WOMEN
WORKERS IN GOVERNMENT: By the COURAGE Women's Committee Angie wakes up at 4:30 in the morning. She cooks breakfast and baon, prepare her children's things and uniforms for school. After breakfast, she stacks the dishes in the sink and running after jam- packed jeepneys, going through the horrendous traffic or rides in overcrowded light rail transit (LRT) and arrives at the office already worn out of hours of household work and travel. The whole day at the office is spent on her routine of typing and filling and re-typing interspersed with activities related to small income-generating activities of "sidelines" in the office. Sometimes her mind races to the dinner she would prepare that night or the items she has to purchase for her children's project being required the follow ing day. She will also find the time to call home and check if the children have arrived from school to remind them that they have to lock the doors, attend to their assignments/homework first before playing. At the strike of 5:00 PM, she rushes home an d drops by the "talipapa" (small community market) for other requirements for dinner and for the children. Once at home, she cooks a simple dinner, tidies up, supervises the completion of her children's homework and prepares for the requirements of a new day. She goes through th is every working day of the week. By weekend, she does the laundry, ironing, marketing and cleaning of the house, with the minimal assistance of her elder children and husband. There still are varying faces of the women government employee. Linda, who se househelp just left would tag her toddler to office. She balances her office work with childcare due to acute inadequacy or very high cost of childcare services for working mothers. This, despite a law instructing government office to set up a dayca re center within their offices. When her child gets sick, she has to go on leave to bring her to the doctor and care for her. Aling Lita, a single parent, has been working with the government for more than 20 years now. She has grown old with her office without given the chance to pursue further studies or trainings for new skills. She was able to raise her two kids through her meager salary, her yearly renewal of salary and policy loans, the "paluwagan" system (credit cooperative) and the numerous products she buys and sells to her officemates. Mimi, a very young secretary is working hard to augment her parent's income. She was sexually harassed by her boss but kept mum about it for fear that her contractual appointment would not be renewed. Besides, she feels she will be treated badly, too, by her officemates and friends if she tells them. Silently, she weeps and at the same time seethes at his boss. Angie, Linda, Lita and Mimi are the typical women workers in the bureaucracy. In addition to the double burden of caring for children and attending to household chores is the greater burden of budgeting the family's income. Stretching the peso's worth and looking for additional sources is an added load that most women face on a day to day basis. Sometimes, their kind are referred to as the "dead wood" within the bureaucracy, merely concerned in coming in at 8:00 in the morning, taking a nap after lunch and waits for the bundy clock to strike 5:00 before she goes rushing for home. Mechanically going through their rout ine in the office and doing nothing more, aspiring for nothing more. These are but additional problems they face as women workers. As government employees, they face a hand-to-mouth existence similar to that of the majority of Filipinos. The salaries o f government employees, despite the Salary Standardization Laws, have been frozen and with the government\rquote s policy to maintain low wages there is no increase in sight. Life within the bureaucracy is a cycle of loans, debts and endless "sidelines". These women workers work within the first and second level, where the majority are and these levels are within the lowest in the salary range of government workers. With the crisis the Philippines is currently experiencing, more and more Filipinos are faced with greater problems \endash massive retrenchment, underemployment/unemployment and poverty. And women in various sectors are the worst hit. The economic and financial crisis which affected the world economies but hit hardly Asia in the second half of 1997, including the Philippines, has only shown the inherent weaknesses of the government's strategy patterned after the Newly- Industrialized Countries (NIC). The government's policies of liberalization, deregulation and privatization, has successfully displaced hundreds of thousands of workers in agriculture, in the industrial sector, in urban poor communities and even in the government. The peso has devalued by 52% against the dollar since July 1997, official unemployment rate has risen 7.9% than the 1996 r ate and underemployment rate reached 20.8% compared to 19.4% in 1996. The prices of commodities have risen sharply while salaries remain frozen with the average basic wage falling 49% below poverty threshold. The severity of crisis is pushing more and m ore Filipinos to look for jobs elsewhere and we find them employed as overseas workers, doing odd jobs, working as entertainers, domestic helpers and more often that not, ending as prostitutes. And yes, their dollar remittances account for more than half the dollar receipts of the Philippine government through the years. For 1998 and the coming years, it is being predicted that the situation will deteriorate further. Clearly this means further misery for the majority of poor Filipinos, which also means that women will face harder and more desperate times ahead. Understanding the Women in the Bureaucracy The women workers comprises more than half of the bureaucracy, and number is increasing. They hold positions mostly in the 1st and 2nd levels and only a few are in 3rd level positions where decisions are made. They work primarily to augment their husband\rquote s meager income. They get involved with buying and selling of products during office hours to enable them to meet the requirements of their families. In a survey conducted by COURAGE in 1993-94, and validated by the conduct of Focused Group Discussions in 1995, findings indeed showed how women in the bureaucracy face unequal opportunities and are doubly exploited. Men and women workers are faced with low salaries, few benefits, curtailed union rights and yet women face added burden of discrimination and sexual harassment just because of her gender. On benefits and opportunities, the study noted that men employees benefit more than the women bec ause many opportunities are opened to both but the women are limited by factors that tie them primarily to childcare and household chores. Fieldwork is more often offered to men because women are considered weak and prone to sexual harassment. Men also receive a little bit more than women in the same work category which was attributed to men receiving step increments frequently than women because of their accumulated trainings, field assignments and other opportunities. Therefore, the chances of promotion for men is higher than women because generally, promotion is based on competence, good performance and on certain rules and standards of the agency. To top it all re managers who have common preferences for male