Dave M.

Asuncion
CD 11 WYZ-5

Faces of Poverty

Poverty has many faces and comes in many forms, ways, and shapes at different places
around the world, and can be described variously by different people based on their perception.
When we ask people about the definition of poverty you would normally hear, “lack of money to
meet basic needs and necessities such as food, shelter, and clothing” and technically, they are
correct. I have to admit that I have had the same opinion concerning poverty before. However,
I’ve learned that poverty is many different things. Poverty is multidimensional; poverty is
insecurity; poverty is exclusion and the effect of class struggle; poverty is deprivation of basic
human rights; poverty can be determined based on people’s perspectives. Given these varieties
of definitions and manifestations of poverty, I have noticed that they all have something in
common. It is the person who most likely suffers the most when it strikes. We cannot deny the
fact that women are more likely to live in extreme poverty than men regardless of the situation
and definitions mentioned concerning impoverishment. I am adamant that we can’t end poverty
without addressing gender inequality.

Gender is essential in the development and a factor that should be considered. People
often couldn’t care less about gender that we forget that it has a massive impact on poverty, and
gender equality can be a key to eradicating it. Women always have a higher chance of
experiencing poverty than men and it is evident that they suffer more. As they say, “Poverty has
a woman’s face,” and I reckon that feminization of poverty has to end.

I am originally from Nueva Ecija where farms are the main scenery and extremely far
away from the city and civilization. In my 21 years of living in the small town of Guimba, I have
seen how people normalize gender inequality and they have little to no knowledge about it
because it’s already embedded in the culture that prospers in our town which led them to think
that it was common. Let’s take my family as a reference. My mother is a housekeeper, and
she’s in charge of household work such as washing the dishes, doing the laundry, cleaning the
house, cooking the food, etc. She usually wakes up at 4 in the morning to do these chores,
especially the laundry, because she has to wash used clothes coming from the 5 members of
our family including herself. One time I heard her conversation with my father because they
were fighting about money. My father asked her why did she have the audacity to ask for money
when in fact she was not working at all and not generating any income for the family. A few
minutes of silence occurred then my father suddenly uttered, “wala ka namang ginagawa rito sa
bahay, sino bang nagtatrabaho, diba ako?” I saw the dismay on my mother’s face; she was
eventually too stunned to speak, and no words were coming out of her mouth. Nonetheless, one
Dave M. Asuncion
CD 11 WYZ-5

thing is for sure, she was discriminated against, undervalued, and dehumanized. For context,
my father prohibited my mother to work and suggested staying in the house and doing
household chores. Nonetheless, why was my father so angry at my mother and depreciate her
when in fact she was doing unpaid work? That experience is a clear manifestation that poverty
is occurring in our family and that is due to class struggle as it is blatant that my mother’s
experience falls under gender stratification. Poverty is the effect of class struggle and there is
poverty because of stratification; it always benefits one class over the others.

Now that I understand the definitions of poverty, I have come to know that gender
inequality, like what happened to my mother, is rooted in the culture of patriarchy, and it is a
major factor in poverty. Traditional patriarchal norms deter my mother to seek full-time
employment, thus, my father has to bear the burden of making ends meet alone. There’s a link
between patriarchy and capitalism and one proof of that is the sexual division of labor just like
my mother had experienced: she was kept within the four corners of our house catering to the
male members of the family as an unpaid domestic worker.

I abhor the fact that my mother experiences discrimination because of her gender. I don’t
want my sister, aunt, grandmother, and any other women out there to experience poverty just
because they are women. As a CD student, I greatly appreciate my degree program BS
Community Development because it taught me relevant lessons one must know to become an
effective member of society and a catalyst of change. The discipline of community development
always implies that it has a bias toward the poor. It helps people; however, it focuses on the
groups of people at the margin of society such as the impoverished, oppressed,
disenfranchised, and persecuted. I reckon that women are the most impoverished, oppressed,
disenfranchised, and persecuted member of society and it is my duty to have a bias toward
them, and uphold the principle of empowerment, participation, self-reliance, equity, and
accountability to enhance their potential and capabilities, promote their well-being and welfare,
and build collective power towards eradicating gender inequality.

There is good and power in the community, and they have the potential, agency, and
capabilities for change. My mission is to activate collective power and spark collective action
because solely through these, change will be imposed. Ending the world’s poverty is unrealistic
to some but to us community development practitioners, we will not get tired until we lose our
job because the very reason why we are working is already eliminated. I can wait to see no
development workers around the community; however, will I still be alive when that happens?