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Filipinas break stereotypes through heritage conservation MANILA – Masons, carvers, painters, and restorers are traditionally considered male-dominated occupations in the Philippines, but a vocational school located in Intramuros and Bohol is showing how women are slowly breaking these gender stereotypes. Since its establishment in 2009, Escuela Taller de Filipinas Foundation, Inc. (ETFFI) has been recruiting and training more women in heritage conservation and the construction industry. Out of their 700 graduates, 20 percent of their graduates are women with masonry as the trade with the most number of women graduates. “In our observation, attention to detail is one of the strengths of in women stone mason carvers,” ETFFI Executive Director and Architect Tina Bulaong said in an Intramuros Learning Sessions seminar on March 27. Despite its gains in closing the gender gap, Bulaong admitted that women are significantly underrepresented in heritage conservation and construction where only 15 percent of their trainees are women. Citing a study conducted by the Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional para el Desarrollo (AECID) on why women are underrepresented, she said it can be explained by “supply and demand issues.” “I guess we can relate this to culture. There still is some gender stereotyping. For example, conservative families would still have the thinking construction is only for men. Even connected to that the role of women in society is always thought as having
to do with domestic demands or women’s role in the household. The idea is women when they work, they still have to worry about what’s happening in the household, they manage all sorts of things that have to do with domestic life more than men,” Bulaong said. “There are still some biases in demand for workers. Like for example there are employers even in construction companies that would prefer to hire men over women and sometimes they would even explain it that it has to do with economics. Like for example a contractor prefers to hire all men because if he hires women he would provide separate facilities for women workers like maybe even separate barracks, separate comfort facilities so some contractors would say it’s more costly for them,” she added. She said there is a need to review policies and provisions in laws, codes to promote women’s availability in the workplace. “One of the constraints why women tend to stay home especially after they give birth is we have a law that says if you are going to avail of daycare facilities, in our barangays there are daycare facilities where mothers can leave their child, but there’s only a maximum of four hours. So how can you work in that context?” she said. Provisions, she said, can be made to include necessary infrastructure and facilities for motherly and domestic care. She added that efforts could also be done to incentivize employers, clients, and companies to include more women in their work-
force. Currently, many efforts are being done by ETFFI to include more women in the job market, especially when it comes to heritage conservation and construction. “We put a lot of effort in getting more women to participate in our training programs. We tend to use propaganda where you see in most our communication materials there are always women in our visual materials,” she said. ETFFI, she added, has also included women trainees in their skills training programs such as masonry; carpentry and woodworks; painting and finishing; electrical; plumbing; and metal works. For example, Bernalyn Lucindo, a former saleslady, now works in a conservation team that the Intramuros Administration has formed to conserve, repair, and rehabilitate their antique collections. She is just one of the many women graduates who have been involved in heritage conservation and construction. As a trainee, Lucindo was involved in the restoration of the silleria or the wooden stalls of the San Agustin Church Choir Loft and in the reconstruction of the traditional roofing of Ivatan stone houses in Batanes. “The involvement of women in heritage is really key and I’m proud to say that somehow we’ve made a big difference and an impact to giving jobs and opportunities to women in particular,” she added. ETFFI started as a collaborative project of the government of Spain represented by AECID and the government of the Philip-
Female masons shaping stones in Angeles Church in Pampanga. (Photo courtesy of Escuela Taller de Filipinas Foundation, Inc.)
PROTECTING HERITAGE. Bernalyn Lucindo now works at the Cultural Properties Division of the Intramuros Administration which handles the care and restoration of artifacts in the vast collection of IA. She was part of the team that restored the choir seats (silleria) of the San Agustin Church choir loft in Intramuros. (Photo courtesy of Escuela Taller de Filipinas Foundation, Inc.) pines represented by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts. In December 2013, ETFFI evolved into a non-profit organization and school aimed to promote the protection, conservation and rehabilitation of the Philippines’ tangible heritage through skills development and training. (PNA)
LIGHTHOUSE... from Page 4 first produced screenplay written by a Black woman. She also wrote the film's soundtrack, despite having little additional input in the filming of the movie. The following year, in 1973, Angelou married Paul du Feu, a Welsh carpenter and for the next ten years, Angelou was described by Gillespie as "having accomplished more than many artists had hoped to achieve in a lifetime." She also worked as a composer for singer, Roberta Flack and composing movie scores. She became a visiting professor at several colleges and universities, one of which was where I was attending at the time, the Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois. Angelou also appeared in a supporting role in the television mini-series, "ROOTS," in 1977 and it was also around this time when she was given a multitude of awards, including more than thirty honorary degrees, from colleges and universities
COMMMON... from Page 2 all over the world, despite having no Bachelor's degree. It was also during this time that she met and became friends with Oprah Winfrey when Winfrey was a TV anchor in Maryland and Angelou became her close friend and mentor. After eight (8) years of marriage with Paul du Feu, Angelou and Du Feu divorced in 1981 and the following year, in 1982, she was named the first Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. By the early 1990's, she made approximately 80 appearances for a year on the lecture circuit, which was something she enjoyed doing into her eighties. And in 1993, as this author recalls, excited to see her again, Maya Angelou, recited her poem "On The Pulse Of The Morning," at the first inauguration of President Clinton, making her the first African American poet to make an inaugural recitation
since Robert Frost at the inauguration of John F. Kennedy in 1961. The inaugural recitation of her poem, gained her more fame and recognition as well as it broadened her appeal across "racial, economic and educational boundaries," earning her a Grammy Award. Thirty years after Angelou began writing her life story, she completed her sixth autobiography book entitled "Song Flung Up To Heaven" in 2002 and in 2008, she campaigned for Hillary Clinton for the Democratic Party presidential primaries, but when the Clinton campaign ended, Angelou put her support behind Barack Obama, who won the presidential elections. At the age of 85 in 2013, Angelou published her seventh (7th) book entitled "Mom & Me & Mom," which was about her relationship with her mother and the following year, on the morning of May 28, 2014, she
died at the age of 86, discovered by her nurse. During her memorial service at Wake Forest University, her son, Guy Johnson, stated that " she left this mortal plane with no loss of acuity and no loss in comprehension." In celebrating this week's EASTER SUNDAY, this writer wants to honor the great legacy our literary mentor has left all of us, writers and readers all over the world whom she had inspired with her outstanding creative knowledge. Her books will forever be available for us to read and make us smile grateful for allowing us to be inspired. In a 1989 poem, which resonates to this writer, Maya Angelou wrote, "nothing so frightens me as writing, but nothing so satisfies me. It's like a swimmer in an English Channel, you face the stingrays and waves and cold and grease, and finally you reach the other shore, and you put your foot on the ground..... Ahhhh."
Hernandez described the motto for his “unity mapping” campaign in Texas: “Nothing about us without us.” In the Midwest, Hmong and other Asian American communities “face challenges in language and navigating technology,” Feng said. “They need extra help to make sure they are counted by the census and can give meaningful community testimony to ensure their communities are recognized in redistricting.” And in Minnesota, Yang described a “very intentional and culturally competent” effort to create a “community-focused, accessible redistricting process” that could inspire communities to get involved in redistricting in the long term. “We know that our communities know themselves best, and we want to empower them,” Yang said.
