Université Libre De Bruxelles Holds Forum on Gender Equality in the Philippines

Filipino scholars, Dr. Catherine Lourdes Dy and Dr. Asuncion Fresnoza-Flot, during the public event featuring gender equality in the Philippines organized by the Université Libre de Bruxelles on 21 November 2017 in Brussels.

27 November 2017 BRUSSELS – A public forum focusing on gender equality in the Philippines was organised by one of Belgium’s leading universities, Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), at the Institut d'études européennes in Brussels on November 21. With the theme, “Gender in the Philippines: Challenges within the Domestic Sphere and Beyond,” the forum included two Filipino doctorate scholars, namely Dr. Catherine Lourdes Dy and Dr. Asuncion Fresnoza-Flot. The organisers of the forum noted that the Philippines “has been capturing social and scientific attention at the global scale because of its international migration and its position as one of the leading countries in the world in terms of gender equality.”

Dr. Dy presented her study on the importance of the role of language in the framing of sexual and reproductive rights in the Philippines. Dr. Fresnoza-Flot, on the other hand, presented her research on marriages and divorces in the Filipino Diaspora, specifically relating to the gendered experiences of migrant Filipinas in Belgium and The Netherlands. Dr. Fresnoza-Flot was recently appointed full professor at the Anthropology Department of ULB with French as medium of instruction.

The public forum was followed by the launch of a book co-edited by Dr. Fresnoza-Flot and Dr. Gwénola Ricordeau entitled, “International Marriages and Marital Citizenship: Southeast Asian Women on the Move,” which was published by Routledge. END

For more information, please visit www.brusselspe.dfa.gov.ph or https://www.facebook.com/PHinBelgium/.