Hontiveros stresses need for women leaders in gov’t to ensure ‘true’ gender equality

Senator Risa Hontiveros has emphasized the need for women leaders at the policy-making level to ensure “true” gender equality during the recent Global Conference of Parliamentarians on Population and Development in Tokyo.

“We shouldn’t just stop at passing laws for our women, we should make it our responsibility to ensure that more women are also in leadership positions, more women who intimately know the lived experiences of being a woman,” Hontiveros, who represented the Philippines in the conference, said.

“When we have the different perspectives of different kinds of women in decision-making spaces and in all levels of governance, we would be more able to live out true gender equality and empowerment for all,” she added.

At the conference, Hontiveros shared several experiences of women during the COVID-19 pandemic, which she said had exposed the social inequalities that exacerbated the gaps and challenges facing women’s rights and gender equality in the Philippines.

She also mentioned forms of gender-based violence such as the sex-for-pass in checkpoints to cases of online sexual exploitation of children on social media that were prevalent in the Philippines and were brought about by the health and economic crisis.

“COVID-19 has taught us that we are more in need of each other than we would like to admit, more connected than we think, more similar than we are different. And I hope as we work towards creating societies that are freer, healthier, and happier for our women and girls, we always remember to work together, look out for each other, and stay united in our shared humanity,” Hontiveros said.

The three-day conference was organized by the Asian Population and Development Association, the Asian Forum of Parliamentarians on Population and Development Japan, the Parliamentarians Federation for Population, and supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, the United Nations Population Fund, and the Japan Trust Fund. —Hana Bordey/KBK, GMA Integrated News