GABRIELA was founded in April 1984 after 10,000 women marched in Manila, defying a Marcos decree against demonstrations. Amidst a backdrop of widespread social inequality and unrest, GABRIELA aimed to synthesize issues of national liberation, poverty and women's emancipation. The organization's founders pushed for comprehensive social transformation, rather than focusing on individual forms of oppression. This came to be known as Third World feminism. The NGO was named in honor of Gabriela Silang, a revolutionary Filipina, who led a revolt against Spain in the second half of the eighteenth century. The death of her husband was the reason she took over his role as the anti-colonialist leader. GABRIELA has been a monumental party for Filipino women because they challenge a lot of the patriarchal views placed on them, alongside resisting foreign influence and neocolonialism.
Electoral performance
In 2003, the party-list 'Gabriela Women's Party' was launched by GABRIELA. In the 2004 elections for the House of Representatives the party-list got 464,586 votes In the 14May 2007election, the party won 2 seats in the nationwide party-list vote. The Gabriela Women's Party was the only women's party that was able to obtain a second term in Congress. In the 2007 elections, the GWP made a lot of achievements when it came to representation in the election. It is important to note that many of the women who have been elected from the Gabriela Women's Party, are women who have survived abuse in their life.
is a global campaign founded to end rape and sexual violence against women. Since 2013, GABRIELA have led the One Billion Rising in the Philippined and abroad. Now they are coordinating the campaign in the Southeast Asian region, they are part of a huge group who make up the OBR Task Force Philippines. OBR Task Force Philippines Members:
In the Philippines, GABRIELA is actively involved in awareness campaigns to prevent the trafficking of women and girls from the Philippines. Its strategies consist of seminars and information dissemination to NGOs and government agencies and awareness campaigns at the community level. GABRIELA Philippines reports that a Filipina woman sells for between $3000 and $5000 in the internationalsex trade. The Gabriela Women's Party launched a campaign against the sex trafficking issue of Filipino women and children which they called the Purple Rose Campaign. Not only do they have campaigns such as the Purple Rose Campaign, but GABRIELA is actively involved in Vow to Fight which is the Vow to Fight Against Violence on Women and Free Our Sisters/Free Ourselves campaign.
GABRIELA USA and GABRIELA Hong Kong are the overseas chapters of the Philippine-based organization, extending the Filipino women's mass movement to the United States and Hong Kong. The Gabriela Women's Party is part of the a grassroots organization. This has led to many more GABRIELA's in other countries, such as the United States, the Netherlands, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Italy and Germany.
