Women's Resilience in Coastal Communities: The Untold Story of Abaca Weavers
In coastal regions where storms rage frequently, markets teeter on the edge of collapse, and power outages halt daily life, women quietly emerge as the backbone of resilience. A recent study focusing on women abaca weavers and agritourism workers in places like Cebu and Polillo Island, Quezon, sheds light on their indispensable yet often overlooked contributions to survival and economic stability.
The Fragile Yet Promising Landscape of Polillo Island
Polillo Island serves as a poignant case study, with seventy percent of its municipalities highly vulnerable to landslides and frequent cyclones. This biodiversity hotspot faces ecological stress while transitioning from declining coconut livelihoods to abaca-based agritourism. In this delicate balance, women's participation is not just beneficial—it is central to the community's future.
Women dominate the production and processing stages, from stripping fiber to weaving strands and preparing products, carrying forward a craft inherited through generations. However, their voices often fade when decisions about pricing, markets, and tourism development are made. As one woman in a focus group poignantly noted, "We can grow abaca and raise our families, but sometimes it feels like no one sees what we do." This invisibility compounds vulnerability, shrinking confidence and making leadership feel distant.
Beyond Income: The Multifaceted Nature of Empowerment
Abaca-based agritourism offers more than supplemental income; it diversifies livelihoods, supports children's education, and strengthens cooperative ties. Empowerment flourishes when women gain access to training, markets, and supportive institutions. It deepens when participation translates into real authority—when women negotiate with buyers, shape tourism products, and step into leadership roles.
The study underscores a critical truth: income alone does not equate to empowerment. Political empowerment emerges when income is coupled with voice, decision-making authority, and the capacity to influence outcomes. In Polillo, women were already earning, but empowerment only blossomed when they began to shape the narrative and outcomes of their work.
Cultural Realities and Sustainable Solutions
Empowerment extends beyond finances, touching on dignity, trust, and harmony in small coastal communities. Some women hesitate to access loans not due to lack of ability, but fear of gossip or judgment. True empowerment must respect these cultural nuances, focusing not just on financial inclusion but on fostering a sense of belonging without stigma.
For lasting impact, empowerment must be embedded in locally grounded policies that link climate resilience, livelihood diversification, and women's leadership. Establishing processing and innovation hubs can move communities beyond selling raw fiber to producing market-ready goods. Agencies must align to prevent women farmers and entrepreneurs from navigating fragmented systems alone, while cultural storytelling should elevate abaca as a symbol of identity and pride, not merely a commodity.
Charting the Path Forward: From Equality to Equity
Sustainable Development Goal 5 (SDG 5) aims for gender equality, but equity is the essential route to get there. Correcting structural power imbalances requires time and strategic steps:
- Short-term: Raise awareness and adopt policies to make women's work more visible.
- Medium-term: Stabilize income and expand leadership roles to strengthen women's positions.
- Long-term: Foster cultural and governance shifts to permanently embed women's voices in agritourism and community decision-making.
Abaca is renowned as the fiber of strength, but in Polillo Island, it is the women who embody that resilience. Along coastlines, true resilience is not just about surviving the next storm—it is about who holds the power to steer recovery, influence markets, and shape the future before another typhoon looms on the horizon.
