You are now in the penultimate chapter for this

course! That big word “penultimate sounds great

because it means the second to the last module.
Hurray!
This time, we will be looking into the history of
women in our society in order to understand the
current situation of women in the Philippines.
Our situation is unique as it is rooted in the
colonial history of the country.

At the end of this chapter, the students should be

able to:
1. Describe how the role of Filipino women in
society evolved; and
2. Explain the contribution of women in the
national liberation, policymaking and governance .
 JOURNAL ENTRY #7

-
Watch a film featuring the Philippine Revolution or the
Reform Movement. It could be Rizal in Dapitan,
Heneral Luna, the series Katipunan, Sakay, or any
similar film.
Notice the roles women play and reflect on the
accuracy of the portrayals. How empowered were the
women in these films?

Write your observations on your journal.

Prior to Hispanic colonization, it can be said that there was no

discrimination between sons and daughters. Parents took pride of
their children equally, even to the point of deriving nicknames from
their children. Male and female children did not experience any form
of inequality regarding division of inheritance.

Male and female children were also educated equally (according to

their indigenous systems) and each took an active role in society
when they grew up. At the point of first Spanish contact, a majority of
the natives could write using their own orthography. Sexual
inhibitions regarding virginity in marriage was not universally valued,
and sex education was prescribed as a duty of a mother to her
daughter.

Marriages were arranged and a dowry was paid by the groom to the
wife's family. The women kept her name and, if she was particularly
meritorious, the husband took her name. Because each spouse kept
his or her relationship with the other spouse's family, each family
member was also viewed an equal partner in marriage.

Even then, women ran the household and were mainly or equally
responsible for all major decisions regarding the running of the
household. They also took part in the negotiation of contracts with
their spouses. Women were free to exercise their decisions
concerning reproduction, with abortion as an option. Divorce was
available to both husband and wife, and both had equal rights to
property and children under ancient laws.
Women played an important role in the economic life of the people.
They were involved in actual planting and harvesting, weaving,
making pottery, and trading.

They were even in charge of billings, contracts, and

correspondences. Women were not alien to the public realm and
some were able to rise and lead their clans.

Historian Luis Dery noted that women also fought alongside men in
battle, and many communities were led by them either as direct
rulers, caretakers for the young Datu, or just as influential people who
could build alliances or negotiate the outcomes of battles.
Even in today's Filipino community, there is some measure of
equality among men and women, especially when women are
involved in, or are even mainly responsible for, the family's income. It
is only when a society is structured on the production of surplus and
accumulation of wealth that class and hierarchy emerge as necessary,
and that women's oppression and inequality become an issue.

Women thinkers in the Philippines generally agree that inequality

between men and women developed in colonial times. Before
colonialism, women were leaders in the community.

Alongside the Datu (or chieftain) and panday (or smith), a babaylan
held a central place in the society. Babaylan commonly refers to
individuals who have special knowledge or can converse with spirits.

During the pre-colonial times, the babaylan was a woman, or a man

who took on the persona of a woman, said to be chosen by the spirits
and given special powers to engage unseen beings.
If someone suffered a misfortune, the babaylan would help him or
her overcome or even prevent future misfortunes.
This way, the babaylan served and led a community. A babaylan was
a culture-bearer, priest, and myth-keeper, healing not only one's
body and soul but also one’s relationship with the spirits and nature.
The babaylan was depended on to maintain the community's well-
being.
Babaylans are presently discussed not only as mystics and spirit
intermediaries, but also as community leaders and propagators of
the worldview that defined most people in ancient Philippines. This
early worldview valued nature and respected the spirits. It is certainly
in conflict with the misogynistic monotheism that the moralistic
Castilian Catholicism brought to the islands.

In sum, women were important in the Philippine society and were

genuinely equal with men in their old worldview – one that did not
curtail freedom or construct women as unequal.

