Filipina Activism In Canada And The United States

8) For centuries, women have been missing from the manuscripts of historical tomes. When Southeast Asian women are mentioned, they are seen as having freedoms today because of the colonial interlude. Do you think this is true? Using the example of an Asian society, critically examine the changing role of women in pre-colonial and colonial times in order to make your judgment.

The assertion is inaccurate in that for some Asian societies, instead of empowerment, colonialism had in fact relegated women’s status in their environment. At the same time, it is unfair to assume that colonialism had no contribution to the development of women’s status given that different situational conditions would have garnered distinctive colonial policies,
directing women’s roles in various courses. To illustrate this dilemma of colonial rule, we can probe into the Philippines’ history, whereby women underwent three broad stages of contradictory experience, pre-colonial and during the different occupations by the Spaniards and the American, in the 16th century and after 1898 respectively. We can not only dispute that the Filipino women enjoyed higher degree of equality to a certain extent pre-colonialism, they were also exposed to contrasting treatments during the two occupations. This dynamic history will eventually contribute to the rise of feminism in their country.
The general traditional impression of women in Southeast Asia is that of a submissive and weak figure, confined to a domestic sphere (King, 2008) . This view is based on the assumption that the region is homogeneous, and lack substantiation of how different culture imposes different opportunities and constraints on female citizens.
(Optional examples that of this proposition, where women was ill-treated)
The idea of female subordination in some parts of Southeast Asia was only propagated due to imported philosophies that stressed patriarchy. Prior to that, women were able to outperform their counterparts in their own domains (Andaya., 2008) . In fact, the critical roles of women in the marketplace and the realm of religion prevailed in many traditional societies, in particularly in the Philippines. Acknowledging the fact that these domains might occupy relatively lower value in their society, it is important to consider these power statuses when judging the societal participation of women in history.

Prior to Spain’s occupation, indigenous women shared an egalitarian relationship with their male counterparts in the Philippines. They played a significant role especially in the spiritual domain where they could achieve status of a babaylan, a high priestess.
According to Wall (1998): [Indigenous women] received equal inheritance, were given training on par with men, enjoyed the same rights as in the right to divorce, had the same succession rights as men for political leadership, were involved in managing not just the domestic economy but also the agricultural domain… And, it was fertility, not virginity, that was valued in that society. (para. 11).
A woman could become chief of the barangay, perform the role of babaylan (priestess), hold property, and even name her own children (Blair & Robertson 1903-9:155-57). Women enjoyed substantial equality with their menfolk. They had the right to own property. They could obtain divorce and re-marry. In case of separation, they were entitled to a share of conjugal earnings; and to a share of the children.
• Social restrictions were more tightly based on marital status: Prior to marriage, of course, they were under tutelage of a sort. They could not own property in their own right. They could not leave the household residence and make their home elsewhere. But once married, they were virtually emancipated, to the extent that they could trade with their own money and maintain an independent income from their business. (Fernandez 1976:19) Western laws diminished women's standing by substituting West-ern institutions for the indigenous practices.

TitleFilipino peasant women: exploitation and resistanceAuthorLigaya Lindio-McGovernPublisherUniversity of Pennsylvania Press, 1997ISBN0812216245, 9780812216240
Economy:
In this precolonial economy, property was for the most part held communally. For instance, among the barangays (barrios or villages, a basic social unit), land and other means of production were rarely owned privately (Constantino 1975, 39). Men and women participated equally in the community ownership of land… In terms of inheritance rights, women also had equal access to parents’ property and equal rights to use land, since lineage was traced bilaterally through make and female lines… Despite this relative equality of women and men in the early communalis an kinship relations, however, there was already a sexual division of labor that puts a greater burden on women. Women were just as integrated into production as men were, but in addition they were the primary bearers of reproductive tasks. In agriculture, it was in general the men who prepared the land while the women did the planting and harvesting. But in some cases when the men had to defend the community from enemy attack, women took on the larger tasks of agricultural production as well.
The political life of precolonial Filipinos was not rigidly stratified. The village was administered by a chief, who achieved his position by rendering service valuable to the survival of the community… In this system of governing, however, women did not have the same access to positions of power as men. Although female members of the chief’s family shared his privileges, a woman could inherit his position only if there were no male heirs. (Collin 1903)
Some women, because of their special skills and knowledge, gained public influence and power as priestesses. These were the babaylanes or catsalonas, whose knowledge of herbal medicines gave them power over the reproduction and health of the community. They not only cured the sick and presided over such rituals as weddings, births, and funerals, but all served as advisers to the chiefs by “foretelling the outcome of political events”. (Mangahas 1987.13)

