She Was the Only Woman in the Room. Now She's Not.

Jessa Cabaay knows what it’s like to walk into a room — or, more accurately, a fishing community meeting — and immediately feel like you need to prove your existence. As a young woman diving into marine conservation in the Philippines, she was often the only female voice, surrounded by older men who, at first, weren't exactly lining up to hear her ideas about marine protected areas.

That anxiety, that feeling of constant scrutiny? Her male colleagues didn't seem to experience it. Cabaay now attributes it to deep-seated cultural beliefs in many Philippine coastal communities, where women are often expected to stick to domestic roles, not professional ones. "There are expectations that as a woman, you follow; you cannot lead," she noted, which, if you think about it, is a rather inconvenient expectation for someone trying to, you know, lead conservation efforts.

Not Alone Anymore

For years, Cabaay navigated this landscape solo, without the kind of female camaraderie that can make all the difference. But that's changed. Now, as a technical manager for Community Centered Conservation (C3), she's found her tribe: a peer-support network for women in conservation across Southeast Asia. Connecting with others who've faced the exact same head-tilts and skeptical glances has been, in her words, a game-changer. "I realized I’m not struggling alone. We all feel the same," she said. Let that satisfying moment of collective sigh-of-relief sink in.

This network, aptly named the Network of Women (NOW), kicked off in 2021. It's an initiative of the Asian Species Action Partnership (ASAP), a Singapore-based group dedicated to protecting critically endangered land and freshwater animals. Because apparently, saving species is hard enough without having to constantly justify your presence in the room.

NOW isn't just about commiserating; it's about empowerment. It's about ensuring that the next generation of Jessa Cabaays don't have to spend precious energy proving their worth, but can instead focus on, well, saving the oceans. Which seems like a much better use of everyone's time.