“Sex is biological, physical and physiological, while gender is cultural… Cultures dictates gender roles, or what males and females can or cannot do… Sex cannot be changed except through invasive means, but culture can be changed because it involves people… Gender roles assign reproduction to women and production to men… Gender roles result in social injustice for both men and women because they are not given equal opportunities in society… We must work for gender equality to improve society.”
These are just some of the many learnings and insights by participants during the “Provincial Training on Women Farmers Leadership and Gender Mainstreaming” held by PAKISAMA and AFA at the Silangan Training Center, in San Narciso, Victoria, Oriental Mindoro last August 27-29, 2010.
The objectives of the 3-day training were to allow participants to: (1) reflect on and understand the dynamics of gender in their personal, community, and organizational lives; (2) reflect on how men can support women’s leadership; (3) reflect on and understand what women’s/alternative leadership is; and, (4) apply their understanding of gender dynamics to how the GAD budget of the province should be allocated and used.
Twenty women and 5 men leaders from the Mindoro Ecological and Sustainable Agriculture Federation (MESAFED), a provincial farmers’ federation belonging to PAKISAMA, attended the training, while gender leadership trainers from AFA and PAKISAMA, who were trained by experts from the Women Organizing to Change in Agriculture and NRM (WOCAN) last May 2010, facilitated the workshop.
A clear output of the workshop was a plan by MESAFED on how to mobilize its membership and existing partnerships with other academic institutions and allies in the local government units to claim the budget earmarked for gender and development activities at the municipal and provincial units of government.
The training is one of the activities under the two-year Rural Women’s Leadership Project being implemented by AFA and PAKISAMA in partnership with WOCAN, and with the support of IFAD. The project aims to strengthen the capacities and competencies of rural women, of their associations at all levels and of their professional organizations so that leaders and members are able to express themselves, choose their leaders appropriately and hold them accountable, manage their own organizations effectively.
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