Commemorating the Women’s Month
Date posted: March 1, 2007

The Month of March has been declared, through Proclamation 227, as women’s month to commemorate the role of women in history. In the history of man, as taught in the Christian Bible and as well as in the Qur’an, the first woman created by God was Eve, a name given by man to signify the “eve” or beginning of all man. Moreover, just as “Adam” refers to man in Hebrew, “Eve” actually means “the living one” so that the marriage of a man and a woman is the union of man with the living one, just as woman gives life to man.

According to the Bible, woman was created to be man’s companion. It is sad to note, however, that in some cultures the meaning of companion, which is “someone who shares (bread)”, is degraded to “someone who serves”. Yet religion (Christian) has always taught and advocated the relative equality of men and women for if woman was created from man, so is man born from a woman. And to note, the first miracle of Jesus the Christ was through the intercession of a woman, His beloved Mother, Mary.

As societies progress in their maturity, the protection of the rights of women has become a pressing issue so that gender equality is now a global concern. As such, international entities have made steps to address the said issue, among which are the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1980, in which the Philippine Government is among the signatories, and UN Millennium Development Goals (MDG) Declaration in September 2000, in which one of the eight (8) main development goals under the said declaration seeks to promote gender equality and empowerment of women.

One may ask: How have we progressed in our pursuit for gender equality?

The situation in Northern Mindanao, in most sectors, seems to be encouraging. As a matter of fact, women are faring better in education, having higher participation rate, survival rate, graduation rate, simple and functional literacy rates, compared to men (NSCB RD 10 Fact Sheet # 1, Series of 2007) and, consequently, majority of the faculties of Higher Education Institutions are women. Moreover, With regards to the major occupational classifications of the region’s dominantly male labor sector, women comprise 63.13 % and 68.66 % of the (a) Officials in Government and Special Interest-organizations, corporate executives, Managers, Managing Proprietors and Supervisors, and (b) professionals, respectively.

However, though majority or 57.8% of the government personnel are women, and though the number of women elected officials in the region increased by 56% from 2001 to 2004, local leadership in terms of politics is still dominantly a man’s world. However, it is important to note that Camiguin and Bukidnon, the provinces with the least increase in women elected officials (0% and 16.67%, respectively) for 2001 and 2004, were among the top performers in terms of Economic Governance, Administrative Governance and Good Governance Indexes (Virola, R. A., Governance Statistics: Who Should We Vote For in the May 14 Elections?). Probably, men, in general, have stronger stomachs to handle our local political systems.

Leadership, in the span of man’s history, has always been attributed to men. Thus, it is but expected that history in itself is molded by men. Yet it must be noted that certain women personalities have indeed helped shaped the history of man. Even in biblical times when only men are counted in censuses, personalities such as Judith and Esther have indeed earned their places among the holy books for their invaluable contributions in saving their race.

The Philippine setting is not much different. Though most of our past leaders have always been men, women have always contributed significantly, especially in giving back democracy to our people. Thus it is but fitting to commemorate their role in history through this month-long celebration.

Note: The Women and Men (WAM) in Northern Mindanao Statistical Handbook is now available at the NSCB-NSIC, Regional Division 10 to give you more detailed information on women and men in the region.