LESSON 8: WOMEN'S MOVEMENT IN THE PHILIPPINES

Pre-Colonial Philippines

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 and each took an active role in society when they grew up.
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 played an important role in the economic life of the people. They were involved in actual planting and harvesting, wove, made
pottery, and engaged in trading. Women held a substantial amount of the family’s capital and even managed the family’s land holdings. 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 datus, 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 emerged 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.

Philippine Women in the Hispanic Period

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 women 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 Filipino woman be completely subjugated to her husband or her father and to the Catholic
Church. In order 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
woman. The Filipina was reduced to an instrument for propagating the colonial system and producing the next generation that would ensure its
survival. Chastity, purity, and forbearance were thus promoted simply to subdue early Filipinas to their new role and constrict their creative
participation in society. 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. She was forced into an engagement with a Spaniard, chose to enter
the convent to flee from a loveless marriage, and made a more permanent escape from the vicissitudes of life into insanity”.

Filipinas were victims of the Spanish patriarchal system and its version of Catholicism. Because wealth accumulation defined the whole
existence of the state and power relations were established by this accumulation, women no longer gained active roles in the public sphere, and lost
power in the wider spectrum of 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. Thus, when the propaganda movement gained prominence, one of their causes for dismay
was the role women played in society.

The Propaganda Movement, however, began to recognize the crucial roles women can 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 logistic 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.

Despite 300 years of misogynistic reorientation, women could still find their place among men in the fight for Philippine liberation. Women
enlisted in Emilio Aguinaldo’s army to fight against the American regime. Aguenda Iniquinto Cahabagan even rose to the rank of Heneral Brigada in
1899 and led a military unit under Aguinaldo’s army. Other women have also taken on similar positions within the Katipunan. These historica facts
indicate that women during the Spanish era were key factors in the Philippine revolution, yet their exploits during this time have yet to be widely
recognized.
Filipino Women in the American Era

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. Aida Maranan documented the development of
various women associations and leagues during the American Period in the Philippines. Her findings are outlined in the table below.

Date Notable Event

1899 The Associacion de Damas de la Cruz Roja (or the “Women’s
Red Cross Association”) was formed to help in the Philippine
war effort.

1902 The Liga Femenina de la Paz or “Philippine Women’s League

of Peace” was set up to assist in the US pacification of the
Philippine Islands.

1905 The Associacion Femenista Filipina – an organization that

gathered volunteers to reform the Philippine society – was
created. It promoted social change through prison reforms,
education reforms (which included further education of
women), the improvement of women’s conditions in
factories, and the inclusion of women in certain local
governing bodies.

1906 The Assosacion Femenista Filipina Ilonga was created. It

fought for women’s suffrage.
1907 La Gota de Leche was formed to assist women in maternal
and infant care.
1909 A magazine devoted to women’s issues came out to foster the
struggle for women’s rights and improvement.

1912 The first women’s club, called the “Society for Advancement
of Women”, was founded.
1921-1937 The Philippines saw its own suffragette movement.
1922 The Liga Nacional de Damas Filipinas (National League of
Filipina Women) was organized with the aim of Philippine
independence and better working conditions for factory
women.

1928 The suffragette movement was enhanced by the creation of

the Women’s Citizen League.
1929 The first women’s convention was organized by the Philippine
Women’s Suffragette Movement, wherein the suffrage rights
of women was agreed for. The fight for maternity leave with
pay was also brought to the table.

1935 Act No. 2711 granted women the right to vote, thus the
creation of the General Council of Women to make sure that
this right would be exercised by 1937.

1937 Filipina women realized their right to vote.

1939 The League of Women’s Voters was organized for voter’s
education.
1950 Women organized the Civic Assembly of the Philippines to
engage in policymaking, but “reinforced the belief that the
primary concern of women was the home”.

1951 The first National Political Party of Women was set up but did
not last because of the dominance of established parties.
 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 movement was said to have been encouraged by the Americans to
distract people from the independence movement.

2. 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. Goals and objectives of these movements were valid for and important to a smaller or greater section of Filipino women. Not everyone cared
about the same issues and thus, support for women’s movements was not strong enough to transform the patriarchal system.

