Género y Desarrollo (económico)

Posted by eytutritu

Last Tuesday, our professor in Economics told us about the upcoming symposium in the theatre and he needs two delegates to represent our class. It’s all about the Gender and (Economic) Development or simply GAD. It aims equality and equity amongst all genders in a particular place. GAD approach focuses on the socially constructed basis of differences between men and women and emphasizes the need to challenge existing gender roles and relations

“Gender Equality” denotes women having the same opportunities in life as men, including the ability to participate in the public sphere, while “Gender Equity’ denotes the equivalence in life outcomes for women and men, recognizing their different needs and interests, and requiring a redistribution of power and resources. (http://www.bridge.ids.ac.uk/reports/re55.pdf)

On the said event, first speaker Vice-Mayor of the Angeles City, Vicky Vega emphasized the difference between sex and gender. Sex refers to biological differences; chromosomes, hormonal profiles, internal and external sex organs and Gender describes the characteristics that a society or culture delineates as masculine or feminine.

However, this time, GAD doesn't only promote women’s empowerment but also of the LGBT/GLBT community which stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender. (For some instance, it is LGBTQ/GLBTQ. Q stands for “queer or questioning”, the people who may be unsure of their gender or still exploring fall on this category.) LGBT community demands from the government to pass laws which can protect and promote their human rights, particularly the Anti-Discrimination Bill that has been languishing in the Philippine Congress for the past eleven years and the other laws as the Gender Recognition Law and Anti-hate Crime Law.

“Jhem, 24, is a pretty transgender who frequently wins drag beauty pageants, a loving child and a doting provider to younger siblings who depend on her for their school expenses and lunches. She graduated with a degree in business management. Her neighbors in Barangay Caybiga, Caloocan City considers her to be better off than many residents who live a hard scrabble life in the village where unemployment runs at around 40%.

However, Jhem laments that she has to be content with working as a hairdresser in the neighborhood, working long hours for less than minimum wage. After graduation, she spent months looking for a job in the corporate world, only to be turned down by interviewers.

"I didn't want to think that my feminine demeanor is the reason why they won't hire me," Jhem sighs. "In college, I was always in denial, refusing to believe my other cross-dressing friends who kept telling me I will also have to be content working typecast work for queers, you know, like cutting hair."

Like Jhem, hundreds of thousands of transgender, lesbians and gay men all over the Philippines are victims of discrimination in hiring policies, wage levels, benefits and other workplace benefits. The problem is so pervasive that the victims are not even painfully aware that they suffer inequalities in terms of quality of life and legal benefits.” (http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/8356368-philippines-antidiscrimination-bill-good-for-gays-benefits-economy)

Same as to the second speaker, the well-known choreographer Douglas Nierras, had said about his friend named Rayco(?), Rayco graduated as a Summa Cum Laude in a prestigious school in Manila, (I forgot the course he took but it’s related in economics.) he was teaching in that school but, he’d started having difficulties about it because of his appearance. He was a male but acts like a female; simply a transgender. The faculty advised him to resign so that he can make the conflict stop and not get worse. They also said that it was his looks that’s causing the problem. For Rayco, it was painful to have a forced-resignation just because of his gender, it was not his intention to act that way, and for him it’s normal, he’s normal; That was the reason why he applied to be a showgirl in Japan, and because of that he earned a lot and got rich, upon earning so much he returned to the school where he taught and told his boss, "thank you because you let me get rich by leaving the university."

Douglas shared that story to make his point be clear. He wants us to realize that because of discrimination amongst them, we have lost a brilliant teacher who should have been educating students, making them be productive in our economy, instead of entertaining other people. Gays contribute more in our economy more than what we thought or think. LGBT community just wants acceptance and respect, nothing more, nothing less.

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 21, 2011 at Sunday, August 21, 2011 . You can follow any responses to this entry through the comments feed .