PRESS RELEASE

Philippine Cooperative Center celebrates International Women’s Day and the National Women’s Month

The celebration of International Women’s Day (IWD) is the result of organizing activities by women in the early 20th century. In the Philippines, the celebration is turned into a month-long event to achieve the following goals: (1) highlight women’s achievements and contributions to the country, (2) raise awareness of ongoing inequality, discrimination, and barriers faced by women, (3) inspire the new generation of women to reach their utmost potential, and (4) promote equality and inclusivity in our society [1].

The cooperative sector recognizes the important roles of women in our society. In fact, in our sector alone, female cooperator members outnumber male cooperator members by a margin of 58% to 42%, respectively. Compared to other countries in the Asia-Pacific, the Philippines (together with Korea) boasts a high percentage of representation of women and the presence of women leaders in cooperatives [2].

Within our sector, the Cooperative Development Authority released MC 2013-22, which implements Gender Programs in Cooperatives in pursuance of Article 11, Section 14 of the 1987 Constitution. This section asserts that “the State recognizes the role of women in nation-building and shall ensure the fundamental equality before the law of women and men.” This MC seeks to mainstream gender and development in cooperatives.

However, despite some degree of legal progressiveness, gender issues are still prevalent in the sector. The generation gap adds to the issue of gender equality. Stereotyping is still an issue in other cooperatives, where there is still difficulty in winning the trust and confidence of co-employees and members, anchored to non-progressive gender typecasting[3].

Therefore, PCC emphasizes the role of empowering women in cooperative sustainability, efficiency, and development. The Philippine Cooperative Center invites everyone to join in the celebration, recognition, and promotion of Gender Equality. This may range from (1) pushing for policies and regulations promoting gender and development, (2) crafting programs for capacity building of women, (3) funding programs for gender empowerment, and (4) pushing for data collection, monitoring, and research for gender and development, among others[4].

Edwin A. Bustillos

PCC Chief Executive Officer

09178017309

Ray John Paul A. Santiago

PCC Research Staff

09564490166

[1]        The following are the legal mandates institutionalizing the celebraiton of National Women’s Month in the country:

Proclamation No. 224 s. 1988, “Declaring the First Week of March Every Year as Women’s Week and March 8, 1988, and Every Year Thereafter as Women’s Rights and International Peace Day.”

Proclamation No. 227 s. 1988, “Providing for the observance of the Month of March as ‘Women’s Role in History Month”

R.A. 6949 s. 1990, “An Act to Declare March Eight of Every Year as a Working Special Holiday to be Known as National Women’s Day”

[2]        International Cooperative Alliance. 2017, “Gender is more than a statistic: status of women in cooperatives of the asia pacific region”

[3]     Ibid.

[4]        From the 2^nd National Summit on Gender and Development (GAD) in Co-ops, in Crown Legacy Hotel, Baguio City