Locating young women in a plethora of issues: reflections from the tenth Young Women Leader’s Conference 2010

Overview

The present article assesses the outcome of the tenth Young Women Leaders Conference, held on 27 September 2010 at Miriam College, Philippines. “As we see it: young women redefining active citizenship” was the theme of the conference. Its main objective was to inquire into the connections between thinking on citizenship, and Filipino young women’s activism, where in the contemporary Philippine socio-political milieu, issues of “belonging” and “exclusion” are still being negotiated. The workshops revealed that young women continue to face traditional structural barriers that inhibit them from actively participating in political debate and public life. However, they have created new spaces for asserting varied (re)conceptions of citizenship and gender justice, often mediated by rapidly changing information and communication technologies. Likewise, they are increasingly on the move: the face of labour migration in the Philippines is that of a young woman. How then might migration change our understandings of citizenship? Many young women in the Philippines are engaged in “everyday revolutions” in spaces where imaginations, alternative visions, and voices are emerging and merging.The present article assesses the outcome of the tenth Young Women Leaders Conference, held on 27 September 2010 at Miriam College, Philippines. “As we see it: young women redefining active citizenship” was the theme of the conference. Its main objective was to inquire into the connections between thinking on citizenship, and Filipino young women’s activism, where in the contemporary Philippine socio-political milieu, issues of “belonging” and “exclusion” are still being negotiated. The workshops revealed that young women continue to face traditional structural barriers that inhibit them from actively participating in political debate and public life. However, they have created new spaces for asserting varied (re)conceptions of citizenship and gender justice, often mediated by rapidly changing information and communication technologies. Likewise, they are increasingly on the move: the face of labour migration in the Philippines is that of a young woman. How then might migration change our understandings of citizenship? Many young women in the Philippines are engaged in “everyday revolutions” in spaces where imaginations, alternative visions, and voices are emerging and merging.
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