TitleWomen's political participation and representation in Asia: obstacles and challenges
Volume 2 of Women and politics in AsiaAuthorsKazuki Iwanaga, Nordic Institute of Asian StudiesEditorKazuki IwanagaEditionillustratedPublisherNIAS Press, 2008ISBN8776940160, 9788776940164
Nonetheless, it is believed that women occupied an equitable position in society prior to the coming of the Spaniards – they had power both formally (as babaylna or priestess) and informally (as may bahay or equal of the husband). These positions were lost with the coming of the colonizers and women were reduced to a status of perennial dependence in all aspects of their lives. In fact, with the relegation of the indigenous population to non-citizens, women were placed lower than the lowest status. The country’s two major colonizers (namely Spain and the USA) imposed theircultures and their attendant biases on it …

TitleFilipino American psychology: a handbook of theory, research, and clinical practiceAuthorKevin L. NadalPublisherAuthorHouse, 2009ISBN1438971176, 9781438971179
As previously mentioned, Filipino indigenous culture is egalitarian-based and women are honored an respected as much as men. However, with the arrival of Spanish values a maschismo (male dominance) culture emerged and uneven gender roles began to influence Filipino culture. Machismo can be defined in Spanish as the belief in the superiority of males over females. It means men are expected to be strong, are the providers of the family, uphold rigid gender roles, and are likely to possess sexist attitudes towards women. Machismo began during Spanish colonial rule, when it was common for Filipina women to be raped and beaten by Spanish friars and government officials…
Contrary to machismo is marianismo (female submissiveness) which is defined in Spanish as the expectation for women to be religious, pure, morally superior to, and spiritually stronger than men. The word is derived from the Virgin Mary (Jesus’ mother) and is a major value in Latino countries and other Catholic-influenced countries like the Philippines. With marianismo, there is the expectation for women to be pure and spiritual; this may leader to gender inequalities in which men are allowed and encouraged to engage in a spectrum of “unholy” activities (e.g. pre-martial sex, drinking, smoking), while women would be discouraged or condemned.
In examining these Spanish gender roles, it is evident that there is a conflict with the gender expectations that existed in pre-colonial Filipino culture.

TitleWomen's participation in social development: experiences from Asia, Latin America, and the CaribbeanAuthorsKaren Marie Mokate, Inter-American Development BankPublisherInter-American Development Bank, 2004ISBN1931003947, 9781931003940
Feminist researcher have discovered that women in pre-Spanish Philippines enjoyed a high degree of autonomy, economic importance and equal relations with men. They had crucial roles in trade, diplomacy, politics and religion. As priestesses, they were consulted by the people in their spiritual affairs. They also determined the right time to plant and the necessity of going to war.
The Spanish colonizers, however, brought with them the notion of women assubservient to men and as dutiful and loving wives and others….Filipino women won the right to vote in 1937, during the American occupation.

