“Pinay Legacy in the Academe: Integrated Activism for Social Justice”

Glenda Tibe Bonifacio, Ph.D.

Associate Professor at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, Canada
FWN100™ Global 2015

“Pinay Legacy in the Academe: Integrated Activism for Social Justice” The lives of Filipino women in the diaspora have attracted much attention since the 1990s. However, the general narrative of Filipino women remains that of a “servant of globalization” whose lives are directly intertwined with the clutches of colonialism and imperialism, thus making them “at home in the world” as caregivers, nannies, domestic workers, hotel cleaners, and nurses. But this narrative, both in scholarly works and popular media, does not present a holistic understanding about Filipino women as immigrants and migrant workers in host countries around the world.

In this chapter, I share insights into the dynamics and complexities of Filipina lives in Australia and Canada and expand the narrative to include their continued negotiations within unequal structures and hierarchies using values shaped from home, alternative practices of civic engagement in different spaces, and the valuable teachings of human connectedness towards peace, harmony, and social justice. Arguably, research on Filipina lives has the potential to bring inspiration for a more nuanced scholarship that embeds cultural specificity in global or transnational interactions.