‘I am Woman’

“I am woman, hear me roar...” Goes the cheeky-cheesy song that Helen Reddy belted out in the mid-‘70s. It’s a song celebrating female empowerment and has become an enduring anthem for the women’s liberation movement. It was released in a time when women started to raise their voice in song to find strength in numbers as the feminine force and energy (called “Yin” in the Chinese tradition) sought to bring itself to balance off the male-oriented world. Women’s extreme roles in the past included the angry bra-burning advocate, the sexy seductress, the quiet passive housewife out to please her man.

(Station break to share the lyrics of the song: I am woman, hear me roar / In numbers too big to ignore / And I know too much to go back an’ pretend/ ‘Cause I’ve heard it all before / And I’ve been down there on the floor / No one’s ever gonna keep me down again).

Today, we are seeing different nuances of this feminine energy expressing itself in dynamic working mothers, mothers who advocate for strong values in their homes, women leaders in government and business, women as strong, supportive partners of men. More than ever, women (and men, too) are beginning to get a deeper understanding of the nature of this energy that drives the changes.

These are obvious in the rise of women’s involvement in nation-building and policy creation, in the boardrooms of corporations, in the small enterprises that steadily support livelihood, in the homes where the fulcrum of life emanates from a woman.

(Refrain: Oh yes, I am wise But it’s wisdom born of pain / Yes, I’ve paid the price but look how much I gained / If I have to, I can do anything / I am strong. I am invincible. I am woman).

One nuance of this shift is the economic empowerment and decision making that has come with the formerly male dominated territories and industries. Statistics and data abound to support this towards the end conclusion that when women are economically empowered, money is plowed back into businesses and towards the health, education and well-being of the family.

Women in leadership and policy creation positions, likewise contribute to a more humane and compassionate society, to a future that is more collaborative, more sustainable. Women in positions of power know their role in helping smaller, weaker sisters up to empowerment, too.

In our matriarchal society in the Philippines, statistics have been consistent for decades showing a changing cultural paradigm in terms of women being recognized as active contributors to development.

(I am woman….watch me grow/ See me standing toe to toe / As I spread my lovin’ arms across the land.) In my world, literally, development work across the country has started to focus on women’s economic empowerment. We have been involved in this all year, helping small women micro-entrepreneur move their products up the value chain by product development and design help and market access. This month, we launch the “Great Women Brand,” a partnership that brings together private sector initiatives (ECHOsi Foundation), and government (Philippine Commission for Women) funded by the Canadian government’s development arm Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).

Women designers have spent time and talent with small women community producers of both food products and handicrafts; retail stores led by women, such our ECHOstore Sustainable Lifestyle, Tesoro’s Handicrafts and Milky Way on Pasay Road in Makati City have agreed to give market access while women in media bring out the good news and stories.

The Philippine chapters of the Women in Corporate Boards (WCP) as well as the Business and Professional Women’s International (PBW) Organization will both be formalized this month. The International Women in Coffee Alliance has forged international ties, too. I am sure there are numerous other women-led alliances across the country that I just am not aware of: Big sisters helping small sisters holding hands up the ladder, giving support.

I am woman, hear me purrrr… Lets not forget this other side. The secret to all the outside activities is in learning to keep the balance of the feminine and the masculine (“Yang”) energies. If women are becoming more active, assertive, aggressive, there is the need to deeper understand and embrace the elan and refinement of the Japanese geisha, the nurturing gentleness of being mother, the soft seductive playful side of a woman as a lover, the spirituality of the practical mystic.

In the many inspirational talks I give to women’s groups, I get questions asking me how I can keep doing so many things, how I manage my schedule and outputs and yet manage to remain steady. My answer has always been BALANCE (Well, it also helps that I have a great man who subscribes to having a strong woman by his side).

When we are balanced, both the feminine and masculine forces are in harmony, we work with the Divine Force. Balance dictates that two opposing forces find their equilibrium at the center. The center is the fulcrum, the source, the root from where energy emanates inside us. We can choose to color and temper this energy — making it more aggressive or gentle, more dynamic or surrendering… and use it constructively.  The question I throw back during my talks are: “Where is your center?  What is the quality of that center?”

And so as the feminine energy finds expression in the emotional nurturing of family, in the detailed skills of work and management, in the intelligence, logic and wisdom of creating systems, policies, structures — let it rise from the core of wholeness and balance. And the Divine Force, well, SHE will agree with me as She radiates this loving, compassionate, wisdom-filled, refined energy through great women willing to take ourselves, our men, our children, and the world on.

Happy Women’s Month!

(The Great Women Brand designers showcase exhibit runs until first week April at the Yuchengco Museum, alongside photo exhibits entitled “Faces of the Archipelago” by Luke Myers and a photo exhibit on cultural indigenous women by the Women in Resource Development. Great Women Brand products will be available at ECHOstore’s branches in Serendra, The Podium and Eton Centris, Tesoro’s Handicrafts and Milky Way on Pasay Road, Makati City.)