Women and the All UP Unions: Mainstreaming the Women’s Agenda – An Integrated Field Work Paper – Glossary of Gender Terms

Gender

A socio-cultural construction which: a) defines and informs notions of femininity and masculinity, where each sex behaves according to these notions or socially and culturally dictated identities and is expected to perform social roles and tasks assigned to it; and b) are mistakenly believed to be natural and inherent.

Gender equality

A quality or state of society where the both personal relations and social, economic and political structures and institutions (the economy, the family, the state, religion, the educational system and the mass media) are structured in a non-dominating way to allow the development of the full potential and creativity and self-determination of every woman and man. A term which reflects an equal sharing of power between women and men, in their equal access to education, health, administrative and managerial positions, equal pay for work of equal value and equal seats in parliament, among others.

Investigation of the UP Union Women-Members’ Participation

FIELDWORK OUTPUT DELIVERABLES: Objective #1

Investigation of the UP Union Women-Members’ Participation

Investigation of the Women-Members’ Participation Through the SURVEY

 

A.            Objectives of Survey

• To determine the factors that affect members’ involvement (whether active or not active) in the Union;
• To surface both the members’ awareness on the Gender Committee and their levels of consciousness about gender-specific issues; and
• To elicit members’ suggestions on how to increase the participation and active involvement of women members in the union’s activities

Production of Gender Disaggregated Data: All UP Workers Union

FIELDWORK OUTPUT DELIVERABLES: Objective #2

 Production of Gender Disaggregated Data: All UP Workers Union

Profile of All UP Workers Union Members

The total number of AUWU members is 882, with 418 (47.39%) women and 464 (52.61%) men.

All UP Workers Union: Breakdown by Sex
	Number of Members	Percentage
Female	418	47.39%
Male	464	52.61%
TOTAL	882	100.00%

Table 10: AUWU Breakdown by Sex

Consolidation of the Gender Committee

FIELDWORK OUTPUT DELIVERABLES: Objective #3

Consolidation of the Gender Committee

I.            Introduction

The question of why the All UP Workers Union chose to call the arm for dealing with women’s needs, concerns, and issues a “gender committee” instead of a “women’s committee” had come under the scrutiny and criticism of other field agency partners present during the Second Semester AY 2007-08 Mid-semester Field Presentation discussion held by the Department of Women and Development Studies. Their contention mainly concerned their view that a “gender committee” is not feminist and can neither adequately address women’s practical needs nor raise awareness and transform fixed male-oriented structures within the organization to eventually realize women’s strategic needs, given the maleness of union ideologies, needs, concerns and issues and the resulting marginalization of women in theirs, as per their own experience with unions.

Consolidation of the All UP Women Solidarity

FIELDWORK OUTPUT DELIVERABLES: Objective #4

 Consolidation of the All UP Women Solidarity

Introduction

The All UP Women Solidarity was established by the wives of members of the All UP Workers Union in order to have a voice in the community and support their husbands in their struggle to uphold employees’ rights and their participation in union activities relating to national issues. Their roles as wives and mothers render them accountable for the nurturance and maintenance of their husbands, children, and their households alongside their employment and involvement in community activities. Thus in creating the All UP Women Solidarity they are in the company of other women who understand their needs, issues, constraints, problems and concerns in the accomplishment of their reproductive work and are further bound together by their support for the causes of their husbands as part of the Union.

Assessment of Achievement and Gaps in Addressing Gender Issues

FIELDWORK OUTPUT DELIVERABLES: Objective #5

Assessment of Achievement and Gaps in Addressing Gender Issues

ACHIEVEMENTS

1. Initiative to investigate why women are active or inactive.

The initiative to investigate the non-participation and inactivity of women members is already a step towards gaining a gender lens as an organization. Examining and understanding the interests and experiences of the women sends the message that they are valued members whose participation and potential contribution will not be invisible.

2. Consolidation of the Gender Committee.

The consolidation of the Gender Committee is an effort toward create safe spaces for women and making the services of paracounseling and legal aid available to them.

Women and the All UP Unions: Mainstreaming the Women’s Agenda – An Integrated Field Work Paper – Bibliography

Adamson, et al. “Chapter 7: Feminist Organizations and Feminist Process.” Feminist Organizing for Change: The Contemporary Women’s Movement in Canada.

 All UP Academic Employees Union: Isang Praymer.

All UP Workers Union. Collective Negotiation Agreement. Quezon City: UP Diliman, 2002.

All UP Workers Union. Constitution and By-Laws: Amended All UP Workers Constitution as of December 7, 2001.

Violence and Sanction in the Male-Female Dynamic of the Ilongot, Tausug, and Teduray Societies: Abstract and Blog Post List

This research paper was written as a requirement for Anthropology 225, Philippine Culture and Society, an elective taken at the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy at the University of the Philippines Diliman under Dr. Maria Mangahas, who assigned the students reading material for the research paper based on each one’s background and interests.

I had been assigned three tribes – the Ilongot, the Teduray and the Tausug. As a graduate student of Women and Development Studies, I was immediately attracted to the male-female dynamic prominent in the readings on all three tribes and thus explored this in the research paper

Where Anthropology and Feminist Research Converge and Diverge

Feminist research and anthropology possess two strikingly common veins: the quest for contexts and the methodologies for gathering data to bring to light these contexts. An anthropological orientation is concerned with finding and interpreting meanings as unique to a particular group of study, searching for the similarities it shares with other human natures as well as the differences (the anthropologist’s reflection on his or her own group, or a comparative study between and among different groups). Similarly, women and development studies puts a premium on contexts in locating women of different cultural, social, political, religious, and economic realities and bringing to light the varied “truths” that come with each reality, with analyses moving from gender to class to race.