So To Speak: Between Celebration and Reality
By Sonia P. Soto
On the 20th day of March, during Women’s Month, let’s pause—
and ask a simple but uncomfortable question:
Do we really understand the Magna Carta of Women?
Every year, we celebrate.
We post greetings.
We hold events.
We speak of empowerment.
And then April comes—
and the conversation disappears.
The Philippines takes pride in having a law:
Republic Act 9710.
Passed in 2009, it is one of the most comprehensive gender equality laws in the region.
On paper, it promises everything.
Protection from violence.
Equal access to education and opportunities.
Participation in governance.
Fair representation in the media.
The right to health, dignity, and equality.
On paper, we look progressive.
But reality tells a different story.
If this law is truly alive, then why—
Are women still unsafe in their own homes?
Why are girls still blamed for the violence done to them?
Why are women leaders still treated as exceptions, not the norm?
Why does the media still reduce women to images, instead of voices?
And perhaps the most telling question:
Why do so many women not even know this law exists?
The Magna Carta of Women is not failing because it is weak.
It is failing because it is underused, under-enforced, and under-claimed.
A law no one invokes is easy to ignore.
A right no one asserts is easy to deny.
This is not just about awareness.
This is about systems that continue to hold women back.
Schools that still erase women from history.
Workplaces that reward silence more than resistance.
Communities that are uncomfortable with outspoken women.
Media that profits from stereotypes.
Even governance—yes, even governance—still struggles to move beyond token representation.
We say women are included.
But inclusion without influence is not empowerment.
And here is the harder truth:
Patriarchy does not survive only because of men.
And neither should this conversation be reduced to blaming men alone.
It survives because systems—long embedded in our homes, schools, workplaces, and institutions—have taught both men and women to accept inequality as normal.
Women, often shaped by generations of conditioning, learn to tolerate and navigate these systems.
Men, in turn, are also shaped by the same structures that define power, roles, and expectations.
This is not about blame.
This is about understanding how deeply rooted the problem is—
and how all of us, in different ways, are called to confront it.
So what do we do?
We stop treating the Magna Carta of Women like a ceremonial document.
We start treating it as what it is meant to be:
A tool for accountability.
Demand safer spaces.
Call out discrimination.
Challenge harmful portrayals.
Push for real representation—not symbolic presence.
Teach it. Talk about it. Use it.
Because Women’s Month is not just about celebrating progress.
It is about confronting the gap between what is promised
and what is lived.
The Magna Carta of Women is not a greeting card we bring out every March.
It is a commitment.
A responsibility.
A line we must be willing to draw.
And if we are serious about equality, then we must say this—clearly and without apology:
Equality is not given.
It is claimed.
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