By Donna Dawn Vibar
Social science explains that gender is something that the society creates. It is not just hereditary and biologically modified. The people around us create who we are, how we should act and who we shall be. Gender is something that is not only biological but also social.
This is something that the past holds against the present society women are living in. Because of socialization, what the situation of the women in the past, it is also expected from the women in the present to behave that very same way. So the question for the women of today remains: Do women should live by the past or is it time for the influence of the women be made felt?
Maria Lorena Barros, an activist during the Martial Law Period, effectively defined the very epitome of what a woman of today should be. She calls for some realization from the women that there is already a great need for women’s ideas, involvement and actual action. Traditions are not fully be cast off since all that she asks for is participation of and for the women.
Traditions are present for guidance but not as rules. In a Filipino family, we only view women as adjuncts of the home—for the children, for the kitchen and for the bed. Tradition will always be a tradition. It shouldn’t be fully eradicated from the lives of the people. What is wanted is more active involvement of the Filipino women in the events happening in their own society. Everyone can contribute and in this sense, women should do so. They can also help formulating ideas for the betterment of their country, help in doing it, and attaining their goals. Women should not let themselves be boxed up in their family alone. If something can be done, it is only right to do it. Talent and power would simply go to waste if not used.
In our economy, women are not given due recognition. In the workplace, in schools and offices, we see women but they do not actually move. Rights are only read in papers but not seen in action. In marriage, women’s whole personality is eradicated, starting from her family name alone down to her career. In cases where the wife works, it is only because she has to augment the family budget. Discrimination in importance and compensation is obvious.
Maria Clara is the model of young women. It is instilled to the youth that the behavior of a lady is summed up in the behavior of Maria Clara. But what are her supreme qualities? Submissive, a quiet, unresisting, and non-protesting acceptance of her sad life, a weakling in short is who Maria Clara is. These are the qualities of the women of the past. In their time it is only applicable, but not today.
A new Filipina is a militant, educated, smart, active and respected. A new Filipina knows how to carry herself in the midst of protest and chaos. She has learned the real situations in the streets thus she knows how to handle them. She works for herself and stands for her rights. She is not the one who seeks help from others instead; she helps others on her own.
The Philippines already faced many challenges. Changes have been felt by the country. It is only time for the women to go with these changes. Women are needed by the society more than ever. It is only time for women-in-action be the new model of the young. It is only time for us to witness a change in history where women are part of the making of history. Women play their own distinct role, by themselves, for the people in general.
