EDITORIAL - Women empowerment

Women in this country should have every reason to celebrate Women’s Month with more meaning and pride with the release last Friday of a report showing the Philippines is one of the top countries worldwide where women are occupying senior management posts.

In the Grant Thornton’s International Business Report, the number of Filipino women holding top business posts increased to 39 percent this year from 35 percent in 2011. This placed the Philippines second in a worldwide survey that Russia topped.

Along with Thailand and Botswana in the second place, the Philippines fared better than those prosperous states such as Italy (36 percent), Hong Kong, (33 percent), Germany (13 percent) and Japan  (five percent).

The survey took into consideration the critical role Filipino women are wielding nowadays in the business field as they take on “responsibilities involving finance.”  It said majority of Filipino women in top management are “chief finance officers or holding senior finance positions.”

Well, one of the reasons why gender equality thrives in this country is that Filipino men have long recognized Filipino women as equal drivers in nation building. Our country’s history is replete with stories about women beating the odds to become leaders in various fields.

That Filipinos already have produced two women state presidents only showed to the world that we are indeed a country where the spirit of women empowerment greatly flourishes, where men learned to treat their women as important partners in national development.

But it’s sad that despite having a tradition of recognizing the importance of the role of women as pillars of society, the government still fails in the aspect of protecting their rights. Many women across the country are still victims of many forms of abuses. Trafficking and rape are still rampant.

Of course, some women are too weak to fight for their rights. They need full government support.

The reason why we celebrate Women’s Month is to pay tribute to all women for their contributions to national progress.