13 August 2006 – (Manila) – Throughout the generations, the battle of the sexes has been a burning issue, debated and discussed.
Which is more superior, men or women?
Most of those in this generation would have never imagined that barely half a century ago have passed when women’s suffrage and equal rights started to gain a degree of headway in a staunchly male dominated society.
Fifty or so years ago, there was no debate as to who was superior, it was the men and the age long concept that men being the bread winner should dominate the home.
The concept of having women as mere child bearers sounds so archaic, old and outdated that looks like a scene started when humanity lived inside caves.
There is no doubt about it that women should not be taken lightly and set aside as being inferior.
The battle to ensure women’s equality in society is still alive but not as fierce as it was years ago.
Nowadays, a mere discussion of a sexually oriented matter before women among men though indirectly would result into a possible harassment case and in America, the price could be staggering.
In the Philippines, a former Spanish colony bought by America after the end of the Spanish-American war is in a way a so-called “prodigy” of the United States when it comes to the practice of democracy.
The Philippines was way ahead of its mentor in the 1920s when this country granted suffrage to women, at a time in American history when it was still reeling from a bloody First World War.
America in that decade was resistant to granting woman equal voting rights not until the likes of Alice Paul, Carrie Chapman-Catt, Lucy Burns, Chrystal Eastman and Maud Wood Park formed the Women’s Party.
This was not a true-to-form political party but instead fought fiercely to grant America’s women to choose their local and national leaders.
Like perhaps in any democracy, people took views and actions that could be direct, confrontational or even moderate in terms of approaches towards achieving their goals.
America’s women of the 1920’s were beginning to speak up and demand that their rights be heard, but because of different views on approaching their cause, led to a split among various women’s groups but they all eventually achieved their goal a few decades later.
During that tumultuous period when America was hesitant to join a raging war in Europe, then President Woodrow Wilson was facing a very different type of war at the very sidewalk fronting the White House.
Alice Paul and the rest of the Women’s party picketed the White House to demand that Wilson endorse an amendment to the U.S. Constitution granting suffrage to women.
This confrontation of the sexes is a thing of the past and women have taken the center stage many times in establishing themselves as leaders and examples that the world is not an exclusive men’s club.
In the last five decades, women have become Presidents, Prime Ministers, Chief Executive Officers among leading multinationals and at times have become symbols of freedom and hope.
Here in the Philippines, the country had two women presidents already with the likes of Corazon C. Aquino and Gloria Arroyo in just a span of two decades apart and a woman by the name of Gabriela Silang figures quite well in the nation’s history as a champion against Spanish colonialist forces some two centuries ago.
These days, women portraying roles as domesticated or as mothers stuck at home is not a common thing to see anymore as economic hardships have forced women especially mothers to contribute to the income of their respective family.
The image of a Filipina woman as petite, charming, frail and shy as epitomized by “Maria Clara” by Filipino author Jose Rizal in his novel “Noli Me Tangre” (Touch Me Not) is no longer the case as more and more women show their strength, agility and sometimes their own level of ferocity against the crisis they face.
As a whole, the Filipino woman is not just someone to be taken granted and they are a force equal to her male counterpart.
But since the woman are a force equal to man then there should be no incidents of special treatment, as a consequence of them earning their equality.
Not to offend the women, for I myself is a champion for equal rights and most of my close friends are feminists who in their own right are champions of equality.
The issue here as referred to as “Sexregation” began after an incident I witnessed while traveling on-board the Light Rail Transit 1 from Pedro Gil station to EDSA-Rotonda station.
Springing from the Filipino’s gentle ways and respect for women, administrators of the country’s mass transit system determined that as volume of passengers on the urban train system has become overwhelming and coaches are overly crowded, they decided to segregate the coaches for men and women.
The LRT has basically two to three coaches and the first coach is usually exclusive to women of all ages and they could bring their children of a certain height into the first coach, while the remaining coaches is open to anyone.
