1 Changing roles of women (Pre-colonial up to Japanese Occupation)

- Before the arrival of the Spaniards, the Filipino women

enjoyed high position in the society. As a custom, women were
the equal of men in ancient Filipino society. They could own and
inherit property; they could engage in trade and industry and
could possibly succeed a position or chieftain in their community
in absence of a male heir. Usually, men show respect to women
by accompanying them by walking behind the latter to protect
them for any harm that may come from behind
- Spanish times, the rights over to enjoy their property were
curtailed. They have to consent their husband first before selling
their sell the property they inherit from their parents. The friar
curates taught them to respect and be obedient to their
husbands no matter how cruel and immortal it was. It was
taught to them that their only function in society is for marriage.
They were so dependent to their husbands that the only role of
the women is to be the treasure of the home without any right to
work for the sake of earning money. They were so stuck of just
being housewives in their own family.
- American Period: few Filipino were highly educated, even
though they were highly educated, women are still destined for
the home. Under the Americans, women were allowed to enroll
in universities and colleges enabling them to become a teacher,
pharmacists, dentists, lawyers, physicians and scientists. Women
also contribute their expertise and knowledge to benefit their
families and countrymen. Plus, they were also granted the right
to vote and run for public office during 1935.
- Filipino women, despite the American attempts to convert
outwardly feminine and modest Maria Clara into carnival queens
qualified as US scholars or pensionadas. Thus, by 1920s number
of women had become professionals and had learned to fight for
their right and run for public office.
- Japanese Occupation: women, many in their teens, were often
either tricked by offers of legitimate employment or abducted by
Japanese soldiers and forced into so-called comfort houses.
There they were forced to sexually please their captors,
sometimes several at a time up to several times a day. To resist,

invited beatings, torture and even death. They generally

received little or no medical treatment even if they were injured
in the process of rape and torture or became pregnant or
infected with venereal disease. Ten Dutch women were taken by
force from prison camps in Java by officers of the Japanese
Imperial Army to become forced sex slaves in February 1944.
They were systematically beaten and raped day and night in a
so-called "Comfort Station"
(Philippine History: Expanded and Updated Version;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comfort_women#Treatment_of_co
mfort_women)