I love the fact that the trip consisted of a mostly female entourage. We heard several times that women are the builders of peace. It was exciting to see the work that women are doing with their NGO’s, community programs, and even their experiences being in politics. It was very inspiring and empowering. On the other hand, we had some interesting experiences when we met with Barangay leaders (village officials), which were predominantly male. There was the occasional woman that assisted these officials, but it was clear they were not being given very many opportunities to speak. Of course, there could have been factors such as shyness, or lack of English speaking skills: there always seemed to be a male that would speak on their behalf, and at sometimes speak over them. In one of the meetings I recall a female official, struggling to speak over another male. Initially she was somewhat quiet, but as the presentation progressed she became more boisterous. I wanted to stand up and tell the man, will you let her speak without interrupting!? We talked about this quite a bit on the trip; the roles women play in the public sphere and in the home. We were told that, although it may appear that some women have little authority in society, however when you enter their homes they rule the roost.
I keep thinking about some of the responses we had from males while we visited organizations; it makes me smile. I wonder if they were prepared ahead of time, like, “Hey tomorrow you are going to be visited by a group of very tall women all from academic institutions in the United States”. Their initial facial expressions once we arrived and even after we commenced our meetings, made me think that they had not been forewarned.
