The Philippines – Everyday Lives of Working Filipinas

Here we present images of women in today’s Filipino economy. The economic
crisis has led women to become active participants in the labor market; many
women end up working in the informal sector. These women depict how Filipinas
meet their family’s basic necessities despite difficult circumstances by being
practical and resourceful.

The Philippines is a country that struggles to balance its strong cultural
traditions with participation in a highly globalized world. Thankfully, despite
deeply engrained social constructions, Filipino society empowers women to work
and allows women the freedom to exercise their rights. These women are
consumers, workers, lovers and caregivers all at once. These women are who we
see in the markets, the malls, and in our homes.

So what kind of work do women do in an urban yet developing economy, such as
that in the Philippines? In the kind of urban economy depicted in these photos,
we can see that women are active in the labor market. Many women have settled
into informal work such as selling vegetables that she harvested from her
backyard, giving services on the street like treating feet and toenails
(pedicure) or treating hands and fingernails (manicure) at a customer’s home or
along the streets and selling banana-cue (caramelized banana) and kamote-cue
(caramelized sweet potato).

Filipina women in urban poor communities are trying their best able to cope
with the economic crisis by re-evaluating their skills and capabilities. They
no longer want to rely solely on income from their husbands to sustain the
family’s needs. When the economic crisis hit families in the Philippines, many
Filipina women responded by creating jobs for themselves in the informal
economy. Some women even began working in positions that were typically
performed by men. During a visit to a friend’s house in Bulacan, Adjie got a
ride on a tricycle (pedi-cab), and she was surprised to see that the driver was
a woman. More and more often, women are choosing unexpected lines of work in
order to provide for their families.