Among the women, they are given the courtesy to become safe and secure in their own coach, so there will be no incidents when some enterprising men take advantage of the “crampiness” inside jam packed coaches by touching women at certain sensitive body parts.
However, if one would take the Light Rail Transit or the Metropolitan Rail Transit, during the peak of rush hour in the morning and the afternoon, the first coach made exclusive for women is barely packed and often is near empty.
A number of women, either because they are ignorant of their privilege, or perhaps too lazy to walk a few paces to their own coach or even perhaps they simply can’t part with their boyfriends or worst, some women actually enjoy being squeezed in cramped coaches still insist on taking the coaches that are not exclusive though its filled to the brim.
A week ago, a young woman in her college uniform, who at a first glance looks street easy was about to disembark at the Central Station caused a ruckus on board the LRT and accused a young man of squeezing her breast.
At my vantage point, the young man was trying to move back from the entrance of the coach and his elbow while reaching the safety handle accidentally pressed on the breast of the younger woman.
There was an exchange of curses and cusses but everybody around them saw what really happened and someone, an elder woman said to the younger woman that it was an accident and she should not be making a fuss about it.
Now there is nothing wrong particularly wrong about insisting in joining and stepping into a crowded coach but that young lady had an option and that was to take her own coach made exclusive to her own kind.
Women have sought to be recognized as an equal to man and so perks and privileges should not be given to them on certain cases.
Nowadays, since women have asked that they be treated without any preferences then it should be the case even when one takes a public transportation.
Sometimes, these women prefer to throw their weight around and just get what they want because they demand that they are women who deserve to be respected with dignity and respect.
As human beings, women should be treated as such but to demand special treatment is already an abuse of privilege and courtesy to their gender.
I wish not to cause a debate here among woman kind but if they want to be treated equally like their male counter part then there should be no privileges on certain occasions or this is a case of a double standard.
If there should be any preferential treatment in riding the mass transit system, it’s the elderly men and more on the elderly women, the disabled or impaired who are more often than not treated with no respect.
Indeed, the days when men bow and tip their hats before women is just a thing of the past but these days, women got more than just being patronized, they are now respected partners in the path we call life.
Which is more superior, men or women?
Most of those in this generation would have never imagined that barely half a century ago have passed when women’s suffrage and equal rights started to gain a degree of headway in a staunchly male dominated society.
Fifty or so years ago, there was no debate as to who was superior, it was the men and the age long concept that men being the bread winner should dominate the home.
The concept of having women as mere child bearers sounds so archaic, old and outdated that looks like a scene started when humanity lived inside caves.
There is no doubt about it that women should not be taken lightly and set aside as being inferior.
The battle to ensure women’s equality in society is still alive but not as fierce as it was years ago.
Nowadays, a mere discussion of a sexually oriented matter before women among men though indirectly would result into a possible harassment case and in America, the price could be staggering.
In the Philippines, a former Spanish colony bought by America after the end of the Spanish-American war is in a way a so-called “prodigy” of the United States when it comes to the practice of democracy.
The Philippines was way ahead of its mentor in the 1920s when this country granted suffrage to women, at a time in American history when it was still reeling from a bloody First World War.
America in that decade was resistant to granting woman equal voting rights not until the likes of Alice Paul, Carrie Chapman-Catt, Lucy Burns, Chrystal Eastman and Maud Wood Park formed the Women’s Party.
This was not a true-to-form political party but instead fought fiercely to grant America’s women to choose their local and national leaders.
Like perhaps in any democracy, people took views and actions that could be direct, confrontational or even moderate in terms of approaches towards achieving their goals.
America’s women of the 1920’s were beginning to speak up and demand that their rights be heard, but because of different views on approaching their cause, led to a split among various women’s groups but they all eventually achieved their goal a few decades later.
During that tumultuous period when America was hesitant to join a raging war in Europe, then President Woodrow Wilson was facing a very different type of war at the very sidewalk fronting the White House.
Alice Paul and the rest of the Women’s party picketed the White House to demand that Wilson endorse an amendment to the U.S. Constitution granting suffrage to women.
