More than meeting the eye

Women leaders and activists gave a poke to all sectors about women’s woes on abuses and discrimination in the recent 13^th Women Summit in Davao City to coincide with the 102^nd International Women’s Day. As the message was sent across, that could have been a perfect timing for men to rally behind and listen to the highlights of achievements all in the name of women or gender empowerment. Nevertheless, may it not make one to become lesser as a man to write about women, especially when the discussion is focused on the picturesque details and relevance of issues on gender.

Actual survey of the National Statistics Office (NSO) in 2007 which still prevails (as it is not yet superseded by any update until today) reveals that with the city’s 1.4 Million household population, women who comprise 50.11 percent have outnumbered the men. If this were a race, then men could have lagged behind since it has been the trend starting the early 90’s. On a lighter note, someone said a joke about government statistics being likened to the underwear: What they show is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital. Let this not however be treated as a sexual or political innuendo of some sort.

About workforce, women got a notch higher compared to men by registering in the same NSO survey 50.37 percent. In number, women then take control our workforce. But how is that possible? This is pure stats and it is more than meeting the eye. Owing to the credibility of the survey, women therefore have all the reasons to display some intense sensitiveness against any injustice, abuses or discrimination. Government’s intervention in place is not to beat the odds but perhaps to beat the void because if this figure were true, taxpayers in Davao then are dominated by women.

However, this is not competition that rushes genders to the finishing line. Men and women are supposed to have a mutually indescribable beneficial relationship. For the absence of the other readily sends the helpless gender to the summit of misery. Over the years, feminists and women activists have successfully propped up gender awareness and slowly changed the paradigm of society which later made mainstreaming of women a non-issue. Thus, marginalization of women could be a thing of the past, too soon.

In one study about measuring the purchasing power of Philippine peso and its inverse relationship with the consumer price index, women’s role in marketing is getting more popular. Take as example the fish production which made marketing as their most visible economic activity. In most cases, wives of small-scale fishermen sell their husband’s catches in the nearby markets, and these roles women play were not actually documented. Men are still considered to be the main players in fisheries sector despite the fact that 50-85% of post harvest activities are carried out by women.

On the other hand, the confederation of LGBTs (lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgenders) is also strengthened today, especially in the context of sexual orientation. It is not always the tandem between males and females that rules society as good. In Davao and anywhere else, people are stripping apathy against gays and lesbians whose satisfaction to enjoy life is now guaranteed, especially with the enactment of the Anti-Discrimination Ordinance and such law which is first in the country and only found in Davao, the Comprehensive Women Development Code. That is epitomized in stricter sense under our catchphrase: “Life is Here” and it really is.

Everybody just failed at first look on the kind of treatment women should deserve. The issues they confront are those that more than meet the eye. There is something deeper and they search for more meaning. But this writer also subscribed to the idea of John Milton, an English writer who said: Where more is meant than meets the ear.

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Davao is blest with personalities the like of Madam Patmei Ruivivar and Madam Luz Ilagan. Madam Patmei was my first boss in city hall in her long stint as Chief of Staff of Mayor Rodrigo Duterte. She has the fountain of youth and unparalleled dynamism. It is in her wit and tact that co-employees may have derived their strength. Quo vadis, madam? Madam Luz then as City Councilor was chairperson of the committee of education and as proxy to a city councilor, I have not been absent in all her committee hearings. It was compelling to attend because even at first thought, I saw her excellent leadership to be one that could move mountains.

To Madam Lorna Mandin, Chief of the Integrated Gender and Development Division under Mayor Sara Duterte’s Office, thanks for the materials. I hope to find space for them in the succeeding issues. More power!