Gender and

Society
RHU-INA SUSUKAN MANDAIN
History Department
Western Mindanao State University
Human Rights per se do not come from law. We only use
the law to CLAIM and ASSERT them.

HUMAN HUMAN RIGHTS

RIGHTS recognized
to which By LAW
individuals have
a birthright.
C LAIM
A ND
OR CE
ENF

8/29/23

Slide from Carolina Ruiz -Austria

`Herstory’ of Women’s Rights

— A century ago, women were …

L Faceless

L Voiceless

L Nameless
Women broke their
silence and invisibility
through the courage of
individual women and
through the organized
and collective efforts of
women’s movements

Slides from Aurora de Dios

Through their collective efforts everywhere,
women fought for and succeeded in asserting
their right to suffrage, education, employment,
health and participation in political, economic and
social life of society.

8/29/23

Slides from Aurora de Dios

 WOMEN
IN THE PHILIPPINES
 Pre-Spanish Period
• Equal access to property and
inheritance
• Marriage rested on equal
consent and can de dissolved.
• Husband and wives shared
duties and rights in the
household as well as the
authority over children
• Virginity was not
consideration before marriage
• Prostitution did not exist
• Women’s mode of dressing
depended on climate
Babaylan
– religion,
medicine,
astrology,
philosophy
(USUALLY
A WOMAN)
Spanish colonization
FDecline of the babaylan due to
Christian conversion
à Manangs

FEntry of male
Babaylan in tribal
rituals
Spanish Period
• Oppressive rule by
government and church to
enslave Filipino men and
women
• “Maria Clara” as ideal woman
• Religion demanded Filipino
Women to practice the saintly
virtues of martyrdom, blind
obedience, endurance of
sufferings, colonial
humiliation 10
Spanish Period
• Formal Education- exclusive for daughters
of the rich and influential families. The only
course available to women was teaching.
• Babaylans branded as heretics, witches and
were stripped of their influential and social
power.
•Spain decreed that men should be the authority
and head (king) of the household while women
should be obedient, subservient and docile wives.
 American Colonial Period
Women gained some freedoms and
entitlements such as suffrage (1937)
and education.

Women increasingly participated in

economic activities
But:
There is a very strong colonial mentality.
White is beautiful
 Japanese Period

• Women suffered tortures, were murdered

and sexually abused (e.g., comfort women)

• Women were made to do strenuous work

with meager pay in cotton plantations as part
of the economic rehabilitation programs
launched by the provisional government.
 War Era
• While men fought, the women hid their
guns or attended to the sick and wounded.
• Women as nurturers and caregivers of the
sick and wounded resistance forces.

Post War
• Women as workers, housewives,
homemakers, beauty experts etc.
Women in the Economy

15
WOMEN & NON-TRADITIONAL JOBS