Therefore, even if these movements allowed women to participate in the public sphere and contribute to nation-building, women were
still confined to play supporting riles to the projects of men – to the realm of care which is akin to domestic work – and ended up supporting and
perpetuating patriarchy. Another insight is that most of the movements involved welfare work led by a group of upper-class women that only
addressed the latter’s issues. It was not until the late 1960s and 1970s that they discovered a more radical action that would question patriarchy and
the social order that defined the world of women.

Most women groups in the Philippines were keen on establishing and furthering the development agenda of the West and the social classes
that benefitted from Western development. They supported the expansion of Western education and softened the adverse effects of the imposed
market economy by providing social safety nets for marginalized and displaced people. They likewise supported the work of men by enhancing their
roles as housewives through women’s clubs that discussed the issues and needs of women like the training of house help, child-rearing, and charity
work. All of these activities were extensions of their domestic roles.

Women groups during the American Period furthered the interests of the ruling classes and Western countries. These groups needed the
Philippines for its strategic military location in Asia, cheap labor and natural resources. However, there exists a counteractive opinion that if
marginalized people were treated well, then there would be less social unrest resulting from this defective social and economic system. Immersing
with marginalized people kept women groups so busy that they felt involved in the society and had no time to question their subordinate role to
men. Meanwhile, the furthering of national development I the export sector at that time caused great poverty. Workers’ wages were kept low by an
oppressive government, preventing workers from earning a decent income that would have allowed them to be housed, their children to be
educated, and their nutritional needs to be met. Displacement in the countryside was triggered by land takeovers or social and military unrests
brought about by the exploitation of natural resources by the elite and foreign nationals. Women victims of displacement suffered the double burden
of surviving their conditions while providing for their family.

Women were also victims of violence and harassment. Despite all these exploitations, the Philippine industry did not actually advance and
extractive activities degraded the environment. The feminist groups that emerged from the communist and socialist movements of the late 1960s
and early 1970s would react against this reality.

The Birth of Militant Groups with a Feminist Agenda

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 US by providing cheap labor and free
access to resources, as well as by serving as a dumping ground for US goods. The new economic model under the American and post- war 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 can 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 US.
However, women issues on inequality 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.

The iconic Malayang Kilusan ng 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 said that the role of women in the liberation movement should not be confined
to “making sandwiches, raising funds, jotting down minutes to the meeting, and playing adjuncts to the male leaders who generally made the
decisions. Eventually, they took part in organizing and educating women peasants and laborers, as well as in establishing day care centers for the
latter (which was important for freeing women to engage the public sphere). 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.
 The Kilusan ng Kababaihang Pilipina (PILIPINA) and the Katipunan ng Kababaihan Para sa Kalayaan (KALAYAAN) were groups form in the
1980s tha challenged the potentially anti women’s ways of the Communist Party’s leadership. 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 conerns. KALAYAAN, on the other hand, worked within the national liberation agenda to ensure that the women’s
liberation issues were not made secondary in the movement.

The assassination of Benigno Aquino Jr. brought women’s groups into the limelight as they pushed for their own political agenda. These
organizations were led by middle and upper-class “politically-inclined matrons who sought for justice, freedom, and democracy through peaceful
means”. A prominent group was the National Organization of Women (NOW) which 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. During this time, the intensifying call
for honest governance resulted in the foundation of other women groups like the Alliance of Women for Action towards Reconciliation (AWARE) and
Women for the Ouster of Marcos and Boycott (WOMB). Women’s sections also sprung from existing groups like the Concerned Artists of the
Philippines. 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 Katipunan ng mga Madre sa Maynila which was composed of religious women; and the Church Women United which
was affiliated with the National Council of Churches in the Philippines. 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). GABRIELA consistently protested against the
policies and projects of the Marcos regime that were inimical to the people’s interests. Eventually, however, the coalition disbanded because some
members desired to participate in the 1986 snap elections. The more militant groups saw the snap elections as a ploy of the Marcos government to
legitimize itself, or for the elite to regain their power. Since he 1986 turmoil, women’s movements in the Philippines shifted “from a broad coalition
to small tactical and issue- or project-based alliances”. This observation remains true until today as present concerns of women’s movements are
more issue-based, focusing on particular causes such as trafficking, domestic violence, maternal and reproductive health, and protection of domestic
workers. They are also concerned with services that support women like the daycare or women’s health centers, training for the protection of
women’s rights, livelihood projects, and cooperative formation.