In claiming the Philippine islands, the Spaniards also colonized the

settlers of the land. These settlers, now called Filipinos, had to follow
a foreign moral and cultural code to be morally acceptable in their
own communities.

Women were no exception to these incidents.

The Spanish clergy saw early Filipinas as too sensuous and free with
their behavior, but were appreciated for being intelligent, strong-
willed and practical. Spanish friars admonished to remain pure and
obedient, and exploited the latter's influential position in traditional
communities to spread the new religion.

It was important for the Spaniards that the Filipina woman be

completely subjugated to her husband or her father and to the
Catholic Church. To remold women into the alien notion of an ideal
woman, they were taught to avoid sin by keeping chaste, not being
vain, dressing modestly, keeping busy at home, and being self-
sacrificing.

The colonizers created a woman who was only active at home and
withdrawn from the public sphere. If
they were allowed to seek education,
women were placed in schools that
forced in them the values and
character of the new Filipina.
Chastity, purity, and forbearance
were thus promoted simply to
subdue the early Filipina to her new
role and constrict her creative
participation in the society. Their
diminished roles in the communal
sphere and in the systems of
production confined women to
supporting roles such as status
display and maintenance (organizing
parties and keeping appearances),
reproduction, and child rearing. Outside the home, they devoted
their creative action to the church.
This kind of woman was ironically portrayed by Rizal through the
character of Maria Clara who was "sweet, docile, obedient, self-
sacrificing" and who "never had the courage to share the fate of her
beloved."

The Propaganda Movement, however, began to recognize the crucial

roles women could assume especially in campaigns against Spain,
although still limited. While the Propaganda Movement itself was a
very male enterprise, it sought to raise the status of women. Women
participation in uprisings by the Katipunan and the millenarians
suggest that Filipinas played major roles in times of conflicts as
leaders, soldiers, healers, and heads of logistics operations.

Women in the 1890s organized a masonic lodge called Logia de

Adopcion which gathered many intellectual women with anti-Spanish
sentiments. Many outstanding Filipino women such as Gabriela
Silang and Gregoria de Jesus were active participants in the war
against Spain.

After the struggles for independence from Spain, women continued

their dynamic role in the Philippine society. From the 1900s to 1920s,
most women's groups furthered the presence of women in the public
sphere by focusing on charity work and social services. These groups
were formed to keep the elite women busy working with orphans
and assisting prisoners, among others.
Three insights about women's movements from the American period
until Martial Law activism are relevant.

1. “These movements were begun and dominated by men." Even

the suffrage the movement was said to have been encouraged
by the Americans sit' to distract people from the
independence movement.

2. Secondly, "that women's involvement in these movements

gave them liberties and roles that were traditionally denied
them." At the very least, it gave them the institutional
framework for participating in the outside world. From women
concerned with domestic issues, they became women
engaged in social issues and policymaking.

3. Thirdly, "that goals and objectives of these movements were

valid for and important to a smaller or greater section of
Filipino women." Not of everyone cared about the same issues
and thus, support for women's cl movements was not strong
enough to transform the patriarchal systems.

Therefore, even if these movements allowed women to is participate

in the public sphere and contribute to nation-building, women were
still confined to play supporting roles to the projects o of men—to the
realm of care which is akin to domestic work—and ended up
supporting and perpetuating patriarchy.

Revolutionary groups that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s were

associated with the communist and socialist movements.
These groups argued that the nation was suffering from
underdevelopment because its economy served the interests of the
U.S. by providing cheap labor and free access to resources, as well as
by serving as a dumping ground for U.S. goods. The new economic
model under the American and postwar period brought about
various levels of poverty. Women who worked with the underground
and aboveground components of the Communist Party, and the
other socialist groups that rivalled it, realized that the agenda for
liberation could also serve women's quest for equality. Many of the
problems women faced were a result of abusive structures that kept
them poor and exposed to various kinds of exploitation. The
nationalist and militant women's movement, as they called
themselves, believed that the only way to achieve equality in the
society was to liberate the nation from the exploitation of the elite
and the U.S.
However, women issues on equality were considered secondary
within the communist and socialist movements, and that militant
women had to gather, themselves together under the socialist party
to push for women' agenda while struggling for national liberation.

