Chapter 9.

Socio-Cultural and Economic-

Political Context of Gender
A. Women and Violence
By: DMBGavina
Learning Objectives

Identify Explain Articulate

Identify the various Explain how even Articulate ways to

forms of violence subtle forms of prevent violence
against women; violence affect against women.
women; and
 Violence - the intentional use of
physical force or power, threatened or
actual, against oneself, another
person, or against a group or
Definition community, that either results in or
(WHO) has a high likelihood of resulting in
injury, death, psychological harm, mal-
development or deprivation.
Violence Against Women is any
act of gender-based violence that
results or is likely to result in
physical, sexual or psychological
harm or suffering to women
including threats or such acts,
coercion or arbitrary deprivation of
liberty whether occurring in public
or private life. Gender-based
violence is any violence inflicted on
women because of their sex.

- Magna Carta of Women in the Philippines

VAW In The Family Or Domestic Violence
“violence that occurs within the private sphere, generally between
individuals who are related through intimacy, blood or law.”
*VAW in the community often takes one or more.
 FORMS of
VIOLENCE
A. Physical violence (hitting with
the fist, slapping, kicking
different parts of the body,
stabbing with a knife, etc). It
also includes physical
chastisement, trafficking for
both the sex industry and the
service industry, forced
prostitution, battering by
employers and murder;
 MEASUREMENT
Physical Violence Questions -
• Does/Did your (last) husband/ partner/boyfriend ever do any of the following to you:
a) Push you, shake you, or throw something at you?
b) Slap you?
c) Twist your arm or pull your hair?

• Punch or hit you with something that could hurt you?

• Kick you, drag you, or beat you up?
• Try to choke you or burn you on purpose?
• Threaten or attack you with a knife, gun, or any other weapon?
 FORMS of
VIOLENCE

B. psychological and emotional

violence (intimidation, harassment,
stalking, damage to property, public
ridicule or humiliation, repeated
verbal abuse, marital infidelity, etc.)
Another example is isolation by
community/cultural norms based on
attitudes of gender discrimination.
MEASUREMENT

Emotional Violence Questions

• Does/Did your (last) husband/ partner/boyfriend ever:
• Say or do something to humiliate you in front of others?
• Threaten to hurt or harm you or himself or someone close to
you?
• Insult you or make you feel bad about yourself?
 FORMS of
VIOLENCE
C. Economic abuse (withdrawal of
financial support or preventing the victim
from engaging in any legitimate
profession, occupation, business or
activity, deprivation or threat of
deprivation of financial resources and the
right to use and enjoyment of the
conjugal, community or property owned
in common, destroying household
property; and controlling the victim’s
own money or properties or solely
controlling the conjugal money or
properties.
MEASUREMENT

Economic Violence Questions -

• Control your own money or properties or force you to
work?
• Destroy your personal properties, pets or belongings, or
threaten or actually harm your pets?
• Not allow you to engage in any legitimate work nor
practice your profession?
• Have other intimate relationships?
 FORMS of
VIOLENCE
D. Sexual violence (rape, sexual
harassment, acts of lasciviousness,
treating a woman or child as a sex object,
making demeaning and sexually
suggestive remarks, physically attacking
the sexual parts of the victim’s body,
forcing him/her to watch obscene
publications and indecent shows or
forcing the woman or her child to do
indecent acts and/or make films thereof,
forcing the wife and mistress/lover to
live in the conjugal home or sleep
together in the same room with the
abuser, etc).
Other forms of sexual violence as defined by the Anti-Violence Against
Women and their Children Act of 2003 include forcing women or their
children to watch pornography, look at sexually suggestive material,
or do indecent acts. It is also illegal to record or video these acts.
 Rape is defined as
forced or coerced
penetration of the
vulva or anus using a
penis, other body
parts, or an object.

Unsuccessful rape is called

attempted rape.
If more than one person
commits rape on any one
person, it is called gang rape.
• The lack of consent is essential to sexual
violence. A person may be unable to give
consent due to being drunk, drugged or
incapacitated. Those who lack the
comprehension to understand the
ramifications of their decision, such as
children and person with disabilities,
cannot give consent for sex.
MEASUREMENT

• Sexual Violence Questions -

 Physically force you to have sexual intercourse with him even

you did not want to?

 Force you to perform any other sexual acts you did not want to?

 Try or attempt to force you to have sexual intercourse with him

or perform any other sexual acts against your will?

 Persuade or threaten you to have sexual intercourse with him

or perform any other sexual acts against your will?

