THE ROLE OF WOMEN'S UNIVERSITIES IN NURTURING GLOBAL CITIZENS

Ochanumizu University
Tokyo Japan
July 19, 2008

Greetings

I am delighted to be given this opportunity to exchange ideas and experiences on women’s education, particularly the concern for universities for women. I am honored to be in the company of sisters in education. With this sharing I will impart the Philippine Women’s University’s beautiful HERstory, our heritage and the educational legacy, as well as our continuing role as nurturers of global citizens.

1. THE PWU'S HISTORICAL ANTECEDENTS

This invitation to share our historical beginnings and future directions is indeed a heartwarming occasion for me, as the 8th PWU President, the fourth alumni to assume this post. Indeed, this furthers our promotion of our University vision: to develop and nurture a faith community rooted in spirituality which develops transformative leadership to meet national and global challenges and to sustain and enhance the PWU’s leadership in women’s education.

1. The Birth of PWU
   The Philippine Women’s University or the PWU is the first University for women in Asia founded by Asians. The Philippines, just emerging from Spanish colonization and moving towards the establishment of a new Republic, called upon a different kind of emancipation. Seven forward-looking educators, one of them my grandmother Francisca Tirona Benitez, founded the PWU in 1919 out of an inspiration and a vision of women’s potential roles in nation building. This school year 2008-2009 therefore ushers in the 90th year celebrations...
   
   I mentioned the Philippines at the time was in transition. The passage of Jones Law promised independence to the country. The PWU’s women founders were teachers, not capitalists nor business-oriented investors. The PWU was born with a founding thrust that it is not intended to be a business venture but an educational movement undertaken by teachers for molding citizenry characterized by moral character, love of country and civic consciousness.
   
   They foresaw the essential need for training Filipino women as citizens for an independent Republic, to do away with colonial mentality and lack of national sentiment which our hero, Jose Rizal, attributed to centuries of colonialism. During the Spanish period, women were relegated to work at home or in church (daughters having only convent school for their education), so this was indeed a daring thing to establish a secular school that will advance women as emerging participants in social, political, economic and moral-spiritual dimensions of nationhood.

2. Founding Mission as Handmaiden of Philippine Nationalism 
   The PWU’s guiding philosophy was to provide Filipina girls with the best education that would prepare them for civic and moral responsibilities in an independent Republic and train them to successfully combine homemaking and career.
   
   The foundresses belonged to that generation that witnessed the national struggle against the colonizers. Thus, it was inevitable that the educational thrusts of PWU since the very start would consistently emphasize the development of nationalism and civic consciousness among the students. Clearly, this move was towards women’s emancipated roles—the idea of educating women for full participation in the building of an independent Republic was the primordial motivation of the seven Asian women in founding the university 89 years ago.
   
   This mission has been carried out vigorously, expanded and enhanced as the times demanded; in peace and even through war and fire, accumulating thereby a rich reservoir of traditions, influence, prestige, knowledge, expertise, wisdom in the education OF women, FOR women, and AS women in a developing, modernizing, globalizing society.
   
   The PWU, from such proud beginnings, established itself as handmaid of nationalism:

   • During the early years of the Philippine women’s movement, many of the women leaders came from the PWU. (Ex: the suffragettes, those fighting for equal rights and privileges in governance and policymaking.). In her capacity as PWU President, Francisca Tirona Benitez also formed the Civic Assembly of Women of the Philippines (currently known as the National Council of Women of the Philippines, now perhaps the biggest national civic organization of Filipinas). The NCWP was instrumental, together with our University, in lobbying for the creation of the National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women (the policymaking body of the Philippine President and Cabinet for the advancement of women).

   • Long before the granting of the country’s independence, the PWU had already pioneered in the use of Filipino as a medium of instruction in some courses, antedating the current use of national language in the teaching of social science courses.

   • The wearing of the Philippine National Dress (the terno and panuelo) in social and civic functions is a distinct trademark of the PWU student.
     
     

3. Through the Years of Expansion and Development: Women’s Participation in Nation-building
   The PWU was granted university status by the government in 1932, thirteen years after its founding—thus, making the PWU the first University for women in Asia founded by Asians. Such formal recognition strengthened its educational objectives:

   1. Development of good moral character and personality,

   2. Preparation for a vocation or profession,

   3. Training for home and family life,

   4. Training for citizenship and community leadership

   Since its inception, the University pioneered in offering different kinds of courses and degrees that provided women access to higher education. Historically, the University is credited with several “firsts”: graduate school in 1932, Child Development Center in 1938; Philippine Conservatory of Music in 1939; Home Economics in 1938; Pharmacy in 1924; Nutrition, food science and technology in 1952; College of Musoic and Fine Arts in 1947.