Pre-colonial social structure bestowed Filipinos with a bilateral kinship system, where women enjoyed maternal power equivalent to paternal recognition. One might argue that such power only exist in privileged fields, such as ___

Colonialism has been singled out to be another underlying factor for the emerging stratification between men and women. Colonial regimes propagated patriarchy and diminished the power held by women by “rewriting” customary laws. In some areas, women were recruited as cheap wage laborers in the tea, sugar, tobacco and rubber plantations and in processing factories managed by the colonial powers.
Gender trends in Southeast Asia: women now, women in the future
Theresa W. Devasahayam
Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2009

Once Spanish colonizers started successfully indoctrinating Indigenous peoples into Roman Catholicism, patriarchal priviledge would eventually come at the cost of female oppression (Wall, 1998, para. 12). As a result, Filipinas would endure nearly half a millenium of subordination, violence, sexual brutality, and physical commodification at the hands of both domestic and foreign oppressors (Wall, 1998, para. 13).
However, colonialism would not kill the will of Filipino women to fight for their rights. In the 18th Century, Gabriela Silang would become the first documented female freedom fighter to resist the Spanish occupation of the city of Vigan in the Illokandia region (“Joan of Arc of Ilocandia,” 2003, para. 1). After her husband and famous rebel fighter, Diego Silang, became slayed shortly after victoriously liberating Vigan , Silang took the reigns as the rebellions commander-in-chief (“Joan of Arc of Ilocandia,” 2003, para. 6). Silang would later be driven out of Vigan by Spanish forces, however, she would use the city of Pidigan as her army’s new headquarters where she would eventually wage a series of guerilla attacks against her opposition (“Joan of Arc of Ilocandia,” 2003, para. 8). While waging the battle of her life in order to recapture Vigan City, Silang and her troops were eventually outnumbered by the Spanish garrisons (“Joan of Arc of Ilocandia,” 2003, para. 10). On September 20, 1763, Silang was publicly hanged at the hands of her Spanish oppressors (“Joan of Arc of Ilocandia,” 2003, para. 13). Not surprisingly, Gabriela Silang has become a symbol of Filipina strength, virtue, and tenacity in the face of great adversity. Even the GABRIELA (General Assembly Binding Women for Reforms, Integrity, Equality, Leadership, and Action) Network, the Philippine-United States women’s organization premised on the solidarity and empowerment of Filipino women, borrowed it’s name from Silang (GABRIELA Network website, 2007, para. 1). Therefore, Gabriela Silang has become the first of many Filipina feminists to vehemently resist their unchosen fate as colonial slaves.
Nearly two centuries later, Filipino women were continuing to aggressively use their agency in order to liberate themselves from their patriarchal prisons. By the 1970s, hope for women’s liberation in the Philippines was looking bleak under Ferdinand Marcos’ oppressive fascist regime (Tibe-Bonifacio, 2003, p. 71). During his twenty-one year term, Marcos formed strong ties with the five American presidents of his tenure which contributed to the United State’s strong hand in Philippine foreign policy (Kessler, 1986, p. 5). At the same time, Kessler (1986) argues that the corrupt leader embezzled more than a billion dollars from the Philippine sugar industry which directly contributed to the $25 billion debt the nation had incurred during his tenure (p. 5). To make matters worse, the notorious dictator enacted the Philippines into a state of martial law which violated the civil liberties of Filipino citizens (Taguiwalo, 2005, p. 7). According to Tibe-Bonifacio (2003), this era of political instability would ignite the forces of Filipina activism that would jumpstart a new era of Pinay empowerment (p. 71).