1. The iconic Malayang Kilusan ng Bagong Kababaihan

(MAKIBAKA), a radical women's group led by student
activists, showed that the root of women's problems lay in
"feudalism, capitalism, and colonialism." They also asserted
that the role of women in the liberation movement should not
be confined to "making sandwiches, raising funds, jotting
down minutes of the meeting, and playing adjuncts to the
male leaders who generally made the decisions.

MAKIBAKA became inactive because its leaders were

imprisoned or driven into hiding during the Martial Law. This
organization is an important part of history as it was the first
group to emphasize the issues of women as integral and yet
distinct from the general national liberation objectives of the
party.

2. The Kilusan ng Kababaihang Pilipina (PILIPINA) focused on

mainstreaming women's concerns in the transformation of
society. It promoted the welfare of women through social
development work, particularly establishing cooperatives and
providing training in women's concerns.

3. The Katipunan ng Kababaihan Para sa Kalayaan

(KALAYAAN) worked within the national liberation agenda to
ensure that the women's liberation issues were not made
secondary in the movement.

4. The National Organization of Women (NOW) was the

adjunct of the United Democratic Opposition party coalition. It
 was oriented toward the socio-political formation of women
and the campaign for clean elections.

5. The assassination of Benigno Aquino, Jr. resulted in the

foundation of Alliance of Women for Action towards
Reconciliation (AWARE) and Women for the Ouster of
Marcos and Boycott (WOMB).

6. Women's sections also sprang from existing groups like the

Concerned Artists of the Philippines.

7. Religious women came together in alliances as well, like the

Association of Women in Theology (AWIT) which brought
together pastors, Catholic nuns, and deacons; the Kapisanan
ng mga Madre so Maynila which was composed of religious
women; and the Church Women United which was affiliated
with the National Council of Churches in the Philippines.

8. The students from the universities likewise established groups

like the University of the Philippines' Samahang Makabayan
ng Kabataang Kababaihan (SAMAKA-Kababaihan).
Exclusive schools formed their own groups as well like Ateneo
de Manila's Atenista Women and the then Maryknoll
College's Katipuneros.

On October 28, 1983, about 9,000 women took part in the largest
women's march that protested human rights abuses and the abuses
of the military. This movement was dubbed as the Women's Protest
Day. The following year, the women who took part in this protest
formed the General Assembly Binding Women for Reforms,
Integrity, Equality, Leadership, and Action (GABRIELA)

9. GABRIELA consistently protested against the policies and

projects of the Marcos regime that were inimical to the
people's interests. Eventually, GABRIELA transformed itself
into a political party and brought together people’s
organizations, NGOs, and other women affiliated with the
National Democratic Left groups.
Women in the Philippines have a history of serving their society not
only as home keepers or as producers of children. They have been
active partners in establishing the well-being of the family, creating
enterprise, preserving and enriching culture, creating arts, producing
food, and ruling and war.

Thus, the suppression of the Spanish and the creation of a new world
order were not enough to erase the woman's understanding and
fulfillment of her capacity. Women have found their place in nation-
building. They have always created a space to become creative,
albeit not always equal, partners in this work. And so, women have
contributed much in the struggle for national liberation, in
policymaking, and in governance.
1. Filipino women in the pre-colonial period, are highly
respected and valued as members of the society. What are the
roles or influences of pre-colonial women that you would like
to bring back in the present time?
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2. The Spanish version of Christianity introduced misogynistic

attitudes against women. Why is this so?
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3. How did Filipino women respond to oppression and inequality

in various stages of women’s struggle throughout the
Philippine history?
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