   But we had to have our second beginnings. The University was commandeered into becoming a hospital for the US Army in 1941, and then taken over by the Japanese in 1942. The building was shelled to total destruction by the American Liberation forces in 1944. After the Second World War, the university was in ruins. But within a year’s time, the faculty, students and alumnae had combined their efforts in the bayanihan tradition and helped reconstruct the University, which forthwith resumed operations.

   Anticipating post-war needs for the advancement of women, the University expanded its educational mission to Iloilo (1945-73) and Davao (1953), of which I am also College President, and the Quezon City campus.

   Consistent with its commitment to being responsive to national needs, the University has always been up to the challenge; the PWU has produced women leaders and pioneers in the professions. These include three Philippine First Ladies who were by no means mere extensions of their President husbands, Cabinet ministers, senators, congresswomen, governors, mayors, councilors. Many of our graduates have distinguished themselves in their own fields, especially in the global workplace. We carry with us the distinct PWU brand of education everywhere we are: our pride of our Philippine heritage, our sense of pro-active womanhood, and ethical professionalism imbued with Christian virtues and values.

    

4. Passing the Educational Torch: The University as Legacy of the Tirona-Benitez Family
   My grandparents, Dean Conrado Benitez (a nationalist who was one of the seven wise men of the Philippine Constitution) and especially my grandmother Francisca Tirona Benitez, have envisioned the PWU to be their special legacy to the country and the rest of the world. This legacy they passed on to us alumni, giving us a stake in its further development and growth.
   
   I feel this especially, being the eldest of the third generation of Benitezes. My grandmother reared my siblings and myself when my father died at a very young age. She has exacted from me a promise to take care of the University. My illustrious predecessors, including their only daughter—my aunt, the former Philippine Senator and the first Chairperson for the UN Commission on the Status of Women, Dr. Helena Z Benitez, and their accomplishments bear upon me, but I AM up to the challenge.

5. Building on the Past
   Almost 90 years have passed since our University was founded. The women who have passed the halls of our University know and feel this in their bones: this intrinsic knowledge that womanhood is more than motherhood and professionalism—it is significant service to family as nurturers of future generations, significant service to community and country as a ministry to spread peace and good will.
   
   We the alumnae—including myself as third generation Benitez—are the legatees that will now carry out the legacy of women’s education.
   
   Core Values from our Founding Mothers: From Useful Womanhood to Responsible Citizenship. We remain steadfast in our convictions of transformative education for significant service. We look to the past in order to restrengthen our foundations for our future. This transformational aspect in our university is ever necessary. From our forward-looking beginnings, we are always challenged to be innovative and transformational. With the fast-track changes with respect to gender roles in society, we have endeavored to go co-educational (for two decades now) in line with our advocacy on gender-fair education.

2. Women’s Education and the Role of Women’s Universities in the 21st Century
   
   Fundamental Tenets: New Women’s Leadership in the Millennium. Our focus is women’s education and the role of women’s universities. Women’s Universities must address women’s issues. I stand firmly behind the tenet that a woman’s contribution to the evolving state of economies and globalization is especially valuable within this millennium. More than at any other time in history, NOW is the time when a shift in paradigm is called for.
   
   A woman’s university is institutional pro-activism that can effect the necessary changes in women’s lives. These are the PWU’s founding ideals. The PWU undertook the problems and issues of women: the suffragist movement, increasing social capacity as equal partners with men in the workplace, family and community, increasing our role in policy-making through the NCRFW, documenting HERstories throughout history where women were formerly invisible.
   
   Yet we are aging quite gracefully with the times. Our going co-educational may seemingly be an economic necessity. But on deeper reflection it gave us the opportunity to further our advocacy of gender mainstreaming in providing professional courses to both men and women, and gender development studies to BOTH men and women.. With women becoming more and more active in Philippine society, women and girls becoming more and more successful in the areas of educational and professional environments, a new paradigm has emerged for women in the global economic milieu: Womenomics (from The Economist, April 2006). Women are indeed taking center stage in many vital issues and are fast gaining prominence and strength in many areas.

1. Asia, the Woman Question and Women’s Education
   Asia is a vast region, rich in human and natural resources but generally suffering in unending poverty. Many countries were colonized, like the Philippines, and almost all fell under imperialism. The stratification of society into classes and castes has led to violence in various parts of Asia.
   
   Poverty and violence: Asian women suffer double and triple oppression. Aside from discrimination and subordination, women suffer various forms of violence, both domestic and social. Asia, however, has seen a growing political and social consciousness. The PWU, with its claim of being the first University for women in Asia founded by Asians, have this fundamental tenet of advocating and mobilizing people to recognize their rights and bring about a more humane society.
   