In 1970, Filipina feminsts started organizing themselves into a large political unit called the Malayang Kilusang ng Bagong Kababaihan, or the “free movement of new women” (Taguiwalo, 2005, p. 4). The organization called itself MAKIBAKA for short, which aptly meant “struggle” in the Tagalog dialect (Taguiwalo, 2005, p. 4-5). According to Taguiwalo (2005), MAKIBAKA emerged as an offshoot of Kabataang Makabayan (KM), a radical youth group which called for extreme reforms in the Philippine political system (p. 3). Since KM was deeply entrenched in Marxist and nationalistic values, such reforms called for the curtailing of bureaucratic capitalism within the Philippines and the end of American feudalism and imperialism within the country (Taguiwalo, 2005, p. 2). While the formation of MAKIBAKA was also inspired by the Second Wave movement of the West, the politics of Philippine feminism were drastically different (Tibe-Bonifacio, 2003, p. 72). North America’s Second Wavers sought women’s equality in regards to labour practices and education, while championing the sexual and reproductive rights of all women (Tibe-Bonifacio, 2003, p.72). In contrast, the voices of Filipina feminism echoed the anti-imperialist and anti-fascist cries of their radical subsidiaries, while protesting the atrocities inflicted specifically on Filipino women such as sexual trafficking, domestic violence, and other forms of systemic oppression (Taguiwalo, 2005, p. 4). This unique model of Filipina activism would shape peminist theory and politics for generations to come. Having created its own political platform, MAKIBAKA would wreak havoc on the Philippines’ stubborn patriarchy.
Prior to Marcos’ call for martial rule, MAKIBAKA became a powerful force for Filipina agency and spreading social awareness within the Philippines (Taguiwalo, 2005, p. 3). According to Taguiwalo (2005), the women’s group would champion the rights of local farmers, participate in a series of labour strikes, and encourage the reproductive health and wellness among impoverished women by setting-up clinics and nurseries within major Philippine centres (p. 7). Not only would MAKIBAKA stage the first all-women’s demonstration in protest of a local beauty pageant, the group would also organize the first International Women’s Day celebration in Manila which involved the Women’s March Against Poverty on March 8th, 1971 (Taguiwalo, 2007, p. 7). As a testimony of Marcos’ cruel regime, many MAKIBAKA activists even became victims of organized kidnapping, rape, and murder as a consequence of their politics (Choy, 2005, para. 2). While MAKIBAKA would later fracture into various underground women’s organizations following Marcos’ martial rule, the group was successful in planting the values of Filipina feminism into the Philippine’s oppressive consciousness (Tibe-Bonifacio, 2003, p. 71).
As large numbers of Filipina professionals began to migrate west in order to cease North American opportunities, new waves of Filipina feminism have struggled to emerge from this mass exodus (Choy, 2005, para.
5). While both Canada and the United States have been involved in a series of prolific women’s movements, the merits of Filipina activism have often fallen below the radar of the West’s mainstream feminisms. De Jesus (2005) refers to mainstream feminism in North America as “hegemonic, white liberal feminism” which serves to perpetuate the Imperial power structure of the supposedly inferior Filipinos and their superior American wards (p. 8). Significantly, Tolentino (1996) contends that the systemic oppression of Filipino women within North America is further perpetuated by the colonial appropriation of the Filipina body within the international sex trade and the proliferation of mail-order brides marrying White American men (p. 2). To put the scale of the mail-order bride phenomenon into perspective, over 50, 000 Filipino women have moved to the United States within the last ten years, while 19,000 Filipinas migrate out of the Philippines annually as mail-order brides (Tolentine, 1996, p.
2).
At the same time, Anzaldua and Moraga (1983) argue that “white middle class women emerge among feminist ranks as the greatest propagators of racism in the movement” because of their inherent power as members of the dominant race and generally high socioeconomic status within the United States (p. 62). When addressing this discrimination within America’s women’s movement, Lorde (1979) reveals, “It is a particular academic arrogance to assume any discussions of feminist theory in this time and in this place without examining our many differences, and without a significant input from poor women, black and third world women, and lesbians” (p. 98). Clearly, North America was in dire need of Filipina-centred feminisms that would reflect the feelings of invisibility, alienation, indignation, healing, and resistance relevant to the Filipina American and Canadian experience (De Jesus, 2005, p. 7).
