Women on fire

he is said to be weak and useless. Any good opportunity is snatched from her because it won't do her any good because the home is where she should be.

Others are blessed to be able to work. But work is done day and night as much as her body could handle and paid with a very little amount. Some are bought with a price in exchange for a night while others are shipped off to islands unknown only to come back shattered in pieces. At the end of the day she is a mother, a sister and a friend. She is called a woman.

Overtime, the situation of women in the world has gotten worse. There is the presence of prostitution, human trafficking, gender discrimination, multiple burdens and the list goes on. Only less than 20 percent are being educated, 10 percent of who are in the corporate world and five percent in the realm of politics. In the Philippines, they are given little or no work at all because they are believed to do better in the household.

This goes to show that there has been an unequal representation of gender in an international view. But women do not want to be stepped upon any longer. The traumatic experiences of yesterday have made them fierce and fearless taking a strong step into moving the status of women all over the world higher. The women are on fire.

This is the reality that happens every day. Women, even young as I am fight for human, health and children's rights hoping for the oppression to stop. Being regarded as the weaker sex, there has been a shift of mindset that has awakened the women of today.

And we see their efforts being recognized. Slowly women are stepping on pedestals in our society. With every cry, with every dance being done in the streets is the feeling of empowerment in being a woman. In fact, we have elected two lady presidents and the senatorial seats are slowly filling up with women. Even the fire brigade, police academies and military schools are attracting women. Although not big in number, but with little they can do so much.

This is the challenge of every woman today - to go out into society and prove the stereotype wrong. Women are not weak and useless. Women can do what others can do. There are still parts of the country and of the world where women are not given their rights. In a certain area in Thailand, young girls are not given birth certificates and worse, not even sent to school. The Philippines is blessed to be democratic as we are but we still have to lift every woman up.

Women have rights and such are those that concern their health as mothers, their safety as wives, their proper wage as workers, and their dignity as humans.A peaceful society starts with equality, the cry of every feminist. No one is over the other since we are all created as humans.

As we celebrate women's month, take time to hug every mother, sister, wife and friend with a grateful heart. She is not useless or weak. She is empowered, a woman on fire.

**Published in the Freeman Newspaper on March 13, 2013