Women are gaining ground in local government, too, not just in Senate polls, Quezon City Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte said on Monday.
Amid praise over women leaders dominating the top five spots in Pulse Asia’s most recent poll among Senate candidates for 2019, Belmonte said she is seeking to highlight that female executives have also been gaining ground at the local government level.
“Before, leadership skills of women are not recognized, and we just stay at home to take care of our children. But now, we as women are bring a different kind of leadership to the table—and that is servant leadership,” she said.
The vice mayor said women make good leaders at the local government level because of their “culture of peace.”
“We like to get consensus from our people and seek participation from others. We also like to solicit opinions from others before we make a decision,” she added.
More female mayors around the world are “brought into the table” as leaders in their own cities, Belmonte said.
“Madrid, Barcelona, Paris, Seattle and other great cities in the world now have women mayors leading them because they recognize that women can be good leaders. Even Tokyo, an Asian city that has a traditionally male-dominated culture, now has a woman governor,” she added.