A Gender Sensitive Law

R.A. 9262 is a landmark legislation recognizing that violence against women is a widespread social problem with consequences reaching far beyond the confines of the home.

Studies reveal that violence against women becomes a breeding ground for other social ills such as violent crimes of all sorts, substance abuse and juvenile deliquency.

Researches show that boys who witness their fathers beating up their mothers are more likely to become wife beaters themselves.

Also lamentable is the fact that whenever domestic violence occurs, law enforcers and prosecutors generally advise the parties to settle the conflict themselves.

This kind of reluctance to get involved, in what is perceived as a private family matter, reinforces the recurring violence against women and make it escalate to serious proportion of catastrophic magnitude, sometimes resulting in physical disability and even death of the victim.

Violence against women is usually shrouded in a culture of silence. Victims of such violence are often under tremendous pressure to bear their sufferings silently because to reveal them will bring shame and cause scandal to their family especially in conservative parts of the world, the Philippines included.

The foregoing premises considered, it is about time that a law be passed to respond to the problems spawned by women being regarded as no more than household fixtures and man's chattels for centuries. Such a law is R.A. 9262.

R.A. 9262 poses a challenge for the male dominated Judiciary. Male dominated in the sense that recent statistics reveals that only 26% of the 1, 454 (more or less) judges nationwide are females.

R.A. 9262 will really put the gender sensitivity of male judges to a test. It will also subject to public scrutiny their gender bias, if they have any. It will expose the 'chauvinist' among them, if there is.

This lady blogger have faith that there are no chauvinistic members of the bench in this jurisdiction. That is regardless of their sex and sexual orientation, Philippine Judges are capable of giving those who come before their courts, the fairness that can only come from the cold neutrality of an impartial judge.

Truly, R.A. 9262 can be effective only if the gender stereotyping of men and women will be set aside.

In closing , this blogger would like to say kudos to the predominantly male Congress for enacting this landmark legislation called R.A. 9262.