"Living as a Woman in the Philippines" by Wynette Chua

With how gender equality and women's empowerment have emerged as popular topics lately, there have been improvements in the treatment of women by modern society. According to a 2022 World Bank blog “Overcoming Barriers to Women’s Work in the Philippines” by Helle Buchhave, the Philippines is the best performer of gender equality in East Asia and the Pacific Region. However, there are still a few forms of gender inequality arising in the country. In recent years, I have noticed that the biggest challenge women are facing in my country as well as worldwide is the lack of respect coming from men, fellow women, and themselves, which generates more problems such as violence, rape, degradation, and discrimination against women. 

With moderately high crime rates in the Philippines, crimes against women, such as sexual abuse, sexual harassment, and rape, have also been prevalent. This is due to the fact that women are being culturally devalued by some men in society. As a female that has been living in the Philippines for my whole life, I have been terrified of going out at night due to the fact that there have been multiple sexual assaults, rape, and molestation incidents. Additionally, based on Statista, there have been 9,325 discovered cases of rape in the Philippines in 2020 alone. This indicates that there are thousands of men in my country that don’t cherish and acknowledge women as their equals. At the same time, they believe that women are powerless objects that they can obtain and destroy as they wish. In addition to that idea, in consonance with the 2017 National Demographic and Health Survey, one in four women aged 15-49 have experienced some type of sexual, physical, or emotional violence from their partner. This data demonstrates that there are men who choose to be ignorant of the social and emotional welfare of women and who refuse to acknowledge their crucial role in society. For instance, childbirth is usually a lengthy and painful process endured by many women which may imply losing job opportunities and eventually jeopardizing their chances of living independently. It is disappointing to see how being a woman can restrain one’s potential and how men, who are supposed to be our allies, are just adding up to the problem. 

The second concept that I want to expound on is that we, women, are not cherishing ourselves as much as we should. It is shocking that the value of chastity is now often overlooked by women as they recklessly relinquish it to satisfy their desires and curiosity. For instance, 15% of teenage Filipino women were reported to have had sex as shown in a 2013 report that can be seen on the Guttmacher Institute website. Moreover, there are even a number of women who sell their bodies for money through prostitution. As stated in Wikipedia, there was an estimated 500,000 prostitutes in the Philippines in 2013. The figure shows that there is an increasing amount of women

undervaluing and belittling themselves, which is why they are willing to sell or offer themselves to men. 

The last idea that I wish to emphasize on is the perception of women harming people of the same gender. In the world we live in, there are many women who love to engage in gossip, create harmful rumors about other individuals, and judge their fellow women based on their features by making catty remarks out of jealousy. However, contrary to sabotaging one another, we should be supporting and encouraging one another. 

Women are facing multitudes of societal issues such as harassment, violence as well as degradation due to the lack of respect that is being given to them. The issues that are currently affecting women are not only present in the Philippines but also globally. This period of women being treated as less needs to be put to a stop immediately, since if not now, when will it end? A solution to these problems would be to undermine the prevailing gender discrimination to slowly improve on the circumstances of both men and women, developing the respect which is key to empowering women.

REFERENCES

Keith D. (October 27, 2021) Violence against women in the Philippines. Wikipedia. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violence_against_women_in_the_Philippines

Helle Buchhave and Nadia Belhaj Hassine Belghith (April 11, 2022) Overcoming barriers to women's work in the Philippines. World Bank Blogs. Retrieved from https://blogs.worldbank.org/eastasiapacific/overcoming-barriers-womens-work-philippines

Statista Research Department (Nov. 15, 2022) Philippines: number of rape cases 2021. Statista. Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/statistics/1170653/philippines-number-of-cases/#:~:text=In%202021%2C%20the%20number%20of,year's%20total%20number%20of%20cases.

(August 24, 2022) Sexual and Reproductive Health of Young Women in the Philippines: 2013 Data Update. Guttmacher Institute. Retrieved from https://www.guttmacher.org/fact-sheet/sexual-and-reproductive-health-young-women-philippines-2013-data-update