Pinays kick off women’s month celebration at UN Vienna

VIENNA — A group of Filipinos kicked off International Women’s Month celebrations here at the United Nations Office in Vienna, Austria, calling for inclusive environments and more leadership opportunities for Filipino women.

At an advance International Women’s Month Celebration on March 4 organized by the European Network of Filipino Diaspora (ENFiD) Austria and the United Nations Correspondents Association Vienna (UNCAV), several guests spoke on the theme “Inspire Inclusion.” Consul General Ivan Frank M. Olea of the Philippine Embassy in Vienna emphasized “the need for more policies to encourage the increased participation of women in the labor force.” 

“The new Philippines my government aspires for gives women equitable opportunities not hindered by gender biases and discriminatory stereotypes,” he said. 

The Global Gender Gap Report 2023 by the World Economic Forum reveals that while gender parity has improved in some areas of life, the progress slowed in the past few years, especially in economic participation and political empowerment. At this rate, it would take 131 years to close the overall gender gap, the report states. 

The same report places the Philippines as the most gender-equal country in all of Asia, and 16th in the world, three places higher than in 2022. The index measures gender equality based on four key dimensions: economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment.

“There is also a need to change the gendered social norms that currently shape the participation of women in the labor force. In the Philippines, we have set in place policies to ensure women’s equal rights and opportunities,” Olea said.

Filipinas at the helm

However, for ENFiD-Austria chair and event organizer Marizel Rojas, more work is needed to include women, especially migrant workers, in policymaking. 

“It would be good to have more Filipinas at the helm,” she said. 

In the 2023 Gender Gap report, political empowerment and representation in leadership roles is a major area for improvement across many countries. 

Venues for political and economic decision-making are “usually male-dominated,” said Rojas, adding that there is a need to “inspire inclusivity everywhere, at your workplace [or] organization that you work for.”

While the gender gap in the Philippines has improved based on different factors, data on labor participation tells a different story. The share of women in the Filipino workforce stalled at 49% to 50% in the past two decades, making it the lowest in the ASEAN region, according to a National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) report. 

“From a development perspective, reducing gender gaps in labor force participation could substantially boost a nation’s economic growth,” Olea said.

Apart from addressing systemic barriers, women empowerment is also an internal “transformative” process toward “self-determination,” in which women “chart their own destinies” and define their measures of fulfillment, said Filipina entrepreneur and author Ildeme Mahinay Koch, also one of the guest speakers. 

Koch shared lessons from her book, “Becoming Miss Right,” where she talks about her “personal story of self discovery” and those of people she met in her more than two decades of business and charity engagements.

Koch said she believes in “the power of storytelling to inspire empathy and understanding” to spark conversations around the globe.

Joining the call

Representatives from the UNCAV, the Universal Peace Federation (UPF), Women’s Federation for World Peace (WFWP), the United Nations Women’s Guild (UNWG), and the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) supported women in their cause. 

UNCAV Secretary General Herman Kroiher is dissatisfied that women’s rights are still being debated to this day and that equality often seems to be out of touch given the existing “political and ideological systems.”

The burden of women remains to be systemic, as legal, economic, political, and educational systems prevent them “from enjoying their full participation in society” and deny them “access to opportunities to reach their full potential,” explained La Neice Collins of CTBTO.

As long as women are prevented from being “full and equal participants” in society, “we are robbing ourselves of diverse views and their immense talents,” she added. 

The event also featured a one-day exhibit of the works of Austria-based Filipina visual artist Imelda Perez Papai, and song performances by the UN Choir whose members include some Filipinas currently or previously working at the organization.  —KBK, GMA Integrated News