   It is believed that to effectively mainstream the woman question in the power centers, it must be done by women, particularly sensitized and conscientized for the purpose. We must recognize that we cannot talk about total social transformation without becoming concerned with the oppression of one half of society, namely women.
   
   Shifting Educational Paradigms and Approaches. The role of gender in social transformation through gender mainstreaming and women’s empowerment was already intrinsic from our institution’s beginnings.
   
   It is said that “Growth brings more gender equality, while gender equality contributes to growth through human capital development and increased productivity.” This is in economic terms. I believe that beyond all this, our most valuable contribution as women is to provide an enabling environment for other women to grow to full potential. WHAT BETTER MECHANISM THAN THROUGH WOMEN’S UNIVERSITIES?
   
   In Asia, where many belief systems were borne, there is the need to deconstruct the dehumanizing aspects of traditional education, and reconstruct and enhance its more liberating and affirming elements. Women’s education therefore must carry with it the HEART in education.
   
   Women’s education should focus on enhancing the following aspects:

   1. It should be self-affirming – education that values our strength as women, nourish our self-esteem and strive for self-fulfillment as the basis for helping others

   2. It should be empowering – women must realize that, within their inner self, they have the capacity for inner growth, power and strength that goes beyond their wildest dreams

   3. It thrives on spirituality that inspires and drives women leadership – this is a continuous process; open to all possibilities of life

   4. It is integral – we are able to integrate our positive and negative; it is balancing life and work; open to all experiences, living our lives to the fullest

   5. It is liberating and healing – women are able to gain inner self knowledge and freedom from guilt, bitterness and resentment; we are healed from our psychic wounds; we heal ourselves and others.

   There is a challenge for all of us today to reinvent from old educational ideas and create new ideas on education for sustainable development. My educational thrust—Education with a Heart—reaffirms the PWU’s leadership in women’s education, with perspective of gender education, taking the lead and proactive role towards gender equity.

2. The PWU Brand of Education: Education with a Heart
   Having said that, we continue prioritizing women’s education because of this growing realization: that the world is becoming smaller and smaller. Globalization has devolved this generation of young people into world citizens of one culture. The digital age brings upon us women’s universities yet another challenge of global competition and the challenge to Philippine cultural heritage and identity.
   
   Our unique brand of education articulates our educational commitment to prepare women through holistic education, which treasures cultural heritage, imbued with values of personal integrity, family solidarity, community participation and leadership in the profession. (See PWU Brand of Education).
   
   Our Moral Socio-Civic Education, or MSCED Program as we call it, is one institutional requirement that seeks to immerse our students in values that will hopefully continue to lead students to a deep and meaningful relationship with oneself, one’s family, one’s community and one’s profession.
   
   The PWU has also developed, under its Development Institute for Women in Asia-Pacific (or DIWA, which in Filipino means “soul” or “essence”), the elimination of sexism in the university—from basic to tertiary education, gender-fair courses, assertiveness training, as well as service learning programs to promote gender sensitivity among all PWU learners.
   
   Stressing on this “education with a heart” as the core substance of PWU’s brand of education is not new. The role of the heart in personal and institutional transformation is important; like the heart, it is the center of feeling, striving to enlighten the human spirit. We need to remind ourselves of our vocation as educators. The significance of our role in the formation of young women’s minds bids us to engage in this as more than just work.
   
   

3. Relevance of Women’s Studies in Education
   In the recent international meetings and conferences I have attended relevant to women’s education and the role of women’s universities, what is consistent is the need to introduce women’s studies program as a new academic discipline. The formation of DIWA in the 80s was an initiative of mine that paved the way for other institutions to become aware of the need to have women’s studies as a new course offering. Eventually, the Women’s Studies Association of the Philippines was organized, with the PWU as one of the charter members.
   
   Given the women’s changing role in society and her growing contributions to national economies, the role of women’s universities becomes even more important. The PWU was sown with a wonderful premise that promised to bring forth much good fruits.... our indelible contribution to Philippine history especially in the early 20th century bids us to continue looking forward, vigilant of changes and alert to new possibilities. As President of the University, I commit myself to building a world where women succeed because of their feminine qualities of nurturing, creativity, patience and industry. I’d like my students to succeed in a gender-fair world.
   
   With the continuing work of women’s universities, particularly through women’s studies programs we strengthen new, more enlightened attitudes about gender. We have to take responsibility, as higher education institutions, and ensure that gender biases do not self-perpetuate. Educational institutions can play a leading and proactive role towards gender equity through several actions:

   • Promote gender-fair language.

   • Conduct gender audit in our respective institutions.

