Details

Abstract / Summary

TITLE: Women’s Suffrage: If Women Have the Right to Vote in the Election. DESCRIPTION: The article’s abstract, printed below the author’s name, reads: “If the [Philippine] senate allows women to vote in elections, then the senate would have done nothing more than accord back the rights of half of the eleven million Filipinos.” The article argued that Filipino women in the past were not regarded negatively like the present day. They did not need to get their husbands’ permission to engage in commerce and other activities. Filipino women in the past showed their strength and dignity and were trusted by men, which manifested as the high regard for fairness and righteousness of men in the past. The author asserted that in the past, Filipino women interacted freely in society, like the women of other countries in the East and West. They were well-loved and valued by their parents and the rest of their families. The author used an example by poet Pedro A. Paterno, who articulated that women prior to Spanish colonization were discouraged from marriage so that they could remain with their families. Those women who did marry increased their value and earned the right to name their children. The author discussed why naming was valuable. Parents were regarded in this society through their children: “That is Pedro’s or Maria’s father.” The author drew on another example, Jose Rizal, the Philippines’ national hero. Rizal said that children brought honor to their parents more than parents brought honor to their children. Children’s conduct was measured according to their parents’ teachings, especially those of their mother. Often, mothers were blamed more for children’s misconduct than fathers. Towards the end of the article, the author explained that Filipino women in the past were not only able to freely socialize in society along with men but were also given important religious responsibilities. Filipino women in the past were priestesses much like the Roman Vestals, the Gaelic Druids and the first deacons of the early Christian Church. All these arguments led the author to conclude that Filipino women of the present day were inferior compared to their past counterparts. This was despite whatever improvements that the Western colonizers brought to the country. Ironically, the same Western authority had regarded the Filipino women ancestors as barbaric, when, in fact, they exhibited far more fairness and righteousness than many in the present who simply claimed to be righteous. KEYWORDS: voting, women in commerce, Pedro A. Paterno, Jose Rizal

Field of Interest

Women and Social Movements

Author

Rosa L. Sevilla de Alvaro, 1879-1954

Collection

Women and Social Movements, Modern Empires Since 1820

Copyright Message

Public domain

Content Type

Periodical article

Duration

0 sec

Warning: Contains explicit content

No

Format

Text

Page Count

4

Publication Year

1923

Source Title

Makinaugalingon, May 1, 1923, p. 2

Subject

Women and Social Movements, History, Women and Politics, Women and Rights, Mujer y Política, Mulher e Política, Mujer y Derechos, Direitos da Mulher, Filipinas, Philippines, Political and Human Rights, Suffrage, Filipinos, 20th Century in World History (1914--2000)

Topic

Suffrage

Keywords and Translated Subjects

Mujer y Política, Mulher e Política, Mujer y Derechos, Direitos da Mulher, Filipinas