The Gabriela Women's Party (General Assembly Binding Women for Integrity, Reform, Equality, Leadership and Action) or simply GABRIELA, is a progressive Filipino political party that advocates for women's issues and represents Filipino women in the House of Representatives. The party is separate, although allied, with GABRIELA National Alliance of Filipino Women. GABRIELA, the alliance, is a nationwide network of

grassroots A grassroots movement is one that uses the people in a given district, region or community as the basis for a political or economic movement. Grassroots movements and organizations use collective action from the local level to effect change at t ...

organizations, institutions, and programs that address social issues such as

human rights Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...

poverty Poverty is the state of having few material possessions or little income. Poverty can have diverse

globalization Globalization, or globalisation (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), is the process of interaction and integration among people, companies, and governments worldwide. The term ''globalization'' first appeared in the early 20t ...

militarism Militarism is the belief or the desire of a government or a people that a state should maintain a strong military capability and to use it aggressively to expand national interests and/or values. It may also imply the glorification of the mili ...

violence Violence is the use of physical force so as to injure, abuse, damage, or destroy. Other definitions are also used, such as the World Health Organization's definition of violence as "the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened ...

rape culture Rape culture is a setting, studied by several sociological theories, in which rape is pervasive and normalized due to societal attitudes about gender and sexuality. Behaviors commonly associated with rape culture include victim blaming, slut-s ...

health Health, according to the World Health Organization, is "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity".World Health Organization. (2006)''Constitution of the World Health Organ ...

sex trafficking Sex trafficking is human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation. It has been called a form of modern slavery because of the way victims are forced into sexual acts non-consensually, in a form of sexual slavery. Perpetrators of the ...

censorship Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governments ...

and other issues affecting women. The alliance has regional chapters in

Metro Manila Metropolitan Manila (often shortened as Metro Manila; fil, Kalakhang Maynila), officially the National Capital Region (NCR; fil, link=no, Pambansang Punong Rehiyon), is the capital region, seat of government and one of three List of metrop ...

Cordillera Administrative Region The Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR; ilo, Rehion/Deppaar Administratibo ti Kordiliera; fil, Rehiyong Pampangasiwaan ng Cordillera), also known as the Cordillera Region and Cordillera (), is an administrative region in the Philippines, ...

, and

Mindanao Mindanao ( ) ( Jawi: مينداناو) is the second-largest island in the Philippines, after Luzon, and seventh-most populous island in the world. Located in the southern region of the archipelago, the island is part of an island group of ...

; sub-regional chapters in

Negros Negros is the fourth largest and third most populous island in the Philippines, with a total land area of . Negros is one of the many islands of the Visayas, in the central part of the country. The predominant inhabitants of the island region a ...

Panay Panay is the sixth-largest and fourth-most populous island in the Philippines, with a total land area of and has a total population of 4,542,926 as of 2020 census. Panay comprises 4.4 percent of the entire population of the country. The City o ...

and

Samar Samar ( ) is the third-largest and seventh-most populous island in the Philippines, with a total population of 1,909,537 as of the 2020 census. It is located in the eastern Visayas, which are in the central Philippines. The island is divided in ...

, and provincial chapters in Bicol and

Cebu Cebu (; ceb, Sugbo), officially the Province of Cebu ( ceb, Lalawigan sa Sugbo; tl, Lalawigan ng Cebu; hil, Kapuroan sang Sugbo), is a province of the Philippines located in the Central Visayas region, and consists of a main island and 16 ...

. GABRIELA's membership includes Filipino women from marginalized sectors of society and works towards their education and empowerment. The organization also engages in counseling services, medical missions, free clinics, and trainings on women’s health and women’s rights.

History

GABRIELA, the alliance, was founded in April 1984 after 10,000 women marched in

Manila Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populated ...

, defying a Marcos decree against demonstrations. GABRIELA was named in honor of

Gabriela Silang María Josefa Gabriela Cariño de Silang (; 19 March 1731 – 20 September 1763) was a Filipino military leader best known for her role as the female leader of the Ilocano independence movement from Spain. She took over from her second husban ...

, a Filipina revolutionary, who led a revolt against

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , ...

in 1763 following her husband's assassination. Amidst a backdrop of widespread social inequality and unrest, GABRIELA aimed to synthesize issues of national liberation, poverty and women's emancipation. The organization's founders pushed for " Third World feminism" which focused on comprehensive social transformation, rather than focusing on individual forms of oppression. GABRIELA's advocacy challenges

patriarchy Patriarchy is a social system in which positions of dominance and privilege are primarily held by men. It is used, both as a technical anthropological term for families or clans controlled by the father or eldest male or group of males ...

