THROUGHOUT history, women were thought of as inferior in physical strength, philosophical thoughts and political arena. This inferiority complex in women has been created by the discriminative teachings of patriarchal religions such as the Catholic Church.
The idea of gender equity has a relatively short history. Until the end of the 19th century, women were excluded from taking part in voting and politics, certain public events, education and in many professions. This inequity gave women a disadvantage in competing with men. The history of the gender equity movement is centuries old and includes changes in how women were represented intellectually, politically, socially and economically.
So what was the status of women during the Philippine pre-colonial era? The pre-colonial social structures of the Philippines before 1521 gave equal importance to maternal and paternal lineage. This bilateral kinship system accorded Filipina women enormous power within a clan.
They were entitled to property, engage in a trade and could exercise their right to divorce her husband. They could also become village chiefs in the absence of a male heir. Before the arrival of the Spaniards, Filipino women could also achieve status as medicine women or high priestesses and astrologers. However, things changed drastically for women during the colonial era.
What made woman an inferior gender during the colonial era? As described in Section 4e (gender inequality), gender inequity for women has the same origin. The origin can be traced back to the preaching of the Bible by Spanish friars during the colonial era.
In the Bible, the figure of Eve (woman) is merely an incidental creation that God created from one of Adam’s ribs for his pleasure and entertainment. Later, Eve came to embody “the sinful woman” who
condemned humanity by succumbing to the serpent's temptation and corrupting Adam..
Following the Serpent's advice rather than God’s earlier instruction, she shared the forbidden fruit with Adam. As a result, Adam was expelled from the Garden of Eden and was cursed. According to Bible, because of Eve’s share in the transgression, the womankind after her is sentenced to a life of sorrow and travail in childbirth and to be under the power of her husband. Moreover, since Eve was born out of Adam’s rib, the link between the Woman’s physicality and debt to the Man was made more manifest.
Drawing upon the statement in II Cor. 11:3 where reference is made to her deception by the serpent and in I Tim.2:13-4 where the Apostle enjoins submission and silence upon women, arguing that "Adam was first formed then Eve. And Adam was not deceived but the woman being deceived was in the transgression" because Eve tempted Adam to eat of the fatal fruit. {Origin, evolution, invention and necessity of this mythology by the Church founders will be described in depth later).
Tertullian (160CE-220CE), a lay theologian in Carthage, North Africa, has been called "the father of Latin Christianity" and "the founder of Western theology.” His sincerity as a convert was mixed with “moral rigorism” and an uncompromising stand against worldly standards.
This led him to leave the Church and join the Montanists in 210 CE, and later to found his own sect. He wrote: "The Catholic Church held her (Eve) and all subsequent women to be the first sinners and
especially responsible for the fall of Adam because of the sin of Eve. She was also called ‘the lance of the demon,’ ‘the road of iniquity,’ ‘the sting of the scorpion,’ ‘a daughter of falsehood,’ the ‘sentinel of hell,’ ‘the enemy of peace’ and ‘of the wild beast, the most dangerous.’”
"You are the devil's gateway," Tertullian told his female listeners in the early 2nd century, and went on to explain that all women were responsible for the death of Christ. "On account of your desert – that is, death – even the Son of God had to die." In this way, Eve is equated with the Greco-Roman myth of Pandora who was responsible for bringing evil into the world.
St. Augustine, according to Elaine Pagels, used the sin of Eve to justify his idiosyncratic view of humanity as permanently scarred by the Fall, which led to the Catholic Church’s doctrine of Original Sin. As far back as the first five centuries, women’s inferiority to men was justified due to their lack of self-restraint, whereas men were characterized by having self-control.
These views justified the mostly held dominant view in the Bible that women were physiologically, intellectually, emotionally and spiritually inferior to men. As late as the 17th century, the Church continued to teach that women are inferior to men and do not have a soul as is shown by many passages of Holy Scripture.
By the late 19th century and the turn of the 20th century, women the world over were pushing for greater equality. Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton in the United States, and the Suffragettes led by the Pankhurts in England were among the first pioneers of the women’s movement.
This was a period of much activity as women organized themselves into public and high profile advocacy groups campaigning for the right to vote and equality in economic and property rights. Women over the age of 21 years were granted the right to vote in New Zealand in 1898, in the US in 1919 in Britain in 1928 and in the Philippines in 1937.
The Catholic Church has vehemently opposed every right of women throughout its history of 2,000 years.
Therefore, one is not surprised to see the same Church opposing women’s rights through the Reproductive Health Bill even today.
(Issue of Oct. 10-16, 2011)
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