One area of coalition formation that did work in the turn of this century is the party-list system. When this system was implemented in
1996, women’s groups coalesced into three main groups. GABRIELA transformed itself into a political party and brought together people’s
organizations, NGOs, and other women affiliated with the National Democratic left groups. The more centrist and middle-center groups formed the
Abanse! Pinay. Another broad coalition formed by left and center-left groups known as Akbayan adopted a women’s agenda alongside its other
issues. These parties brought to public eye the discourse on women’s issues and made policy makers respond to these needs. In its two terms as a
party-list representative, Abanse! Pinay was able to push for the passage of the Solo Parents Welfare Act of 2000, the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act
of 2003, and the Anti-Violence Against Women and Their Children Act of 2004. Meanwhile, Akbayan supported the Reproductive Health Law, the
Magna Carta of Women, and the Gender Balance Bill, among other bills and laws. GABRIELA also pushed for these laws and continued to bring to the
public discourse particular problems of women. These three groups also used their government positions to increase public awareness on issues
affecting women, push for the implementation of government projects in ways that would benefit women, help channel funds to women’s projects
and organizations, provided trainings and education, and network grassroots organizations.

Women’s party-list groups made valuable contributions to women’s liberation, including the agenda of the poor and marginalized women
as a national interest. They served as platforms for organizing women into multi-sectoral, collective action. This opportunity not only allowed for the
mainstreaming of women’s projects in the consciousness of the general public but also showed that effective government projects can be
implemented with proper consultation and participatory processes. Women’s party-list groups mostly spring from civil society organizations or
ideological movements that valued participatory processes. Thus, they were able to imbibe participatory and consultative processes in the
implementation of government programs, especially those funded by foreign governments or multilateral funding agencies. Because the 1986
Constitution and the Local Government Code of 1992 mandate consultation and people’s participation in local governance and development, party-
list groups and the civil society organizations that were part of their coalition trained women’s groups to become effective partners in the planning
and implementing of development projects.

Practical Feminism in the Philippines

It has been observed time and again that the Philippine women’s movement has been dominated by more practical concerns than
ideological ones, unlike those in the Western movements. This is due to the multiple oppression faced by Filipino women, and Filipinos in general.
Thus, debates within the women’s definitions and conceptual positions. It is important to note because it marks the character of Philippine feminism.
Rather than a feminism that has evolved to take radical positions rooted in theoretical debates about the foundation and meaning of the oppression
of women, Philippine feminism has worked strategically with the state or with political and civil society movements to further the welfare of women.
Thus, if one desires to understand the concerns of Philippine women, one needs to examine the concrete issues that beset these women. The major
concerns in this case would be violence against women, including harassment and domestic violence, trafficking, reproductive health rights, equality
especially in the workplace, representation in government, and economic security. Feminist issues are also important in academic and artistic circles.
In these fields, the questions involve more about the women’s voice and its representation. Much of academic feminist thought is centered on
reflection about the position of women in the Philippine society, articulating the roots and ground of their oppression, probing the real lives of women
and their real needs, and finally exploring women’s contribution to development. Thus, we can say that Philippine feminism in general is more
grounded in the concrete concerns of women as defined by the exploitation and marginalization in the developing world. These feminist movements
have a strong grassroots base usually organized by non-governmental organizations concerned with women-oriented development.

SUMMARY: A reflection of women’s engagements in Philippine history shows that women have been active in all aspects of society. Women were
leaders and influential individuals in the building of the nation. Perhaps, because their status was considerably equal to men in the pre-Hispanic
Philippines, women were not completely suppressed by the Spanish. While many women displayed the desired meekness and weakness that the
friars demanded of them, others did not as the revolts of traditional or so-called millenarian groups have shown. Women played leadership roles
either as co-rulers of these alternative fields as leaders, warriors, healers or spies. During the revolution and war against US, they showed how they
could take up multiple roles in the armed forces. 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, in the struggle for national liberation, in policymaking and in governance, women
have contributed much.