, alongside resisting foreign influence and

neocolonialism Neocolonialism is the continuation or reimposition of imperialist rule by a state (usually, a former colonial power) over another nominally independent state (usually, a former colony). Neocolonialism takes the form of economic imperialism, ...

Electoral performance

In 2003, the Gabriela Women's Party was launched with the help of GABRIELA members and other women's and people's organizations. In the 2004 election for the House of Representatives the party-list received 464,586 votes (3.6518% of the nationwide vote) and won a seat for first nominee

Liza Maza Liza Maza (born 8 September 1957) is a Filipina activist who was the lead convenor of the National Anti-Poverty Commission under the Duterte administration from August 2016 until her resignation in August 2018. She was a member of the Philippine ...

In the 2007

election An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operat ...

, the party won two seats in the nationwide party-list vote. The Gabriela Women's Party was the only women's party to obtain a second term in Congress.

Representatives to Congress

* 13th Congress (2004–2007) -

* 14th Congress (2007–2010) -

Luzviminda Ilagan Luzviminda "Luz" Calolot-Ilagan is a Filipina development worker and former congresswoman. She represented the Gabriela Women's Partylist in the 14th Congress of the Philippines from 2007 to 2016. In September 2017, she was appointed by Preside ...

, Liza Maza * 15th Congress (2010–2013) - Luzviminda Ilagan, Emerenciana de Jesus * 16th Congress (2013–2016) - Luzviminda Ilagan, Emerenciana de Jesus * 17th Congress (2016–2019) - Emerenciana de Jesus, Arlene Brosas * 18th Congress (2019–2022) -

Arlene Brosas Arlene D. Brosas (born October 30, 1976) is a Filipina educator, child rights activist, and politician. She is a member of the Philippine House of Representatives for the 19th Congress and was part of the 18th Congress under the Gabriela Women ...

* 19th Congress (2022–present) - Arlene Brosas

Programs and positions

One Billion Rising (OBR) Task Force Philippines

One Billion Rising One Billion Rising is a global campaign, founded by Eve Ensler, to end rape and sexual violence against women. It was started in 2012 as part of the V-Day movement. The "billion" refers to the UN statistic that one in three women will be raped ...

(OBR) is a global campaign founded to end rape and sexual violence against women. Since 2013, GABRIELA have led the One Billion Rising Task Force in the Philippines and abroad where its chapters are situated. The Philippine task force members include: * Gabriela * Gabriela Women's Party * Gabriela Youth * Kilusang Mayo Uno * Alliance of Concerned Teachers * Ecumenical Women's Forum * Salinlahi Alliance for Children's Concerns * Association for the Rights of Children in Southeast Asia * Amihan Federation of Peasant Women * Kadamay * Innabuyog Gabriela * Kabataan Partylist * Migrante

Human trafficking

In the Philippines, GABRIELA is actively involved in awareness campaigns to prevent the trafficking of women and girls from the Philippines. Its strategies consist of seminars and information dissemination to NGOs and government agencies and awareness campaigns at the community level. In 1999, GABRIELA launched the Purple Rose Campaign campaign against the sex trafficking of Filipino women and children. The campaign achieved a milestone with the passage of the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003 with GABRIELA representative Liza Maza as the bill's co-sponsor. GABRIELA is also actively involved in the Vow to Fight Against Violence on Women and the Free Our Sisters/Free Ourselves campaign.

International chapters

GABRIELA has chapters in the United States, the Netherlands, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Italy, Germany and the United Kingdom.

References

External links

GABRIELA Alliance official websiteGabriela Women's Party official websiteGABRIELA USA
{{DEFAULTSORT:GABRIELA 1984 establishments in the Philippines Anti-pornography feminism Anti-pornography movements Democratic socialist parties in Asia Feminist organizations in the Philippines Feminist parties in Asia Human trafficking in the Philippines International League of Peoples' Struggle Left-wing parties in the Philippines Left-wing politics in the Philippines National Democracy Movement (Philippines) Organizations established in 1984 Political parties established in 2003 Organizations that combat human trafficking Party-lists represented in the House of Representatives of the Philippines Socialist feminist organizations Socialist parties in the Philippines