Balt,

Princess Alyanna Gerona September 2, 2017

M260 – Paper No. 1 Prof. Nathan Rondina



Does Gender Discrimination Still Exist in Modern Society?


The society has come a long way in fighting for gender equality. This is in comparison with
women’s suffrage during the early 1900’s, where women were denied the social responsibility to vote
because of being purportedly too emotional and rationally unstable. The film Suffragette revealed the
struggles that have come before the progress of equality we have today. It also showed the ability of
women to fight against oppression and patriarchy. But the question remains, does gender inequality still
exist?

Nowadays, we see women holding position in politics and also in leading companies. But in an
infographic by UN Women shows that, only 23% of the parliament consists of women, women earn 24%
less than men, 1 out of 3 women still experience violence mostly caused by their partner, and only 9% of
the news report the issue of gender (in)equality. The given infographic underlines the persisting
challenges women experience in this modern age. During my second year in Assumption College, we were
required to take Sociology class as part of the women empowerment movement that tackled gender
inequality across the globe. The number of the occurring incidents of bride-burning in India and female
genital mutilation in some parts of Africa are surprisingly rampant. Clearly, despite the progress towards
gender equality, women and girls continue to suffer violence and discrimination.

This is also very apparent to the Bunny Cadag story, that not just women and girls experience
gender injustices but most especially the LGBTQ community. Bunny is one of the many who suffers and
still suffering from gender discrimination. It’s already unfortunate that Bunny suffered from workplace
discrimination from a big company like Jollibee Food Corporation (JFC) but the lack of action from the
Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines – Gender Office is another thing. If Bunny would have
not taken her complaint on social media, would JFC and the government take action? In the Philippines,
firing employees based on sexual orientation or gender identity is legal. There’s no law protecting
LGBTQ community from inequality in workplace because the Anti-Discrimination Bill (ADB) is still under
close examination.

In a 2015 report by Human Rights Watch (HRW), ‘only 15% of Filipinos reside in areas protected
by ordinance against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity’ and in 2008,
there has been 29 murders of transgender documented, the highest in Southeast Asia and it is also likely
that many murders are unreported according to Huffington Post. This disturbing number of figures reveal
that the cruelty against trans community is very rampant in a predominant Catholic country.

In Time magazine’s Beyond ‘He’ or ‘She’, the American culture is supporting every type of gender
identity, they are openly embracing these changes that shows in a survey conducted by Harris Poll that,
‘20% of millennials say they are something other than strictly straight and cisgender, compared to 7% of
boomers’. This is very similar to the research conducted by Pew Research Center (PRC) on the opinions
about LGBTQ community globally, it resulted that 70% of the Filipinos said that the society should accept
homosexuality, showing Philippines as the most “tolerant” country in Asia. But these reports are just on
the surface because there’s a widespread number of harassment and discrimination that the trans
community is still experiencing. The Catholic Church showed resistance in implementing policies to
protect LGBTQ because of their belief that this may lead to opening the doors to same-sex marriage. Until
we are waiting for the implementation of the ADB and active reinforcement of the Anti-Bullying Law, there
are LGBTQ youth that continue to suffer from bullying in schools, employees who undergo mistreatment
because of their sexual orientation and rising numbers of LGBTQ murders.

With all these facts at hand one can knowledgeably deduce that our beloved country is still at its
infancy stage in terms of accepting every human being’s sexual preference.



























Reference:
“Just Let Us Be” Human Rights Watch, 21 Jun. 2017, https://www.hrw.org/report/2017/06/21/just-let-us-
be/discrimination-against-lgbt-students-philippines. Accessed 30 Aug. 2017.

“Infographic: Gender equality – Where are we today?” UN Women, 25 Sept. 2015,
http://www.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/multimedia/2015/9/infographic-gender-equality-where-
are-we-today. Accessed 30 Aug. 2017

“The Dangers Of Being LGBT In ‘Tolerant’ Philippines” The World Post, 12 Oct. 2015,
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/lgbt-philippines_us_5614f92fe4b021e856d2d870. Accessed 30
Aug. 2017.