Bu-lat-lat (boo-lat-lat) verb: to search, probe, investigate, inquire; to unearth facts Volume 2, Number 45 December 15 - 21, 2002 Quezon City, Philippines |
Survey
Says: Five
out of 10 women living in Metro Manila have experienced sexual harassment but
many of them do not consider it a violation of their rights. This is the result
of a recent survey conducted by the Center for Women’s Resources (CWR), a
research and education institution for women. BY
BULATLAT.COM CWR
surveyed 1,000 women from randomly selected communities, schools and offices in
Metro Manila. The survey, said CWR, shows that the most common form of violence
committed against women (VAW) is sexual harassment. Respondents
from the labor, public and academic sectors indicated that forms of sexual
harassment like whistling, sexually-connotative jokes and malicious stares are
rampant in their workplace while those in the communities ranked sex
trafficking, prostitution and malicious jokes and stares as the most common.
“But
while women are aware of the grave forms of violence committed against them, it
is surprising to find that few of them perceive sexual harassment as a form of
violence,” explained Gertrudes Ranjo-Libang, CWR executive director. Libang noted that 89% of the respondents consider rape, wife or partner battering, incest, and sex trafficking, which are actually the grave forms of VAW, as the only forms of VAW. On the other hand, many respondents who experienced sexual harassment do not see their experience as a form of VAW. “But
their answers also show that this is the most pervasive and most common
experience by the respondents themselves,” said Libang. Libang
attributed this finding to two factors: “Firstly, women have already been
desensitized by the prevalence of sexually offensive acts that many of them are
no longer aware that their rights as women are already being violated. So many
women treat sexual harassment in particular as mundane or part of the Filipino
macho culture. There are even those who stated that women who define sexual
harassment as VAW are just suplada (snobbish), malicious, and narrow-minded”. The
second factor, she said, is the slow response of the police and government to
VAW cases. Survey
figures show that 35% of those who experienced or know of women who underwent
sexual assaults turn to their friends for solace and advice, while 31% seek help
from their families. Only 16% turn to barangay officials for help while an even
smaller percentage -- 13% -- go to the police. “Women
find it a tedious process fighting for their rights,” stated Libang. “There
are various loopholes in our legal system that no less than President Arroyo has
pointed out when her own daughter filed a case against her harasser and had to
wait for two years before getting a verdict,” Libang remarked, referring to
the harassment case filed by the president’s daughter Luli Arroyo in 1996. The
survey was conducted from Sept. 16 to Oct. 12 this year. The complete study will
be published early next year. Bulatlat.com We want to know what you think of this article.
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