GAD in Higher Education Institutions

Last July, the Commission on Higher Education Region VII led by Dr. Amelia A. Biglete, invited the various Gender and Development Offices of the tertiary level institutions to a meeting. A GAD Summit was going to be held in Bohol Island State University on Best Practices in GAD. The summit would include a forum on best GAD practices and an exhibit on these. From then on, we prepared for this event.

Dr. Rhodora Masilang-Bucoy prepared for the  presentation while the UP GAD Office and its committee, with the special assistance of Ms. Palmy Pe-Tudtud and Ms. Magnolia Ariza-Laus, prepared for the exhibit.

Let me share here key points of the presentation of Dr. Masilang-Bucoy entitled Gender Mainstreaming in UP Cebu – Promoting, Advancing, Fulfilling Global and National Mandate for Gender Equality and Women Empowerment.

She starts with defining “gender mainstreaming” – “strategy to integrate women’s and men’s concerns and experiences into the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies, programs, and projects in all political, economic and social agenda.”

She stressed the importance of dealing with gender issues because “these impede the capabilities of women and men to attain their full potentials” and to ensure that both females and males will be able to “do what they need to do in order to attain a full and satisfying life.” She asserted that the Philippine Government has been committed to gender equality because of international conventions to which it is signatory like the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).  Our own laws have the same commitment: 1987 Constitution; Women in Nation Building Act; Philippine Plan for Gender-Responsive Development and the Magna Carta of Women.

The heart of her presentation was “Mainstreaming Gender in the Tri-functions of the University.”

She listed  the processes: “engendering the curriculum; bringing the feminist discourse to the academe: deconstructing knowledge; foregrounding women’s voices; critiquing masculinist bias in mainstream knowledge; rights-based perspective, and gender-fair, non-sexist curriculum.”

Because of the efforts, there have been gender-sensitive syllabi, growing gender sensitivity among the students; and UP Cebu hosting the Central Visayas Gender Resource Center due to the availability of gender expertise.

Another major thrust in the university is research, publication and dissemination of new knowledge. Research topics cover urban poor women; women in the labor movement; sexuality education; women and telenovelas; men as fathers; and feminist leadership.

In UP’s third major function, extension services,  Dr. Rhodora Masilang-Bucoy discussed the involvement of UP faculty and staff in “Transforming Local Government Units and Communities into Gender Responsive Bodies.” Faculty and staff sit in technical working groups; they are members of both the Provincial Women’s Commission and the Cebu City Women and Family Affairs Commission. UP Cebu GAD Office acts has been the secretariat of Sidlak Region VII GRC. Through this set-up, the college is able to respond to the gender training needs of both government agencies and non-government organizations.

The exhibit featured the key ideas of Dr. Rhodora Bucoy’s presentation. Abstracts of the gender-related researches were displayed. Among these were: Sexism in the Campus of Portia Dacalos; Attitude of Parents towards Sexuality Education of Annabelle Gilla-Maglasang; The Parent, the Teacher, the Child, and Sex Education of Rowena Villarama-Mende; The History of Women’s Education in Cebu of Phoebe Zoe Maria Umbay-Sanchez; A Theatre of Struggle: Young Filipino Women’s Perception of Class and Gender Ideologies in Korean Television Dramas of Belinda Espiritu; The Development, Nature, and Content of Feminist Consciousness Among Organized Urban Poor Women in Cebu City; and the awarded works of Rosario Yee-Montaño, Larawang Diwa ng Kababaihan sa Piling Maikling Kuwento ni Liwayway A. Arceo and Madrileña de la Cerna’s Towards Developing Philippine Feminist Leadership: Articulations and Experiences of Selected Women Leaders. Publications which included the researches were also showcased. We were thrilled to include Babayeng Buhat A Visual/Literary Experience, a compilation of poems with paintings of “visual and literary Cebuano women artists” from UP and other higher education institutions of Cebu. Displayed, too, were the Cebu Provincial Women’s Commission-LAW Center Heritage Cards, organized by a working committee that included UP staff.

Dr. Rhodora Masilang-Bucoy attributes the realization of GAD mainstreaming to the passion of GAD advocates within the academe and the supportive role of the university administration in the institutionalization of GAD mechanisms.” GAD bodies, under the leadership of the University Center of Women Studies, are in place; GAD focal persons operate in the various constituent units and these have GAD budgets.

Other institutions with presentations of best GAD practices were Cebu Normal University with Dr. Leodinito Y. Cañete who presented  Nature and Focus of a Community Program: An Ex Post Facto Evaluation of Cebu Normal University’s e-Help Program; University of Bohol with Ms. Leah Wilfreda Echavez-Pilongo on The Practice of Mainstreaming Gender Equality and Development into the University of Bohol; Cebu Doctors University with Dr. Vivien Alix-Seno on Integrating Domestic Violence in the Medical Education Curriculum; Silliman University with Prof. Phoebe A. Tan on Gender Mainstreaming in the Curriculum; St. Theresa’s College with Ms. Dulce Jesus L. Baricuatro on Mainstreaming Women Empowerment and Gender Equality.