Filipino Women - Colonial Philippines

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.