To say that being a woman is difficult would be an understatement.
First, it’s only the female gender that has to endure the excruciating pain of childbirth. Then, she has to thrive in a world where misogyny remains rampant. And, she is expected to live a life that’s “meant for women”—a submissive, stay-at-home life where she is assumed to take over domestic duties and discouraged to pursue careers delegated to men.
The list goes on, sadly.
Fortunately, many women have broken and are breaking through the glass ceiling, gender stereotype notwithstanding. No sexist remark or general assumption stops them to show the world that they can be whoever they want to be, and be actually good at it.
Take these eight women, recipients of The Outstanding Women in Nation’s Service (TOWNS) Foundation’s TOWNS 2016 Award.
The eight awardees were chosen from over 60 nominations. Twoscreening committees and the Board of Judges chaired by Supreme Court Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno did the final selection.
The outstanding women
Thirty-year-old Cherrie Atilano is the awardee for Social Development for her work to improve the lives of Filipino farmers as well as encourage the youth to pursue a career in farming through AGREA Agricultural System International, Inc., an agri-social enterprise in Marinduque that builds sustainable farming communities. She believes that “this country will not prosper unless we believe and support the backbone of our economy which is agriculture” and that “we need to make our farmers’s lives better.”
Her impressive feat at the 2016 Rio Olympics earned Hidilyn Diaz the weighty recognition of being TOWNS’s outstanding woman in Sports category. Her third try at the Olympics got her a silver medal—ending the country’s medal drought. The Pinay weightlifter is also the first Filipino woman to win an Olympic medal.
Patricia Evangelista’s claim to fame was being the first Filipino to win at the London-based annual International Public Speaking Championships at age 18. But her contribution to public discourse did not end there as she practices a fearless journalism career as multi-media manager and trauma reporter.
Silverlens gallery founder Luisa Mercedes Lorenzo is TOWNS’s awardee for Arts. Her biggest contribution to nation building is putting in place, through the photography gallery, practices that eventually should be standard for all galleries and museums.
Philippine Navy commissioned officer Marissa Arlene Martinez’s work in training and development, and capacity enhancement for officers and sailors qualified her to receive the TOWNS award for Government Service. As one of the first female graduates of the Philippine Military Academy (class of 1997), Martinez is considered a pioneer in the military.
With her goal to address the widespread inequity in access to electricity in the Philippines, Computer Engineering graduate Aisa Mijeno co-founded the Sustainable Alternative Lighting Corporation (SALt Corp.) with her brother Raphael. And through this start-up social enterprise, she created the SALt Lamp.
The great potential of Aisa’s invention led for her to share the stage with US President Barack Obama and Alibaba Group Holding Limited Executive Director Jack Ma at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation in November 2015. Right now, the social enterprise is gaining ground in electricity-poor countries that want to take advantage of the technology. No wonder Mijeno is bestowed upon the award for Social Enterprise.
Lou Sabrina Ongkiko has the credentials and the capacity to teach in other countries, yet she chose to be a public school teacher in the Philippines. She asserts that she would rather teach in the public school because if there is someone she wants to help develop, encourage to dream more, and to see become successful, that is the Filipino child.
Ongkiko, the awardee for Education, works on the Senior High School Manual of Operations with the School Effectiveness Division (SED).
TOWNS awardee for Information and Communications Technology is Jocelle Sigue, for her efforts to help local government units in different parts of the country, especially in the countryside, to develop their ICT ecosystems for job and investment generation.
She trains and builds ICT councils in various cities and provinces, some of which are now part of emerging locations for IT-BPM.
