March of every year is declared as National Women’s Month. This year, with the theme “We Make Change Work for Women” and with the sub-theme “Agenda ng Kababaihan Tungo sa Kaunlaran,” DTI Quezon Provincial Office celebrated Women’s Month on 8 March 2022, a day that’s also declared as International Women’s Day.

One of the lined-up activities of DTI Quezon was a short seminar about Gender and Development (GAD), which started with welcome remarks from the Provincial Director Julieta L. Tadiosa. This was followed by the introduction of the resource speaker by Senior Trade and Industry Specialist Ma. Cristina J. Avio. Atty. Sunshine Abcede-Llaga, Resource Speaker, started the discussion by mentioning some of her engagements with DTI to promote gender equality over the past years. She then mentioned the percentages of men and women in the population of Lucena City, which are 49% and 51%, respectively. Also, part of her discussion was on the options to do with the name of a woman after marriage; sex versus gender; the Manifestation of Gender Bias, and how it was affected by the pandemic, intersectionality, and feminism. She ended her discussion by presenting some of the great female leaders and how they are dealing with the difficulties brought by the pandemic. After the lecture proper, Business Development Division Chief Anna Marie Quincina and OIC Consumer Protection Division Chief had their closing messages for the session.

For the afternoon activity, the Finance and Admin Unit provided all the girls in the office with tokens of appreciation, followed by a game where they were grouped into five teams. Categories were given and questions were provided. The team with the highest points was given a simple prize. Group photos were taken after the activity as part of the documentation.

DTI Quezon also showed their support by providing a purple shirt to employees and wearing it on all the Tuesdays of March to signify support for women’s empowerment and gender equality. A campaign banner was also displayed in front of the office. ♦

Date of Release: 11 April 2022