The State of Gender Equality and Maintreaming in Metro Iloilo‐ Guimaras

Any governmental unit’s reason of existence is the well‐being of its people. The most basic
for their existence would be survival, shelter and security. However, the collage of world
and local situation over time would show that these three basic needs are not afforded
equally to women and men. Such inequality is not borne out of a natural phenomenon but is
brought about by society’s acquired and learned biases that are most often brought about
by biological determinism. Society’s perception that women and men are different has been
largely influenced by women’s capacity to bear child. Such natural and inherent capacity of
women to bear child has been expanded to the expectation that women should rear
children as well. Such responsibility expanded in to a broader domestic cum reproductive
role for women.

However, the world realities also showed that women have to perform the productive and
community roles as well. As it appears women and men are different because of the socially
assigned role to them by society but it is not an excuse to exclude one to attain sustained
capacity to achieve a better life and to deprive one of a full and satisfying human life. Efforts
for development have to recognize that women compose the other half of the population.
There has to be equal valuing of both similarities and differences that exist between women
and men and the varying role they play. Everyone should be enjoined to be part of the
Beijing Platform for Action mission of “A transformed partnership based on equality
between women and men is a condition for people‐centered sustainable development.”
People‐centered development promotes people participation, sustainability and
empowerment. It means development of the political, social, cultural, economic and other
dimensions of an individual’s life. It creates an environment where every individual has the
capacity to do and the capacity to be. However, as realized, gender roles, expectations and
perceptions box women and men in situations that constrain their capacity to do and
capacity to be, hindering, in turn, their potentials to attain full satisfying life. Such
recognition gives birth to Gender and Development (GAD). It is a development perspective
that recognizes the legitimacy of gender equality as a fundamental value that should be
reflected in development choices. It promotes a positive bias for women as it duly recognize
the imbalance and disadvantaged situation of women in relation to social and economic
resources and decision making. The call is to remove explicit, implicit, actual and potential
biases of those who are concerned for development.

GAD paradigm is translated into action by gender mainstreaming to achieve the vision of
gender equality. Gender mainstreaming is an approach to development that looks more
comprehensively at the relationship between women and men in their access to and control
over resources, decision making, benefits and reward to society. It is a development
strategy to ensure that the concerns of gender equality are considered in the mainstream. In
every organization and society there is a mainstream where choices are considered and
decisions are made that affect the economic, social and political options. The mainstream is
where the actions happen that influences the development environment. It is composed of
interrelated set of dominant ideas, development thrusts and organizations that make
decisions about resource allocation. Therefore to achieve gender equality GAD
mainstreaming has to happen first. GAD mainstreaming is the solidifying and transforming
mechanism for LGU, Civil Society Organizations and the community of women and men to
make gender equality happen.

The initiative of coming up with the state of gender in Metro Iloilo‐ Guimaras is directed
towards having an even and consistent application of gender mainstreaming in the Urban
Partnership Program. The SALASAN Evaluation of the International Partnership Program
for Good Urban Governance (IPPGUG) pointed out the unevenness and inconsistency of
gender mainstreaming applications in the Program. The Canadian Urban Institute (CUI)
explicitly stated in the Project Implementation Plan (PIP) its support to the initiative
towards a consistency in gender mainstreaming.

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