Election...Women Vote...My perspective Plus TV

I was just informed that I am included Saturday, May 11 and the panel interview will be done on May 13^th, 4pm to 6pm, supposedly the panel will include Prof. Ramon Casiple, political analyst and Jonathan Ong, communication expert and myself. On the day it self, Mr. Casiple, myself and Ms. Arizza Dizon, Social Media Analyst sat with CNN anchor Ruth Cabal and Menchu Macapagal.

 

The discussion revolves around WOMEN VOTES since according to the registry of voters 51% are women. Total registered voters from Comelec data is said to be 61,843,750. The numbers are just numbers of statistics. We can all surmise that these are strong numbers if you are able to get them all to vote for you. But how many women candidates are voted by women voters? RUTH CABAL said last election about 19% of that strong women voters voted for women candidates. It speaks therefore loud and clear, women may have the number of votes but it shall not translate to actual votes. And why is that? Women vary in opinion and priority; we still lack the education to back it up. Informed decision can only happen if you give them the education.

The panel can spew numbers; their own belief on why women vote is stronger than most but it does not speak what the women do in hard core reality. Distorted reality is that women will vote for women because they are assumed to vote for the same gender. The reality is even if the last election is national, women shall vote for what their local politicians dictate them to vote for. That is the reality. This does not have to do with gender votes. It has something to do with how women are treated in our society. We are still patriarchal and most women do not have the resources to say otherwise. We can argue that there is women empowerment in place and that there is gender equality, but it does not state the women economic empowerment.

I ask this yesterday and I did not get an answer either from the two women I am with in the studio. Would they think a mother will vote for who they prefer, in this case a women candidate over what the Baranggay Captain asks them to vote for? Simply put if a local politicians especially those in a poverty trodden community treats mothers in his community properly, he can be assured that whoever he endorses for the next national election will get the women vote. And that is the terrifying truth. Mothers can account for 75% of those 51% women voters. And those mothers are located below poverty line. This is not therefore a question of how strong the women vote can be, but the realization that women are strong in numbers but weak in preferences because of economic oppression.

Once you gave women those in poverty line and those who cannot decide for themselves and those that need to break the shackles of religious bigotry a chance to speak for themselves then we can say truly there is WOMEN EMPOWERMENT. Let’s not dupe ourselves that all women are empowered, yeah city women, educated women yes these are the empowered ones. But look around you and visit your ground roots then and only then you will realize that ALL WOMEN ARE NOT EMPOWERED.

Laws for women drafted by men are all abundant but does this translate to the total women’s right? I doubt it. When those in the city gets to tell me that the women’s equal rights are practiced in as far flung areas as it could or that all these laws in place are enforced in all areas/communities then and only then I shall accept that WOMEN ARE EMPOWERED. The laws are not the problem. The proper enforcement of the law for women should be observed and then women can appreciate what the law has for them.

So what’s next for me after CNN? A realization that TV has a different perspective of what reality is. What is my take on the MIDTERM ELECTION RESULT? Women voters need to be educated and empowered. I will take what I have learned and utilize it to further the cause of WOMEN EDUCATION in the far flung barrio. Being humanist should not stop me from being an educator.  A power of one multiplied can create a thousand mini ripples than can turn into successive waves. Imagine one of me influencing 10 girls and those girls can become an EMPOWERED WOMEN someday. It can happen. We live not for the present but for the future. Be humane at all times and so all shall be HUMANIST eventually.