Research Paper on Gabriella and Feminism

What is Gabriela? Gabriela is a nationwide organization of organizations. It was founded on April 1984, during the Marcos period. It is an organization that campaigns and fights for womens rights, combats gender discrimination and other issues that affects women (political and economic). From its initial membership of forty-two organizations it has now grown to more than 200. Among other things, Gabriela established, on 2000, a political wing, the Gabriela Womens Party. However, the focus of this paper is a member of Gabriela, the Gabriela Youth. From the name, it is the youth arm of Gabriela, founded on 1994, with its membership extending from various universities and schools in the Philippines. It organizes events which it believes uphold the democratic rights of women inside and out of the classroom. Why Gabriela Youth? This paper seeks to ascertain the level and form of feminism of the umbrella organization Gabriela. It does so by looking at one member, the youth arm, in conjunction with the political arm. We have chosen the youth arm as a unit of analysis for the whole organization because we believe that through finding out their actions and their rationale for such, we can attempt to place them among the various kinds of feminism. Principles of the Organization These are the principles posted on the website of the political arm of Gabriela: 1. Women have the right to a society where all forms of discrimination and violence against women have been banished; 2. Women have the right equal to men to the land they work on; as well as the right to full and gainful employment and living wages; 3. Women have the right to participate freely in all aspects of political debates, action, and decision-making processes in the family, the community and the nation at large; as well as the right to fair and non-sexist representation in all social, political, economic and cultural spheres; 4. Women have the right to fight for basic health care and services for all, especially reproductive and maternal health care; 5. Women have the right to a marriage founded on mutual consent and respect, with equality and dignity, and to adequate support for the rearing and caring of children; 6. Women have the right to fight for childrens basic needs like proper care, nutrition, health, safety and play, protection from abuse and exploitation; access to a national, scientific and mass education which is non-sexist as well; 7. Women have the right to advocate for lesbian and gay rights and to insist that society not discriminate on the basis of sexual preference;

8. Women have the right to assert and protect their countrys sovereignty and national patrimony; 9. Women have the right to a foreign policy that is independent and beneficial to our economy and security as a nation; 10. Women have the right to a government that is truly democratic and representative of the majority. Feminism? Feminism can be broadly defined as the ideology which deals with the analysis of society primarily using the lenses of gender. It deals with movements, activities, etc. that seek to promote the rights of women, though increasingly, at least in the context of the Philippines, it has grown to include other sectors of people, and other sectors of interest as well. Such sectors of people include the poor, children and even LGBTs, and areas which they campaign for include, economics, civil rights, education and even health. From Heywood, there are Core themes in which Feminism is analyzed, or at least, principles which form the basis for feminism. Also, there are types of feminism which include, liberal, radical, social and others. Being primarily a critical theory, it seeks to critique the status of society in general and seek to advance a certain ideal or utopian society. This of course differs from one feminism variant to the other, but all fall with the common theme of gender discrimination. Now given all the principles that we have cited above, which we can take as how they present themselves to society, and the interview the researchers conducted, we will attempt to place Gabriela, through Gabriela Youth, in one of these variants of feminism [using the definition of each variant] by looking at their priorities and actions in Congress [through Gabriela Womens Party], and how they differ from those that they are allied with [it has been raised that they have a lot of similarities with their allies, hence the rationale for their existence is questioned].