This confrontation of the sexes is a thing of the past and women have taken the center stage many times in establishing themselves as leaders and examples that the world is not an exclusive men’s club.
In the last five decades, women have become Presidents, Prime Ministers, Chief Executive Officers among leading multinationals and at times have become symbols of freedom and hope.
Here in the Philippines, the country had two women presidents already with the likes of Corazon C. Aquino and Gloria Arroyo in just a span of two decades apart and a woman by the name of Gabriela Silang figures quite well in the nation’s history as a champion against Spanish colonialist forces some two centuries ago.
These days, women portraying roles as domesticated or as mothers stuck at home is not a common thing to see anymore as economic hardships have forced women especially mothers to contribute to the income of their respective family.
The image of a Filipina woman as petite, charming, frail and shy as epitomized by “Maria Clara” by Filipino author Jose Rizal in his novel “Noli Me Tangre” (Touch Me Not) is no longer the case as more and more women show their strength, agility and sometimes their own level of ferocity against the crisis they face.
As a whole, the Filipino woman is not just someone to be taken granted and they are a force equal to her male counterpart.
But since the woman are a force equal to man then there should be no incidents of special treatment, as a consequence of them earning their equality.
Not to offend the women, for I myself is a champion for equal rights and most of my close friends are feminists who in their own right are champions of equality.
The issue here as referred to as “Sexregation” began after an incident I witnessed while traveling on-board the Light Rail Transit 1 from Pedro Gil station to EDSA-Rotonda station.
Springing from the Filipino’s gentle ways and respect for women, administrators of the country’s mass transit system determined that as volume of passengers on the urban train system has become overwhelming and coaches are overly crowded, they decided to segregate the coaches for men and women.
The LRT has basically two to three coaches and the first coach is usually exclusive to women of all ages and they could bring their children of a certain height into the first coach, while the remaining coaches is open to anyone.
Among the women, they are given the courtesy to become safe and secure in their own coach, so there will be no incidents when some enterprising men take advantage of the “crampiness” inside jam packed coaches by touching women at certain sensitive body parts.
However, if one would take the Light Rail Transit or the Metropolitan Rail Transit, during the peak of rush hour in the morning and the afternoon, the first coach made exclusive for women is barely packed and often is near empty.
A number of women, either because they are ignorant of their privilege, or perhaps too lazy to walk a few paces to their own coach or even perhaps they simply can’t part with their boyfriends or worst, some women actually enjoy being squeezed in cramped coaches still insist on taking the coaches that are not exclusive though its filled to the brim.
A week ago, a young woman in her college uniform, who at a first glance looks street easy was about to disembark at the Central Station caused a ruckus on board the LRT and accused a young man of squeezing her breast.
At my vantage point, the young man was trying to move back from the entrance of the coach and his elbow while reaching the safety handle accidentally pressed on the breast of the younger woman.
There was an exchange of curses and cusses but everybody around them saw what really happened and someone, an elder woman said to the younger woman that it was an accident and she should not be making a fuss about it.
Now there is nothing wrong particularly wrong about insisting in joining and stepping into a crowded coach but that young lady had an option and that was to take her own coach made exclusive to her own kind.
Women have sought to be recognized as an equal to man and so perks and privileges should not be given to them on certain cases.
Nowadays, since women have asked that they be treated without any preferences then it should be the case even when one takes a public transportation.
Sometimes, these women prefer to throw their weight around and just get what they want because they demand that they are women who deserve to be respected with dignity and respect.
As human beings, women should be treated as such but to demand special treatment is already an abuse of privilege and courtesy to their gender.
I wish not to cause a debate here among woman kind but if they want to be treated equally like their male counter part then there should be no privileges on certain occasions or this is a case of a double standard.
If there should be any preferential treatment in riding the mass transit system, it’s the elderly men and more on the elderly women, the disabled or impaired who are more often than not treated with no respect.
Indeed, the days when men bow and tip their hats before women is just a thing of the past but these days, women got more than just being patronized, they are now respected partners in the path we call life.
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