Many countries around the world have annually reserved the month of March as the period for celebrating the role of women in society.
At the United Nations, International Women’s Day (IWD) is celebrated as a testament to the struggles of women all over the globe, which aims to raise awareness of their gender concerns and to fight the injustices committed against them.
For a bit of history, between 1909 and 1911, growing numbers of working women in the United States participated in strikes organized by the National Women’s Trade Union League and other concerned groups.
They protested low wages, poor working conditions, and lack of legislation that protected and promoted the rights of women.
The demonstrations, which rapidly spread among the states, were an offshoot of the tragic fire in 1911 in New York where some 140 working women, mostly Italian and Jewish immigrants, perished.
They were trapped within unsafe premises that lacked firefighting and other safety provisions.
Today, the eradication of all forms of inappropriate working conditions suffered directly or indirectly by women workers has become a recurrent theme of International Women’s Day celebrations.
In the Philippines, the women’s month-long celebration has served as a platform and venue for discussing and sharing best experiences to promote gender equality and women empowerment.
Activities are organized aligned with the international instruments to which our country has bound itself, such as The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the Beijing Plan for Action.
To give legal bases in our country for the celebration of National Women’s Month, then President Corazon Aquino, the first woman Chief Executive of the Philippines, issued Proclamation No. 224 in 1988, which was quickly followed in the same year by Proclamation No. 227.
The first declared the opening week of March as Women’s Week and made 8 March Women’s Rights and International Peace Day. The second provided for the observance of March as Women’s Role in History Month.
Both proclamations recognized Filipino women’s contributions to the continuing struggle for independence, equality, civil and human rights. They also affirmed our country’s solidarity with the call for true freedom for women by the United Nations as a collective and especially by its individual constituent states where widespread discrimination against women still occur.
In 1990, Republic Act No. 6949 was enacted by the Philippine Legislature declaring 8 March of every year a special working holiday to be known as National Women’s Day.
In August 2009, another empowered Filipino woman, then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, signed into law The Magna Carta of Women (RA 9710). It is a comprehensive law which aims to eliminate all forms of discrimination against women by means of the recognition, fulfillment, protection, and promotion of Filipino women’s rights, especially in the marginalized sectors.
It defines discrimination as essentially any gender-based distinction, exclusion or restriction which effectively impairs or nullifies the recognition, enjoyment or exercise by women of their rights based on their fundamental equality with men.
These rights are in every conceivable field of human endeavor such as, but not limited to, politics, economics, business and industry, health, education, culture, peace and order. The Magna Carta guarantees their fulfillment and respect.
It calls on social and mass media to altogether raise the consciousness of the general public in regard of the inherent dignity of women and their critical contributions to the family, community and wider society in general.
Indeed, the law calls on every sector of society, whether public or private, to respect the guarantees laid down in the law. Violators would be meted out sanctions spelled out in appropriate penal regulations, special and administrative laws.
Lastly, to further strengthen the role of women, we have the Philippine Commission on Women (formerly the National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women) which has been tasked to be the overall monitoring and oversight body to ensure that the law is properly implemented.