(Due to its significance, we yield this space to the statement of the Center for Women’s Resources. – Ed.)
NOW, more than ever, women need to unite to fight for living wages, jobs, and rights amid the burgeoning economic crisis and repression.
In the Philippines, women continue to suffer joblessness and lack of decent work and livelihood. They experience various forms of abuse and lack of access to basic social services. They are employed in precarious jobs, informal labor, agriculture, and many others are forced to seek jobs overseas. Most jobs are low-skilled and low-paid.
In the nine months of Marcos Jr.’s tenure, there were no concrete steps toward easing the burden of the economic crisis on women. Even the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report recorded the sliding status of the Philippines. From #7 in 2016, it has fallen to #17 in 2021 and #19 in 2022.
One of the major reasons for the Philippines’ decline in the global gender equity index is the continued decline in women’s participation in the labor force. The condition of women worsened especially with the militaristic lockdown at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The number of unemployed women increased during the pandemic in 2020, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority. From 852,000 unemployed in 2019, it doubled to 1.692 million in 2020. Many women workers lost their jobs because the industry they were employed in was among the first to close during the lockdown. It is estimated that there are already 2.2 million unemployed in December 2022, of which 1.065 million are women.
Amid crisis and hunger, women, most of which are in precarious employment, receive very low wages. The wages received by workers, especially contractual workers, are pegged at the minimum wage, if not lower. In addition, the Gender Gap Report in 2022 states that the wages of women workers in low-skill occupations can be 50% lower than men.
Also, political repression against women activists, journalists, unionists, and human rights defenders have been rampant from the Duterte administration to the present Marcos Jr. administration. In the latest record of Karapatan in November 2022, the number of political detainees reached 592 from June 2016 to June 2022 during Duterte’s administration. More than 130 of this number were women.
During the Marcos Sr. dictatorship, women’s stance in asserting their rights was historic. Even at the height of Martial Law where it is forbidden to gather and protest, more than 10,000 Filipino women took to the streets, marching to show their resistance to the ongoing tyranny and repression.
At present, women, along with the different sectors of society continue to struggle for decent living wages, jobs, and rights. For women, it is important to promote equal treatment in all aspects of work and livelihood, reducing the burden of domestic work and raising children such as having real daycare so they can work; protecting against discrimination and violence, etc.
