CEDAW/C/SR.327 English Page 9 provide an understanding of gender/women’s issues. Women’s interests had not yet been integrated into the platforms of most political parties. However, respect for and recognition of women as an electoral "force" was growing, as evidenced by the creation of committees to focus specifically on the female electorate during the recent presidential election. There had been no women’s political parties in the 1995 elections. 57. The number of women in the Philippine Military Academy had increased, with the first group of 15 female cadets entering the Academy in 1993 and another 17 entering in 1994. Women had a role in the peace process and were represented in peace negotiations, although only one woman had been appointed to the Government panel negotiating a peace settlement with major rebel groups. A woman had been appointed as executive director of the Office of the Presidential Advisor on the Peace Process. Women were also represented in a coalition of political and citizen’s groups formed in 1987 to contribute to the negotiating process, and women had been asserting demands at the grass-roots level for formal recognition in the peace pact system and the process of delineating ancestral domains. 58. The Constitution ensured fundamental equality between women and men in acquiring, changing or retaining their nationality and that of their children. There was no marked difference in the educational status of women and men; slightly more women than men had never attended school, roughly equal proportions of men and women were obtaining elementary and high-school educations, and more women than men were reaching and completing the university level. Trends in women’s education were improving, but there were still problems such as gender tracking, disproportionate representation in decisionmaking, the provision of preferential educational opportunities to boys and the multiple burdens placed on girl children. Statistical data were available on education and other issues in the text of Filipino Women: Issues and Trends and in "Filipino Women: Facts and Figures", both of which had been distributed to the members of the Committee. 59. A recent study conducted by the Women’s Studies Consortium of the Philippines of its 43 affiliated State and private colleges and universities had revealed that members were enhancing their understanding of gender issues as a result of seminars conducted by the Consortium. Members had also initiated the integration of gender perspective into their courses and into academic programmes, curriculum research and community outreach work. 60. Gender-disaggregated data were available for general demographic, social and economic analysis factors but were as yet unavailable regarding women entrepreneurs and workers in the informal sector, the national incidence of violence against women, women’s contribution to the economy, women prostitutes, income by sex, or a range of indicators at the provincial, city or municipality levels. That lack of information was primarily due to limitations in financial resources, but efforts to improve the availability of gender-based statistics were continuing. 61. Ms. FELICIANO (Philippines) said that reforms in the educational system were being pursued to enhance gender-sensitivity and eliminate sex biases and stereotyping in textbooks and instructional materials. Gender-neutral core messages and training manuals had been developed for integration into subjects required at all grade levels, but no data were as yet available on the / ...