Why women march

Some men have no idea at all why women march especially here in the Philippines which is presumed to be a matriarchy. Maybe. True a few women have managed to escape t and blossom in their own right.

Filipino women in general are being misled by thinking that women are meant to be beauty queens or first ladies. I have added my voice to women who march.

Here are some excerpts from Polly Neale in Huffington Post on why.

“We are in the fifth decade of the Women’s Aid movement, working with survivors of domestic abuse, campaigning to protect their rights, and striving to make sure their voices are heard – in public and in politics. I am very proud to be chief executive of Women’s Aid.

In all those years, progress has been made, sure – but many women are still denied safety even in their own homes, from the people they should trust the most.

There are many hundreds of thousands of men who still feel entitled to control every aspect of a woman’s life, to diminish her, wipe out her self-esteem, treat her body as belonging to him in every way, and even to kill her – because in 2017 two women a week in this country are still being killed by their current or former intimate partner. The Femicide Census, which Women’s Aid published at the end of 2016 in partnership with Karen Ingala Smith, found that between 2009 and 2015, 936 women were killed by men in England and Wales.

Misogyny and sexism give men permission to abuse. It’s as simple as that. We all know Trump’s locker room jokes aren’t funny. But they aren’t just crude – they are dangerous. They normalize sexism so that we accept it. We see it as how things are. And then we see men’s violence against women as inevitable. That’s just how it is, isn’t it? In fact, when we were launching the Femicide Census, somebody commented on Twitter that 936 women being killed in seven years seemed “about right” and that it was around the same number of people who die each year after being hit by icicles in Russia (I wish I was joking).

I would love to believe that those attitudes that accept male violence as normal were dying. But after the past year, it’s impossible to believe that. They are very much alive, and kicking. Misogyny is on the march, all the way to the White House.

So we march for optimism: we believe male violence against women is not inevitable. Men can stop, if they choose. They don’t stop because it means giving up power – and Trump is showing men very clearly that power and misogyny go hand-in-hand. He’s a simple guy, and it’s a simple message.

So let me try and make it simple too. Misogyny puts women in danger. It kills. And it harms men too. Inequality eats away at trust. It means women don’t trust men’s motives; they cross the street because they fear them. Bitter experience makes women wary, they are resentful of men. Or they resort to laughter, but it’s laughter with an edge – men can feel it. Is this what we want for our relationships, for our futures? Mistrust and misunderstanding, with domestic abuse appallingly common? Or would we rather work together, women and men, to change the record at last?

Thousands of women in the UK, right now, are denied the basic human right of safety in their own homes. They are robbed of their autonomy. They and their children are thrown in harm’s way, again and again, by systems that should protect them but instead let them down.

This is happening because when sexism asserts itself, not enough people say no. And then women are robbed of the power to say no. Well, we have that power and we are using it. Polly Neate is chief executive of Women’s Aid.

Follow Polly Neate on Twitter: www.twitter.com/pollyn1

Social Europe adds its voice. “We are living through a momentous, convulsive period in human history. We at Social Europe strive to reflect upon these great disruptions. But, as some of you remind us from time to time and as we are well aware, the distinct and often different voices of half of the human race – women – can be absent from our pages.

I have selected a few of Nigel Tan’s Filipina women firsts to celebrate this year’s Women's Month in March.

Here are some of them: Natividad Almeda-Lopez was the first Filipina lawyer and judge.

Almeda-Lopez became a lawyer in 1914. Around this time, the legal profession in the country was considered mostly for men.

A vocal member of the feminist movement in 1918, she was one of the foremost champions of the women’s suffrage movement. She gave speeches before the legislature on equality of rights.

Geronima Tomelden-Pecson was the first Filipina senator.

Tomelden-Pecson ran in the 1947 senatorial elections, and was elected the country's first female senator. In the Senate, she headed the Senate committees on education, health, public welfare, and the joint congressional committee on education – all of which suited her background.

Before becoming a senator, she worked as a teacher, and was an active suffragette and social worker. She also was a private secretary to President Jose Laurel, and assistant executive secretary of then president Manuel Roxas.

Elisa Rosales-Ochoa was the first Filipina congresswoman. Rosales-Ochoa joined the 1941 Congressional elections in her native Agusan province. She won by a landslide victory and became the first congresswoman in the country.

A nurse by profession prior to becoming a congresswoman, she led other nurses in attending to Filipino-American prisoners of war when World War II broke out early in her term.

After the war, Ochoa authored Commonwealth Act 704, which provided for charity maternity clinics to reduce high maternal and infant mortality in rural areas.

Honoria Acosta-Sison was the first Filipina doctor.

Going against family and friends’ advice for women not to study medicine, Sison got a scholarship to study medicine in the US in 1904.

She decided to practice obstetrics and gynecology. Around that time doctors were mostly male, and most women avoided medical help for intimate issues out of conservatism, making Honoria’s decision beneficial to women of her day. (Sourced from Rappler.com)

More successful Filipino women can be sourced from Philippine Commission on Women, National Statistical Coordination Board, Philippine Senate, House of Representatives, National Historical Institute, Center for Asia-Pacific Women in Politics, Geni.com, Gov.ph, Coryaquino.ph, Kahimyang.info.