The Filipino women

If there is any creature that is most talked and written about, it is the woman. Poems, stories,
and songs have been written about her. She has inspired many masterpiece in the arts. And
yet she is not always the seemingly perfect and admired being that she looks to some, for as
Shakespeare wrote, Frailty, they name is woman. (P) In the Philippines, the Filipino woman
presents very interesting subject.
According to George A. Malcolm:
An unbiased judge or jury would hand down a verdict based on overwhelming evidence that
the greatest blessing of the Philippines is the Filipino woman. Now would a judgment to this
effect come about because of masculine gallantry. It would rather stem from the Filipino
womans acknowledged social and political quality with men and her innate ability and sense of
responsibility. As has been aptly remarked, the Filipino woman is the best man in the
country.

(P) Filipino women may not be beautiful by classical standards, but they are very pretty and
very charming. Malcolm describes them thus:
The Filipino women are comely. In youth they are often young goddesses, erect in carriage,
with clean golden-brown skin and dark flashing eyes, and possessed of black tresses long
enough to reach the ground. The mestizas, who are Filipino Chinese, Filipino-Spanish, or
Filipino-American, frequently present pleasing combinations of the good points of both races.
(P) A couple of years ago, Queen Sirikit of Thailand commented on how pretty the women of
the Philippines were. This was on the occasion of a ball given in honor of the royal visitors at
the Malacaang Palace. Those invited to the ball belonged to the upper socio-economic strata.
Yet, in the past century, a foreigner noted that the good looks of Filipino girls were not confined
to the educated class.He observed :

The Filipino maidens of high degree do not differ from their laboring sisters in the matter of
graceful carriage. Many of them are pleasing in features as well. Their education, however,
seems to be responsible for a lack of vivacity, at least in their conversation with young men.
They have evidently been taught to appear as cold and distant as possible in such society.
(P) The Filipino woman, having been influenced by the Spaniards and Catholicism, the
Americans and democratic ideals and practices, and the Japanese under the trying conditions of
war, is a person who presents unexpected and contrary traits, yet she is the answer to many
problems in the country today. (P) Politically, she is getting more and more recognition and
given more participation since she gained the suffrage. Candidates for government positions
woo the womens votes. In many government agencies and offices, women occupy positions
side by side with men. There are women councilors, mayors, governors, congressman, and
senators. (P) In most Filipino families today, the wife also works. The usual explanation is that
the rising cost of living makes this necessary. Yet, history shows that the Filipino wife has always
helped as a bread earner. Carmen Gerrero-Nakpil writes:
They (women of lower classes) were weavers, farm workers, hat makers, potters, cigar makers,
slipper and wooden shoe handicrafters. The married women of the middle class also engaged,
without too much loss of respectability, in trade, running small stores or peddling dry goods.
(P) Of another role the Filipino housewife plays, that of family treasurer,
Nakpil writes:
In the Philippines as in no other country in the world, the men are tied to the womens purse
strings. Women, foreign commentators never fail to note, have a great deal more skill in trade
than the men, and indeed business is the only profession Filipino women can practice without
violating convention or losing caste. They run little farms, little corner stores, real estate and
the brokerage firms, eating places, dress and jewelry shops.
(P) The Filipino woman is a good homemaker. She is so closely attached and devoted to her
family that she would rather suffer than have a divorce which will break up her home. Many
attempts have been made to liberalize the divorce law in the country, but these have been
invariably met by a strong and united stand of women to defeat such attempt. (P) Adaptability
and congeniality are two outstanding traits among the women. These two traits probably
account for her attraction to foreigners, yet a closer look reveals that:
Chinese men find in her eyes the necessary up-slant ; the Japanese think her correctly small ;
the Indonesians and other Malays note happily that her skin echoes the gilded ochre of theirs;
the people Near East note that she has the dark-eyed seductiveness of their own women; the
Latin trace her sanguine grace to their own blood; and the first chronicler of the Filipino women
the 16
th
century Pigaffeta, comforts himself by saying that she is almost as large
and as white as our girls.
(P) Present-day living with modern conveniences and facilities have necessarily contributed to
the development of the Filipino woman. However, not all the changes are desirable; some of
these are very deplorable. For example, the cinema, television, advertisements, and fashion
shows have made many women too highly fashion conscious. Some follow extremes in clothes
as well as in hairdos, regardless of suitability to their age and personality. Newspapers,
magazines, and other publications have developed in some women undue love for publicity, so
that they do all sorts of things to have their pictures published. Sometimes the results are
ridiculous if not tragic. However, these are not the average Filipino women. The majority, in
spite of the various factors in a fast-changing society, are still responsible, dedicated, and hard
working women that the country has had through the Spanish times, the American regime, the
Japanese interlude, and the exciting but difficult post liberation period. (P) The Philippines has
been blessed with women who have been outstandingly successful homemakers, wives,
mothers, and also leaders in education, arts, law, religion, medicine, social service, and other
fields. These are our Women Of Distinctio.


1 George A. Malcolm, First Malayan Republic (Boston: The Christopher Publishing House, 1951),
p.43
2 Ibid., p. 45
3 Leonard R. Sargent, The Backwoods, Filipino, The Outlook, LXIII, (September 2, 1897) , p. 26
4 Carmen Gurrero-Napkil, The Filipino Women Katha I, ed. J.C Tuvera (Manila: Philippine
Writers Association, 1955) p. 210
5 Ibid., p. 216
6 Ibid., p.206