Press Release
November 8, 2018

Speech of Senator Risa Hontiveros on the British House of Commons

Women MPs of the World Conference

TACKLING GENDER INEQUALITY THROUGH WOMEN'S ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT

Good day, fellow parliamentarians, important guests, dear friends. What a privilege it is to talk before you today, as my country the Philippines is on the verge of passing a law expanding paid maternity leave from its current length of 60 days for normal deliveries and 78 days for caesarian deliveries, to 105 days. This is a truly historic milestone for gender legislation in the Philippines -- not only because the current maternity leave benefit is one of the lowest in the Asia Pacific region and is below the prescribed standard of the International Labor Organization -- but because we, Akbayan Party, and other women and labor advocates and champions, believe that the Expanded Maternity Leave Law will be a game-changer for the economic empowerment of Filipino women workers. Based on latest available statistics, there are around 25 million employed women of childbearing age in the Philippines (women between the ages of 19 to 44 years old), about a fourth of the entire population. A vast majority of these women are minimum wage earners. In conversations that I have had with ordinary women workers while I was working on the bill in the Senate as Chairperson of the Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations and Gender Equality, I heard first hand of the difficulties that working mothers face under our current maternity leave policy. A dismally low maternity leave benefit has resulted in many women going back to work outside the house before being fully recuperated from the physical strain of childbirth. A maternity leave policy not backed by a strong implementation framework has found many women being discriminated against in hiring policies, demoted to lower positions, or deliberately being withheld job tenurial security. Beyond economic statistics but equally important: maternal mortality and infant mortality remain continuously high in the Philippines, despite downward trends everywhere else, and the numbers of exclusively breastfed infants after the first month of birth are falling. The ratified bill as passed in both Houses of Congress also contains innovative provisions for gender equality and economic empowerment. Let me note two: the first is shared parental leave (and as an aside, let me say that I am eager to hear about the UK's experiences in parental leave sharing as I understand that this is a fairly new innovation here), which allows moms to share seven days of leave with the father to double the current one week paternity leave. It may sound like a paltry number of days compared to what you have in the United Kingdom, but we like to think of it as a foot in the door, so to speak. And the second is a 15-day top-up for solo mothers, for a total of 120 days, an important innovation that takes into account the unique disadvantages faced by single moms. Friends, I have been asked, how does one pass progressive gender legislation in a political terrain of toxic masculinity, extrajudicial killings and strongman populism, a terrain many believe to be hostile to the cause of gender equality and women's empowerment? Aside from the Expanded Maternity Leave bill, we have also managed to move forward on our Safe Streets, Public Spaces and Workplaces Bill, which for the first time introduces specific penalties against street sexual harassment. To be more direct to the point, how do we pass laws good for women under a President bad for women? It is an interesting question, and one that may yield rich reflections useful for a world grappling with, and trying to understand, the rise of populist strongmen. It is hard to come up with definitive answers, especially since we still have three more years under this Presidency and the narrative is evolving. The bill itself is still awaiting the final stage of the process before it can be a law: the signature of the President. What I do know is that the sisterhood of women tends to rise when under assault, and in the face of hostile challenges, the women's movement can only become stronger. Indeed, the Expanded Leave Bill is a product, not simply of the legislative process, but of a whole community of gender justice advocates, trade union workers, and yes ordinary working mothers coming together to midwife - pun intended - this piece of legislation into being. And in so doing, also midwife hope, solidarity and possibility amidst these dark times.

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