Filipino people Essay

Women have of all time enjoyed greater equality in Philippine corporation than was common in other parts of Southeast Asia. Since pre-Spanish times, Philippines have traced kinship bilaterally. A adult females rights to legal equality and to inherit family property have non been questioned. Education and literacy levels in 1990 were high schooler for women than for men. President Aquino a great deal is payn as an example of what women can accomplish in Philippine society. The appearance of women in important blank spaces, however, is not new or even unusual in the Philippines.Filipino women, usually called Filipinas, have been senators, cabinet officers, Supreme Court justices, administrators, and heads of study business enterprises. Further more than, in the early 1990s women were found in more than a proportionate share of numerous an(prenominal) professions although they predominated in domestic assistance (91 pct), professional and technical positions (59. 4 portion) , and sales (57. 9 percent). Women also were often preferred in assembly-type factory work. The availability of the types of employment in which women predominated in all likelihood explains why about 2-thirds of the rural to urban migrants were female.Although domestic service is a low-prestige occupation, the other types of employment compare favorably with opportunities open to the average man. This complimentary occupational distri stillion does not mean that women were without scotch problems. Although women were eligible for high positions, these were more often obtained by men. In 1990 women represented 64 percent of graduate students nevertheless held lone(prenominal) 159 of 982 career top executive positions in the civil service. In the private sector, only about 15 percent of top-level positions were held by women.According to many observers, because men relegated household tasks to women, employed women carried a double burden. This burden was moderated manywhat by the availability of relatives and servants who functioned as helpers and squirt caretakers, but the use of servants and relatives has sometimes been denounced as the equivalent of exploiting some women to bare others. Since the Spanish colonial period, the char fair evoke has been the family trea receivedr, which, at least to some degree, gave her the male monarch of the purse.Nevertheless, the Spanish also established a tradition of subordinating women, which is manifested in womens generally submissive attitudes and in a double banner of sexual conduct. The womans role as family treasurer, along with a womans maintenance of a generally submissive demeanor, has changed little, but the double standard of sexual morality is be challenged. Male empowerment also has been challenged, to some extent, in the 1987 constitution. The constitution contains an equal rights clausealthough it lacks particular(prenominal) provisions that business leader make that clause effective.As of the early 1990s, carve up was prohibited in the Philippines. Under some circumstances, legal separation was permitted, but no legal remarriage was possible. The family code of 1988 was somewhat more liberal. Reflective of romish Catholic Church law, the code allowed annulment for psychological incapacity to be a marital partner, as well as for repeated sensible violence against a feller or pressure to change sacred or political affiliation. Divorce obtained abroad by an alien mate was recognized.Although the restrictive divorce laws might be viewed as an infringement on womens liberty to get out of a bad marriage, indications were that many Filipinas viewed them as a protection against abandonment and loss of support by wayward husbands. http//www. mongabay. com/history/philippines/philippines-the_role_and_status_of_the_filipina. html La Mujer Indigena The Native WomanA description of the Filipino Woman during Pre-Spanish Timeby Lorna S. Torralba Titgemeyer IntroductionWhen olderMary John Mananzan came to Vienna to give a seminar on the comparative role and status of the Filipino woman in the family and society, past and present, initially I was not so sure of participating, for reasons difficult to explain. Partly because I was confident of my status as woman and married woman, or maybe I was afraid that my individualism and self-confidence might be influenced or could cause changes in me. But curiosity got the cave in of me. The day turned out to be very amusing, very kindle and very informative. The following is in part a summary of Sr. Mary John?s one-day lecture, reflecting on the status of the pre-Spanish Filipino woman, as this helped me understand why we sometimes have this strange feeling of being different from how we had been brought up that is, being meek, obedient and humble in short, a good mujer christiana. From Catalona or Babaylan, La Mujer Indigena to La Mujer ChristianaThe Philippines during the pre-colonial period was not a whole entity, the way it is now. It was made up of loosely related principalities with their witness separate social, political and economic systems under their own tribal rulers. conjunction life and social activities were organized mainly on the basis of kinship, smells and economic interest. A group of elders were advisers to the tribal ruler and jointly they acted