From Useless to Useful

One night, when I was browsing my facebook page, I came across this
hugot line and find it interesting to include in my book review.
When a man gives his opinion, he's a man. When a woman
gives her opinion, she's a bitch. Bette Davis
Sound exaggerating, but this is somehow the battle cry of women for
centuries. Women are often discriminated and worst abused by men, for it is
part of their old norms that women are devalued and considered to be weak
in all aspects.
According to United Nations, the Philippines is one of the most
successful countries in the world in terms of women empowerment
nowadays which is primarily evident on how women of today are given
various opportunities same as their gender counterpart.
These are the highlights of the book Philippine Heritage Volume 6 by
_____________. The book presented women during the early Spanish era as
Maria Clara. They were trained to be a model wife, mother focusing only on
taking care of her husband and children. She supposed to be obedient to her
parents and let the men in her life make the important decisions.
Throughout the mid portion of the Spanish regime, women struggle for
right to education, particularly for a school where women could learn
Spanish. Such school was deemed important because the ability to speak
Spanish was crucial to education mobility.
However, these ideologies were reversed during the later part of the
Spanish era as women joined the underground movement KATIPUNAN in the
fight against colonialism. They fought alongside the men and acquired
significant political skills. These scenarios allowed women to go beyond the
traditional roles which are compulsory upon them by the Spaniards.
In 1937, women were finally granted the right to vote. The constitution
of 1935 had specified that the right of suffrage would be extended to women
only if 300,000 women voted in its favor during a national plebiscite. A
General Council of Women (whose forerunner was the National Federation of
Womens Clubs in the Philippines) was then established in Manila to direct
the plebiscite campaign. Its aim was to draw the support of the broadest
number of women and launch various forms of campaign through media and
personal connections. As it turned out, 447,725 women voted yes in the
1937 plebiscite.
The American period also witnessed the re-emergence of women and
children already working during the Spanish period. According to the 1918
census, 696,699 Filipinas (roughly 26% of the total female workforce which
numbered 2,690,331), were engaged in "industrial pursuits". Womens entry
into the workforce was yet another venue for politicization and political
action. They started joining trade unions to fight for their rights and for
"mutual protection and benefit".
On October 28, 1983, women form these groups staged the first broadbased womens march. An organizing committee, composed of

representatives from the broad political spectrum, was formed to prepare for
such an event. This committee later paved the way for the formation of the
General Assembly Binding Women for Reforms, Integrity, Equality,
Leadership and Action (GABRIELA) in March 1984 which until now is active on
endorsing women empowerment.
In a creative note, an article posted at tagalog.livejournal.com last 20 th
January 2004 entitled, Feminism in the Philippines showed us that even our
ancestors regard women as honorable person. Here are some of the points
presented:
First point: in the NATIVE Philippine language, you can't find gender
discrimination, except of course for inay (mother), itay (father), ate (older
sister), kuya (older brother), lolo (grandpa), lola (grandma). But for terms like
siya (he/she), kaniya (his/hers), asawa (husband/wife), kasintahan
(boyfriend/girlfriend), tao (man, human) both terms masculine as if they're
the only human in this world), and many many more.
Observe also that in the Western culture, there are too much gender
discrimination. In fact, the French have a gender for every inanimate objects.
In Spain, where we got our own version of sexism, they have the Doktora,
Doktor among others to discriminate women from men.
Second point: Malakas at Maganda came out of the bamboo
simultaneously. Check your copy of this epic. It just signifies that our
ancestors regard men and women as equal. It's very different from what the
Western religion teaches. According to the bible, man was first created by
God and then later, God found out that man was lonely. And he got a rib from
Adam and turned it into a woman. It was as if women were only derived from
men. While Filipino epic tells us that both men and women came from
nature.
Third point: We call our country "inang bayan" or Motherland not
"amang bayan" or Fatherland, which is what the Westerners call their country
such as Fatherland of Spain, Fatherland of US, Fatherland of Japan which is
not a Western country but is sexist anyway, in fact too sexist. Read Memoirs
of A Geisha. Our Juan Dela Cruz was made after the Spaniards first came. It's
not even a Filipino name.
Fourth point: Spaniards used Virgin Mary to conquer our land. The
native Filipinos then are easy to get affectionate to women and resulted to
the capture of their hearts by the Spaniards.
Fifth point: Early Filipino men court the women by singing at them
during the night which we call "harana," and then do the water-fetching and
doing hard things to get the sweet reply of their mahal.
Sixth point: Observe how Waray-Waray (it's not Waray, it's WarayWaray) women behave. They are very much into fighting if they got irritated
by someone. They'll really defend their rights and would not stop fighting
until they get what they want. That's a pretty modern woman, don't you
think? But the women in the Philippines were already like that long, long ago,
before the Spaniards came.

Seventh point: Women were the first to hold protest against the
Spaniards. Recall the Women of Malolos. Jose Rizal even wrote about it and
became the first author of the book discussing feminism.
Eighth point: It's OK for us to have a woman President. Unlike in
western countries which have not even seen a woman President or Prime
Minister as their rulers except those who have Queens. Prime Minister
Thatcher of England came out only when there's a new trend which they call
"modern women."

Truly, it was a long and rough ride for women empowerment here in
the Philippines. Thanks to the perseverance of the Filipino women of
yesterday, for they didnt stop fighting for their rights.