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“And one day she discovered that she was fierce, and strong, and full of fire, and

that not even


she could hold herself back because her passion burned brighter than her fears”, a quote uttered by a
person in opposite sex – only proves that the widespread prejudice against women and girls from
decades is slowly dismantling.

Nonetheless, there isn’t a country in the world that women have achieved true equality, there
are still stories and reports that justify the barriers they are trying to overcome—barriers that differs
from one place to another. Multiple obstacles remain unchanged in law and culture. Women and girls
continue to be undervalued; they work more, earn less and have fewer choices; and experience multiple
forms of violence at home and in public spaces.

In lieu to this, after reading the news report of more than half of women in Zimbabwe, Africa
who have faced sex-tortion specifically being forced to offer sexual favours in exchange for employment
and business matters. After looking at the statistics of the rising rape cases particularly in the Philippines
reaching 7,037 reported cases nationwide as of 2019. After hearing the speech of U.N. Secretary-
General Antonio Guterres in a live broadcast, he emphasized that gender inequality for women is
growing as we move in the 21 st century; and this discrimination they are facing is the one overwhelming
injustice across the globe – an abuse that is crying out for attention. And after watching an uploaded clip
video in social media of a woman being harassed in a bus. These are just few of the millions of unspoken
scenarios and violence being experienced of women in their lifetimes.

Indeniably, we are in the new geologic age which simply means bigger wave of innovations and
transformation yet some women still feel that they were left behind and still coping up from their status
quo of the past. We assumed to be a more progressive country – less burden, less issues and greater
equalization. But then again, the scenarios from above were justifications that we are not on par of what
we trying to attain.

Amidst these boundaries, and despite the agonisingly slowed change for the majority of women
– are breaking barriers and creation of new models or interventions for development. First on the list of
breaking barrier is the magna carta of women in the Philippines, a comprehensive list of rights enshrined
under Republic Act 9710, a law that was passed in 2010 that covered practically every aspect of a
woman’s life in social, cultural, and political spheres. The law explains that there will be an equal access
to livelihood opportunities, no discrimination in employment careers in the military, police, and other
related disciplines, fair treatment before the law, protection as citizens, full participation and
representation, and much more. Another is, Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani schoolgirl who campaigned
for girls’ right to education after surviving in a gun shot by Taliban militants. And Nadia Murad, the
Nobel peace laureate who survived enslavement and sexual abuse by Islamic State extremists in Iraq.

Meanwhile, there were also a lot of organizations in the world that are in workforce to fight for
women’s right and equality. The most prominent is the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and
the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) is the UN agency dedicated to gender equality. This agency
was established to accelerate progress on meeting women’s needs across the world. It supports the UN
members states in achieving global standards of gender equality, and it works closely with civil society
organizations and governments to design and implement policies, laws and services that benefit women.
In the Philippines, we also have the GABRIELA Women’s Party which prioritize women from different
sectors and focuses on the education and team building in order to advocate for the many issues they
are facing.
And lastly, the most important breaking barrier to be considered is the ‘quote’ uttered by the
opposite sex on the first paragraph. Understanding these barriers is the first step to dismantling them –
and that requires making a concerted efforts of ‘Eva’ empowering herself and ‘Adam’ empowering ‘Eva’.

There must be an urgent transformation and redistribution of power, if we are to safeguard our
future – let us act together now.

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