In addition to coming to terms with their marginalization as women of colour within North America, Filipina feminists have had to balance their clashing identities as colonized Filipinos and modern-day Americans and Canadians (Pierce, 2005, p. 31). According to Pierce (2005), “Being a Filipina American, or Pinay, means being colonized—first by Spain and then by the United States—and although you may not have been alive or present during the process of colonization, you experience the fall-out nonetheless” (p. 31). As one of the “fall-outs” of Philippine colonization, Filipina Americans often have to contend with the racist ideologies of their own parents who perceive all Caucasians as being immoral and disrespectful characters who are the antithesis of what Filipino daughters should strive to become (Espiritu, 2001, p. 9). Espiritu (2001) argues, “Within the context of the dominant culture's pervasive hypersexualization of Filipinas, the construction of the "ideal" Filipina—as family-oriented and chaste—can be read as an effort to reclaim the morality of the community” (p. 14). Consequently, this deep-seeded racism becomes problematic for Filipina feminists who must balance their own ideals regarding sexuality, morality, and politics with that of their families’ conservative ideologies.
Another point of contention for many Filipina Canadians and Americans is growing up in an environment in which females are generally perceived as inferior to their male counterparts.
As women within patriarchal immigrant families are often seen as “keepers of the culture,” parents often exercise strict control over their daughters’ affairs in regards to dating and at times, monitoring their every move (Espiritu, 2005, p. 13-14). In sharp contrast, sons within the same families are treated with greater leniency and are not subject to the same restraints as their sisters (Espiritu, 2005, p. 14). Espiritu (2005) reveals that some Filipino parents even go as far as restricting their daughters’ from pursuing university opportunities outside of their hometowns in order to ensure their “safety” (p. 18). By controlling their daughter’s mobility and autonomy, many traditional Filipino parents perpetuate the cult of Filipina womanhood which has permeated the Pinay identity since the dawn of Spanish colonialism (Espiritu, 2005, p. 18). In turn, Filipina feminists within both North America and the Philippines have sought to reclaim the integrity of Pinays as strong and independent women who are in control of their own
destinies.
Complicating matters even more is the extreme homophobia plaguing Filipino culture. While the protagonists of many Tagalog comedies are often cross-dressing anti-heroes, these homosexual caricatures are usually played by heterosexual actors who are reinforcing the strong and macho ideals of the Filipino male (Kenny, n. d., p, 8). Needless to say, coming out as a lesbian within this conservative setting would be a difficult undertaking. According to Cantor (2000), “Women who love women still face discrimination in Catholicism-dominant Philippines, and the lesbian movement has been fighting this discrimination since the 1980s alongside their heterosexual feminist counterparts” (para. 2). A 27 year-old, Filipina American lesbian documented in Cantor’s (2000) article, “My Personal, Your Political, Our Lesbianism,” describes how her family immediately dismissed her lesbianism as that of an “adolescent phase” that she would just grow out of (para. 18). Yet another Pinay lesbian reveals how her extremely conservative parents threatened to pull her out of the university she was attending in order to prevent further homosexual interludes (Cantor, 2000, para. 18). While these two isolated instances cannot reflect the responses of all Filipino parents, one can infer that coming out as a Pinay lesbian can be a very trying and complicated experience in much the same way it is for those under similar circumstances. At the same time, the prevalent homophobia within Filipino communities provides a further impetus for the emergence of unique peminist agendas within North America.

TitleThe emergence of modern Southeast Asia: a new historyAuthorNorman G. OwenEditorNorman G. OwenEditionillustratedPublisherUniversity of Hawaii Press, 2005ISBN0824828410, 9780824828417
Pp 69
But women could also be rulers. And even when they are not, they were loyalty-creating assets in political systems that repeatedly confronted loyalty and deficits. The sultanates of Patani (between 1584 and 1688) an Aceh (between 1641 and 1699) each had four successive female rulers. Remarkably, Aceh’s royal harem did not disappear during the reigns of its four queens, because the harem’s primary function was not sexual but political. It existed to ally the monarchy to important nonroyal households. In Myanmar, polygamous kings …. (cont to see)
TitleWomen's history in global perspective, Volume 2
Women's History in Global Perspective, Bonnie G. SmithAuthorBonnie G. SmithEditorBonnie G. SmithPublisherUniversity of Illinois Press, 2005ISBN0252029976, 9780252029974