Women's emancipation in the Philippines: A legacy of western feminism?

• Main Author: Arnado, Janet M.
• Format: text
• Published: Animo Repository 2005
• Subjects: Feminism > Philippines; Women's rights > Philippines; Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; Women's Studies
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/faculty_research/11983
• Institution: De La Salle University

Women's emancipation as a western feminist project has spread through most parts of the world, including the Philippines. This paper examines women's emancipation as part of cultural globalisation. By reviewing the improvements in women's status since the emergence of the feminist movement in the Philippines in 1905, the paper establishes the flow of western feminist ideas into this country. In addition, by analyzing the accounts of twenty feminists interviewed, it unveils that feminists are being mindful of the contradictions of western feminism vis-a-vis third world feminism. The findings demonstrate that while feminist informants tend to separate their feminist activism from the western brands, many of their concepts related to the roots of women's oppression and strategies for women's emancipation are largely borrowed from the well-developed western feminist theories (i.e., liberal, radical, etc.). The informants themselves have misconceptions about western feminists being man-haters, middle-class only, and lesbians. Likewise, emergent Filipina feminist concepts, which lean towards third world feminism, were based from or a reaction to the dominant western theories. The distinction, however, lies not so much on the ideas themselves, but on how they are localized to merge with the cultural, economic, and political conditions of the country. Women's emancipation is, therefore,, partly a consequence of the global influence of western feminism and partly on the localization of these feminist idelas.