Gender is an important consideration in development. It is a way of looking at how social norms and power structures impact on the lives and opportunities available to different groups of men and women. Globally, more women than men live in poverty. Women are also less likely than men to receive basic education and to be appointed to a political position nationally and internationally. Understanding that men and women, boys and girls experience poverty differently and face different barriers in accessing services, economic resources, and political opportunities help to target interventions.
How Gender and Development Started?
Gender and Development was developed in the 1980’s as an alternative to the Women in Development (WID) approach.
Unlike WID, the GAD approach is not concerned specifically with women, but with the way in which a society assigns roles, responsibilities, and expectations to both men and women.
GAD applies gender analysis to uncover the ways in which men and women work together, presenting results in neutral terms of economics and competence.
GAD focus primarily on two major frameworks, Gender Roles and Social Relations Analysis. Gender role focus on social construction of identities within the household, it also reveals the expectations from ‘maleness and femaleness’ in their relative access to resources. Social relations analysis exposes the social dimensions of hierarchical power relations embedded in social institutions; also it’s determining influence on ‘the relative position of men and women in society. In an attempt to create gender equality, (denoting women having same opportunities as men, including ability to participate in the public sphere) GAD policies aim to redefine traditional gender role expectations.
GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT IN PHILIPPINES
Philippine Plan for Gender and Development, 1995-2025, is a National Plan that addresses, provides and pursues full equality and development for men and women. Approved and adopted by former President Fidel V. Ramos as Executive No. 273, on September 8, 1995, it is the successor of the Philippine Development Plan for Women, 1989-1992 adopted by Executive No. 348 of February 17, 1989.
Three years after, DENR Administrative Order No. 98 – 15 dated May 27, 1998 came up as the Revised Guidelines on the Implementation of Gender and Development (GAD) Activities in the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in order to strengthen the DENR GAD Focal Point System and accomplishing the GAD vision “Partnership of Empowered Men and Women for Sustainable Development”.
Republic Act No. 9710, otherwise known as the Magna Carta of Women was approved on August 14, 2009 which mandates non-discriminatory and pro-gender equality and equity measures to enable women’s participation in the formulation, implementation, and evaluation of policies and plan for national, regional and local development.
A Memorandum Circular No. 2011 – 01 dated October 21, 2011, was released addressing to all Government Departments including their attached agencies, offices, bureaus, State Universities and Colleges (SUCs), Government-Owned and Controlled Corporations (GOCCs) and all other government instrumentalities as their guidelines and procedures for the establishment, strengthening and institutionalization of the GAD Focal Point System (GFPS).
GAD focuses on Gender Mainstreaming or a strategy for:
- Making women’s as well as men’s concerns and experiences an integral dimension of the design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of policies, programs and projects in all social, political, civil, and economic spheres so that women and men benefit equally; and
- Assessing the implications for women and men of any planned action, including legislation, policies or programs in all areas and at all levels.
GAD focuses on Gender Mainstreaming or a strategy for:
Gender-based Streets and Public Spaces Sexual Harassment
GBSH in street and public spaces is defined as acts which are committed through any unwanted and uninvited sexual actions or remarks against any person regardless of the motive for committing such action or remarks.
What do public spaces refer to under this law?
What are the acts of gender-based sexual harassment (GBSH) in public spaces?
a. Catcalling or unwanted remarks directed towards a person, commonly done in the form of wolf- whistling (paninipol), misogynistic, transphobic, homophobic, and sexist slurs, as well as unwanted invitations;
- Sexist remarks or slurs-statements that are indicative of prejudice, stereotyping, or discrimination on the basis of sex, typically against women
- Homophobic remarks are indicative of fear, hatred or aversion towards persons who are perceived to be or actually identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, pansexual and such other persons of diverse sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or towards any person perceived to or actually have experienced same-sex attraction.
- Misogynistic remarks or slurs- statements that are indicative of the feeling of hating women or the belief that men are inherently better than women
- Transphobic remarks or slurs-statements that are indicative of fear, hatred or aversion towards persons whose gender identity and/or expression do not conform with their sex assigned at birth.
b. Persistent uninvited comments or gestures on a person’s appearance;
c. Relentless requests for personal details;
d. Statement of sexual comments and suggestions;
e. Public masturbation or flashing of private parts, groping, making offensive body gestures at someone, and other similar lewd sexual actions;
f. Any advances, whether verbal or physical, that is unwanted and has threatened one’s sense of personal space and physical safety. This may include cursing, leering and intrusive gazing, and taunting;
g. Persistent telling of sexual jokes, use of sexual names; and
h. Stalking or conduct directed at a person involving the repeated visual or physical proximity, non-consensual communication, or a combination thereof that cause or will likely cause a person to fear for one’s own safety or the safety of others, or to suffer emotional distress.
What are the penalties for GBSH in public spaces?
Penalties vary according to the act of GBSH committed and how often a person was convicted for violating the laws.