and discrimination views on female employees. With more chances to develop and hone their skills through field work, training and multi-tasking, men have more chances over the women. The study also showed that major tasks and responsibilities in the office, as well as in the homes, are gender related. This confirms that task assignation is not only based on capabilities but more on society's perception of what female and male work should be. Women are mostly assigned to finance, personnel, evaluation and secretarial functions and men to technical, engineering and field-related functions. The nature of assignments are stereotypes and they conform to the traditional roles which society has shaped through the years. On perceptions on discrimination and gender issues, women do not differ much from perceptions of the men. The women themselves think predominantly in a patriarchal/gender insensitive manner. Most are not even aware of women's rights and where discrimination occurs. They have not actively joined associations and unions because t hey are burdened by the volume of household chores they have to do, but they expressed the positive advantages they may derive from joining organizations. The study further revealed that domestic responsibilities are women\rquote s turf, that their work is more affected by domestic responsibilities and their office assignments are extensions of their domestic responsibilities. Yet despite their having multiple burden, the respondents generally think there is no discrimination. Proof that women\rquote s mindset is well shaped by society's outlook and expectations. The issue of violence against women and the prevalence of sexual harassment at the workplace is still one problem area women in the government face. This only strengthens the traditional view that women a re considered weak, sex objects and merely child bearers. Government policy merely paid lip service and not resulted to tangible gains. Policy makers and other high ranking officials have become perpetrators of sexual harassment themselves. The state by which women government employees are in is not a mere result of current programs and policies alone. It is not a state which they have opted or of their own willful doing. It is a product of a long history of our society which helped shape, nurture and closed our eyes to realities. A product of a government that has been controlled and molded by their own interests and that of their foreign masters. Government policies do not help improve the state of women workers. In fact, current policies have only pushed women further from their emancipation. Liberalization has opened the floodgates of contractualization and retrenchment because it has offered cheap and docile labor for investors to come and grab. In every case, women workers are hired la s t and laid-off first. Women workers prove to cost employers more for their maternity leaves. Deregulation has only resulted to higher interest rates, higher oil prices and devalued peso against the dollar. It has only added more problem to women who ca n no longer imagine how to further stretch their budgets and also more problem to women who can no longer imagine how to further stretch their budgets and also where to source immediate loans for emergency situations. Privatization, on the other hand, has translated to the forced retirement and retrenchment of government employees despite their so-called security of tenure. It has further resulted to more expensive and inaccessible basic services. Maternity and childcare, medicines, water, hospitalizatio n, education and others will become more inaccessible to greater number of women. Opportunities for women workers and their children have considerably narrowed, leaving no options but unemployment and hunger, of odd jobs as domestic helpers (DH) , entertainers or prostitutes. The History of Women's Struggle The liberation of Angie, Aling Lita, Linda and Mimi and their kind cannot be granted by the government. We all need to go back to history because precious lessons are learned enabling us to refrain from making c ostly mistakes. And history tells us that women\rquote s liberation is tied up with the assertion of organized women together with the mass of oppressed and exploited people. Philippine society, ever since Spain's colonization, up to the Japanese and American periods and even, at the present time, women and men ere reared and taught that women's place was in the home. That she is weak, that she should merely bear and raise children, serve her husband and not involve herself with economic and political activities. Our history is replete with the struggles of the Filipino people from oppression, from control by foreign colonizers. If as a people, we were exploited and oppressed by the colonizers, women were doubly oppressed and exploited because of their gend er. Our society, under the colonial government against established institutions that embedded in us the view that women's roles are so defined it is a sin to go against it. A culture developed by a system that seeks to serve only the interests of the op pressors and exploiters. To this date, the government and the institutions of worship and learning are still perpetuating this kind of thinking. A thinking that will keep women forever stunted, forever oppressed and exploited. On the other hand, our history is also replete with women who courageously defied the status quo, and joined the ranks of revolutionary men fighting for our freedom and rights, fighting for a society free from foreign control and intervention. To note, we remember them from Gabriela Silang to Melchora Aquino, the women who joined the Katipunan. Celerina dela Cruz, Fausta Bernardo, Margarita Pasamola and Antonia Zamora who were the first Filipinas to be members of a labor union who would become part of the Union de Impresores de Filipinas that would, in turn, later become part of the Union Obrera Democratico, the likes of Liza Balando and Lorena Barros who gave their lives to the continuing revolution of the Filipino masses against class exploitation and oppression. The struggle of the women began with the struggle of the Filipino people from foreign control and domination. The struggle is not against men, but a partnership against exploiters and oppressors. It is a struggle that fights all forms of actions that do not encoura ged the respect for a decent life, for rights, for independence. What indeed if Angie, Aling Lita, Linda, Mimi and their would be awakened and would one day realize that it is time they continue the fight for their rights, it is time that they join the me n and women in the public sector unions and in the different sectors in working towards a just and peaceful society, a society that is able to provide better lives for them, their families and the poor majority? It is not hard for these strong women, including the women in government, to realize this because they have felt how hard it is to be oppressed and at the same time feel a tremendous responsibility of bringing up a child into this world. It is indeed time that they take matters that affect them an d their families into their hands because they cannot rely on others to do so for them. It is about now, so the future of our children would not be a repetition of time despised.###
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