Gender Hub Statement on International Women's Day 2022

Happy International Women's Day! 

This March 2022, we celebrate our third Women’s Month at the Gender Hub. We celebrate not only the work that we have done in the past three years, but more so the people we have met through this work. Today, we celebrate the steps we have taken together in the struggle towards gender equality. Today, we also name the pain and weight of these steps in moving forward.

At the heart of every celebration is the hurt of recognition. Any shared achievement of the community is possible only through an acknowledgement of an individual’s grief and need for healing. This is where we situate our commitment towards gender justice in the university. This is where the work towards a gender-inclusive, gender-responsive, and gender-safe Ateneo community continues.

To students, faculty, and staff who have come forward with their experiences of sexual and gender-based violence, we are here for you and with you. Allow us to celebrate your journey and allow us to honor your pain. To those who have yet to share your experiences, we are here for you. Allow us to accompany you in your journey and allow us to hold your pain.

To organizations and groups that have sought counsel towards ensuring safety and inclusivity in their spaces, we are here with you. It is difficult to confront sexism, misogyny, homophobia, biphobia, transphobia, and other forms of violence in our everyday encounters. It is difficult to share the pain of another whose pain is greater. But it is also joyful to do the work for each other and with each other.

To all members of the community who are learning how to be allies, we are here with you. We hope you continue to be with us, too. We continue this call of togetherness in creating safe spaces, and systems of care and respect.

This Women’s Month, our celebration is a reminder of the struggle and the joy in creating safe spaces for all. Let us acknowledge how far we have come and how far we are yet to go with our systems and processes. Let us continue the collective work of creating communities and systems of care.

To wrestle with pain as a community is to allow the healing of every individual hurt within this community. We call on each member of the community to wrestle with these difficult, joyful, and meaningful realities together. It is only through the work of recognition that our commitment towards gender equality becomes possible.