as evaluator and lawgiver. In some communities, the Babaylan was highly respected as priestess or apparitional practitioner, as well as healer, counselor and mediator in the tribe. Although differing in name, every tribe had its own religious practitioners, who were preferred to men. In fact, when a male performed the religious office of a Catalona or Babaylan, he was polished like a woman.With this reference, I would like to present the unknown escort of pre-Spanish Filipino woman, la mujer indigena totally in contradiction to the prevailing belief that the elevation of the status of women, was one of the benefits br ought by Spanish colonization. The matriarchal society which many of us believed we always had in the Philippines is also a sour presumption. The falsely taken patriarchal facts of life with its machismo and a touch of misogyny came uplater with the Spanish colonization.In the eraly Philippines thither had always been an egalitarian relationship not only between husband and wife, but also in the upbringing of offsprings. The early Filipinos gave equal importance to both male and female offsprings. inheritance was divided equally among them, distinguishing only primogeniture and legitimacy. Education was an opportunity for both sexes. consistent marriage was a custom among pre-Spanish Filipinos. The groom and his family gave dowery to the bride? sparents, an amount concur upon according to their means. When married the woman did not lose her name.In some Tagalog regions, if the woman was especially distinguished, the husband usually took her name. So it was usual to peck peopl e refered to the husband of Ninay or the husband of Isyang. The pre-colonial Filipino wife was handle as a companion, not as slave. She enjoyed freedom in making decisions in the family. Her say was not only confined to domestic affairs like having a baby or not. Giving birth many times was disliked by women, especially those who inhabited towns near the sea, verbalise that in having many electric shaverren, they are like pigs. For this reason they practiced stillbirth after having the desired number of children.What name to give a child was also her prerogative. She enjoyed a key role in the economic stableness of the family. Formal contracts were done only in her presence. In fact there were only very few husbands who would dare enter into contracts without the consent or presence of their wives. It was seldom that a woman did not know how to cook the family landholdings. She had the task of agricultural production once the ground had been prepared by the man. She engaged her self in weaving and pottery-making and usually managed the trading of products and wares.The role of women in the political field, especially leadership role is a disputable theme for those who say, this was based merely on legends. Remember the legend of Queen Maniwantiwan, the wife of Datu Marikudo whose consent had to be secured before he could sell his lands to the Bornean immigrants led by Datu Puti. Another queen who is reported to have ruled Cotabato in the seventh century was Queen Sima. The practice of primogeniture with attend to inheritance regardless of sex allowed women to succeed their fathers as rulers of tribes.The most famous of the women leaders of pre-Spanish society was Princess Urduja of Pangasinan. She was sibyllic to be a beautiful Amazon, courageous and intelligent, possessing knowledge of languages and culture of middle-aged Asia. In Teresita Infante? s documented study, The Woman in Early Philippines and Among tribal Minorities, there is a description of the role of women among the Kalingas Kalinga women are not blockaded from belonging to the highest rank of society, which entitles them to the privileges equal to those of men in similar rank. some are recognized as pact holders and as she is the one who owns the pact, only her children or relatives have the right to inherit it. Pact holders were those who held agreement with a prominent citizen of another tribe or community in which for severally one party agreed to give protection and aid to all members of each other? s community while they were in his/her territory. Punishment was obligate if any harm had been done to them by his/her tribe member. This important position of being a pact holder was recognized among women in the pre-Spanish society.In the event of divorce caused by childlessness, infidelity, failure to fulfill obligations towards family, etc. the dowry had to be returned by the bride? s family if she was at fault. However, if the husband was at fault, he los t any right of its return. The children were divided equally between the two regardless of sex. The conjugally-acquired property was also divided equally. This way, she possessed equal rights with regard to divorce according to law and custom.To summarize, the pre-Spanish filipino woman, the mujer indigena had an honoured position in the family and society, which was mete out with by the Spaniards. A new Filipina was formed, a person moulded to the image and resemblance of the perfect woman of the Iberian society of her time. She had to follow many rules and regulations on how to lead the life of a good mujer christiana, which meant lesser freedom and rights. http//www. univie. ac. at/Voelkerkunde/apsis/aufi/wstat/mujer. htm.