10,168 in female symbol eye place in Guinness World Records

As the world marked International Women’s Day on Saturday, thousands gathered in Manila to set a record for the biggest human formation of the female symbol—a circle with a cross underneath—to kick off month-long activities honoring the resiliency of Filipino women.

With a tally of 10,168, organizers of the event were confident that the activity would make it to the Guinness World Record for the highest number of participants forming the woman’s symbol, a gender sign that also denotes the astrological symbol of planet Venus.

Guinness requires only 250 people in formation for 15 minutes.

Organizers said it would take a week before the record is officially validated by Guinness World Records.

There is no previous record for the largest human formation of a gender symbol, although the Guinness website lists 10,563 people as taking part in a giant formation of a droplet in Haryana, India, in November 2013.

The activity was held by the Philippine Commission on Women (PCW), the national machinery for gender equality and empowerment, to raise awareness of gender issues and recognize women’s role in their overall contribution to progress and disaster recovery.

Wearing white shirts, delegates from the government, academic institutions, private sector and civil society groups assembled at Quirino Grandstand at 6 a.m. to join the human formation.

The Armed Forces of the Philippines provided field marshals and aerial video documentation of the activity, which will be sent to Guinness.

By 7 a.m., the participants were lining up for the formation on Burnham Green, Rizal Park’s parade grounds. They were given wrist tags for proper accounting, which was checked by auditors from Sycip Gorres Velayo and Co.

Not just a day

Blame her for the Philippines’ observation of National Women’s Month, when the world observes only Women’s Day, said PCW Chair Remedios Rikken.

“If you want to go national, it can’t just be one day,” Rikken said. “When we talk about gender issues, we question the impact of all government programs on men and women.”

The launching of Women’s Month, with the theme “Juana ang tatag mo ay tatag natin sa pagbangon at pagsulong,” was held in partnership with Coca-Cola Philippines.

FOR THE RECORD A total of 10,168 people form a giant female symbol at Manila’s Rizal Park to celebrate the kickoff on Saturday of National Women’s Month. The effort hopes to establish a Guinness World Record for the biggest number of people inside the symbol. RAFFY LERMA

“We decided to partner with the PCW [because] we have a program in the Philippines called Star (“sari-sari” store training and access to resources) program. It’s part of our global 5by20 program to empower economically 5 million women entrepreneurs by 2020,” Adel Tamano, Coca-Cola Philippines vice president for public affairs and communications, said in an interview.

“In the Philippines, we’re doing it 2Star and we will empower 200,000 women by 2020. So it made sense to partner with the PCW because women are pillars of our business and there’s no better way to empower communities than through empowering women,” Tamano said.

In his speech, Tamano said 66 percent of global work, excluding household work, was done by women, but they earn only 10 percent of the world’s income. Moreover, 90 percent of the small income share is given back to their family and community.

Rikken said six out of 10 women were beaten up at home and there was a high incidence of incest in the Philippines. But victims are ashamed to seek help and, oftentimes, blame themselves.

That’s why it is important, she said, to teach women at the barangay level to create a support system.

“It is not a family problem, it is a social problem,” Rikken said.

Rikken said that while the country might be better off than others (“We don’t have honor killing or the tradition of killing women who have been raped; female circumcision or dowry system.”), there was still a lot left to be desired when it came to discrimination and equal opportunity. With a report from AFP

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