Colonial Philippines
Spanish colonization of the Philippines lasted from 1565 to 1898, although until 1821 the islands were governed mostly from Mexico and later directly from Spain. As a result, there is a significant amount of Mexican influences in Philippine customs and traditions.
Although Christian values were supposed to be spread through the population, missionaries and priests soon realized that they'd be better off adapting their doctrine as much as possible to the local customs, rather than trying to impose it. As it happened all over Asia, women in the Philippines were expected to become caring and nurturing mothers for their own children and take care of most household chores. Also a trait found all over Asia was the preference of most families to have male children instead of females.
During the last part of the colonization of the Philippines, Isabella II of Spain, introduced the Education Decree of 1863 (10 years before Japan had a compulsory free modern public education and 40 years before the United States government started a free modern public school system in the Philippines) that provided for the establishment of at least two free primary schools, one for boys and another for girls, in each town under the responsibility of the municipal government.
Filipino women were always aware of their importance, their power, and their equality with men. Two heroines made a great contribution to the Philippine liberation during the colonization, Gabriela Silang and Melchora Aquino.
Read more about this topic: Filipino Women
Famous quotes containing the word colonial:
“In colonial America, the father was the primary parent. . . . Over the past two hundred years, each generation of fathers has had less authority than the last. . . . Masculinity ceased to be defined in terms of domestic involvement, skills at fathering and husbanding, but began to be defined in terms of making money. Men had to leave home to work. They stopped doing all the things they used to do.”
—Frank Pittman (20th century)