Women hold leadership roles in APOAMF, the Alliance of People’s Organizations Along Manggahan Floodway, a federation of people’s organizations in Pasig City. As leaders, they are significant contributors to the federation’s struggle for their right to housing within the city. Using a gender lens, this study analyzed the women’s contributions to the struggle; and conversely, examined the ways in which their participation in this struggle has affected their daily lives. The women’s contributions included physical, relational, and emotional aspects of leadership. However, as they contributed to the struggle for the benefit of the broader community, the women also had to deal with personal sacrifices. This experience highlighted three main tensions: the characteristics of women versus the characteristics of men, the self versus the community, and the organization vis-à-vis the family. In negotiating these tensions, it became clear that empowerment in the experience of organized women community leaders still carried the separation and tensions of the public-private divide.