   • Review curricula to ensure that content and strategies do not reinforce gender bias nor gender tracking in schools.

   • Integrate gender-fair policies.

   • Use HERstory to make women visible in historical documentation and in the development process.

   • Develop women’s studies courses, programs and research.

   • Build networks with other academic institutions, government agencies, business and industry.

   As leaders in the academe, we know this is a highly technical process. But slowly we can integrate women’s studies in other disciplines and influence content of subject matter through the gendering of language, teaching perspectives, methodology and orientation. There is also a need for women’s studies to relate to other departments through a core concept and from a secure feminist perspective. Another mainstreaming option is for universities to take steps in creating curricula that translates to actual benefits for women. It is also important to develop close linkage with community so that students experience service learning through outreach programs and other concrete applications of their lessons on women’s issues. This enables teachers and learners to equally be able to interactively evaluate learning experiences together.

3. Envisioning the Women’s University Roles in the 21st Century
   I have declared from the time of my installation as president (in 2003), that the thrust of my presidency is anchored on the vision of its founders: Instilling the four-fold core values for character formation, family solidarity, leadership and civic consciousness, service to God country and home. This remains as the foundation upon which PWU must gear up its entire educational program to respond to global needs, in keeping with its visionary role in the 21st century. We, therefore, reaffirm the PWU’s leadership in women’s education, taking its perspective of gender education, taking the lead and proactive role towards gender equity.
   
   PWU’s networking and linkages for promoting women’s leadership through women’s education for the 21s century.
   
   In the last two years, women’s education has re-emerged as a key concept and approach in education. I have been attending international meetings on women’s education. Women’s Education Worldwide (WEW) is an alliance of colleges and universities around the world that share a commitment to advancing the education of women. Our most recent meetings were in Bellagio and Pavia in Italy.
   
   I am also a member of the Executive Committee of the International Association of University Presidents (IAUP), which meets quarterly. I have had the privilege of presenting my own proposal to institutionalize gender mainstreaming and empowerment through women’s education through the establishment of a Sub-Committee for Women’s Education.

Recommendations

What recommendations can we give to each other in this meeting? Let me share a few that I think we can all work on together regionally, and internationally. Briefly, the following are some of the initial ideas envisioned for setting up an IAUP Commission on Women’s Education:

VISION: PROMOTING THE ADVANCEMENT OF WOMEN THROUGH STRENGTHENING WOMEN’S EDUCATION IN UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES WORLDWIDE

MISSION: STRENGTHENING IAUP’S ADVOCACY ROLE IN CREATING A GLOBAL NETWORK OF COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES ON WOMEN’S EDUCATION

ADVOCACY ROLE: Inviting Membership to IAUP, specifically:

1. The different women’s colleges and universities, not only in the Philippines but other parts of the world, particularly Asia Pacific;

2. Women Presidents not necessarily of women’s colleges and universities in the Philippines. (Currently, there is a list among the schools and colleges in the Philippines. We do not yet have a list in other parts of the world.);

3. Those higher educational institutions who have course offerings on Women’s Studies Programs;

4. Other higher educational institutions who are interested in promoting women’s education, in both exclusively-for-women universities and in co-educational institutions.

NETWORKING AND COLLABORATIONS: IAUP GLOBAL WOMEN’S EDUCATION

• Establishing a database that can help link up with other women’s colleges and universities.

• Creating a network of Leaders in Women’s Education who are interested to advocate the global advancement of women’s education.

Note: Since its approval in 2006, the IAUP Commission on Women’s Education may find it useful to link up with the WOMEN’S EDUCATION WORLDWIDE (WEW). This has been the initiative of Mount Holyoke College and Smith College since June 2004; the PWU was invited to attend the recent meeting in Dubai. The WEW seeks to advocate the global advancement of women’s education.

1. Creating a worldwide network of women’s colleges and universities interested in advancing women’s education;

2. Sharing of best practices among those women’s colleges and universities who are part of this new women’s education network;

3. Exploring the prospects of conducting joint research activities on particular topics for women’s advancement, women’s empowerment, women’s transformative leadership;

4. Discovering online courses on women’s advancement that can facilitate collaboration and interaction among the different women’s colleges and universities;

5. Providing both undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in these various women’s colleges and universities direct communication with those who are also currently registered in women’s studies programs;

   1. Working on creating the data base on women’s education and women’s studies programs.

   2. Creating a worldwide Directory of Women’s Colleges and Universities, who may be interested in institutional exchange programs for faculty and students in particular disciplines and degree programs (i.e., Reactivating the IAUP President’s Exchange Program, by inviting women presidents, women chancellors, women deans to participate in the ongoing IAUP programs).

Top