SEXUAL VIOLENCE

One in 25 women age 15-49 who

have ever had sex ever experienced
forced first sexual intercourse

One in 10 women age 15-49 ever

experienced sexual violence
• Marital rape occurs between
a married couple. While this
form of violence is recognized
by the law (Anti-Rape Law of
1997), there are cultural
barriers to its full
implementation. In some areas in
the Philippines, marital rape is not
acknowledged as violence or rape by the
victim, the victim’s family, and more often
than not, the community where the crime
was committed. A woman who
experiences marital rape may be too
ashamed to come forward as she feels
that her issue is one that is private in
nature. Others who do, however, may not
even pursue their case against husband
because they have supposedly resolved
the issues on their own.
• Incest refers to sexual acts done
between family members or
closely related persons. Incest
may occur inside or outside of
the home.
• A person who may enact incest
is the parent, grandparent, uncle
or aunt, sibling, cousin, or
guardian of the person. Incest
may also involve the neighbor
who the family trusted to care for
the child or the caregiver or
nanny.
Root of Incest • It concerns the lack of power, in which
victims lose their voice to speak up
regarding the abuse because they may not
know that what is happening to them is
wrong as in the case of young children,
• or because the perpetrator threatens the
victim to stay quiet about the interaction.
• Victims may feel that they must fulfill the
elder’s wish to sexual acts for survival
because the latter is taking care of them.
Victims may also keep silent to keep the
peace in their family or community.
 Sexual
Harrassment
• The Philippines’ Anti-Sexual Harassment
Law of 1995 defines sexual harassment as the
demand of a sexual act or favor in an
institution, wherein the person who demands
the act is in moral ascendancy or influence
over the person being solicited. It is considered
harassment regardless of whether or not victim
agrees to partake in the act. If a woman feels
discomfort or distress during the request,
solicitation, or act, it is considered harassment.
In the case of employees, harassment covers
actions from their boss, team leader, or
someone who has influence over one’s
employment status or permanency, promotion,
and the like. For students, sexual harassment
covers the teacher, instructor, professor, coach
or trainer.
• Sex trafficking involves the
relocation of women from one
place to another without them
knowing where they are
going. These women often
agree to go to these places
because they were promised
employment from a legitimate
employer.
• Sexual exploitation is the
participation of a woman in
the sex industry – prostitution
or pornography – because of
force or intimidation.
Prostitution is defined as
“any act, transaction, scheme
or design involving the use of
a person by another for
sexual intercourse or
lascivious conduct in
exchange for money, profit, or
any other consideration”.
Violence against women
in public spaces
• Street harassment is sexual harassment that
occurs in a public space. The harassment may
involve cat calls, shouting of sexual obscenities,
unwanted sexual gestures, blocking a person’s
path, indecent exposure, groping, and the like.
Street harassment creates an environment of
fear, as it is often linked to male violence and
sexual violence.
 Cultural practices
and sexual violence
• Forcing children to become child brides is a cultural practice that
can be classified as sexual violence. Child brides are unable to give
consent because they are married off as children and do not fully
understand the circumstances they are placed in due to lack of
maturity or experience. Although younger than 18 years, they are
often forced to have sexual encounters with men who are much
older than them. These conditions also lead to numerous health
issues such as STDs and early pregnancy. Teenage pregnancy is
dangerous for both the mother and child as the mother’s body has
not fully developed yet.

• Female genital mutilation, also called female circumcision,

involves the involves acts that harm a person’s sexual organ by
cutting or removal of certain parts of a woman’s external vagina. It
is mostly carried out on girls 15 years and younger. This has no
known medical benefit to females. In fact, women can be placed in
grave danger due to massive bleeding and infection. They are also
at risk of complications during pregnancy and childbirth. This
tradition is still widely practiced because of its sacredness and it is
 • Reproductive or Medical Abuse - Women may be forced to get pregnant, use

OTHER FORMS contraceptives, or undergo abortions

• abuse of women in intimate relationships (AWIR) - violence or harm against

OF VIOLENCE a woman by her current or former partner (husband or live-in partner)

• Spiritual Violence - violence against women that uses religion or spirituality to

discredit, harm, or disempower them. It happens when powerful religious
leaders use supposedly religious ideologies to control and rule over women.
 Chapter 10.
National and International
Policies on Gender
By: DMBGavina
International Treaties For Women Protection
What does CEDAW do?
• The six UN member states
that have not ratified or
acceded to the convention
are Iran, Palau,
Somalia, Sudan, Tonga,
and the United States.
The one UN non-member
state that had not acceded
to the convention is the
Holy See/Vatican City.
 LAWS AND
POLICIES FOR
WOMEN IN THE
PHILIPPINES
Magna Carta of Women

RA 9262 “Anti-violence against Women and Children of 2004”

RA 7877: Anti-Sexual Harassment Act of 1995

RA 8353: Anti-Rape Law of 1997

RA 9995: Anti-Photo and Video Voyeurism Act of 2009