hegemonic
socialized roles as caregivers tasked masculinity.
them with the responsibility of caring for
young children. Proving Masculinity

• Traditional household models have the - Vandello and Bosson – manhood is

men working solely outside of their hard to win.
homes, making them absent during a
child’s early years. This scenario leaves - Other men succeed in manhood
young boys with no male role model to through physical activities, sports, or
learn from. even through public acts of homophobia.

• Boys learn masculinity from what they - Some men will also avoid or even
see in media and school interactions. ridicule tasks that challenge their
The lack of manhood, like doing activities usually
the empathy of men may be rooted in done by women.
the fact that they are socialized to be
unlike women who must have the heart - Lad culture – a variety of masculinities
to raise children. and cultures in UK university
communities.

- Raunch culture – related to lad culture.

Has the potential and actual harm, from
binge drinking to harassment.
- Hookup culture – dominant in the
American culture. Sexual activity is
regarded as the
transition marker from boyhood to
manhood.