Filipina Activism In Canada And The United States

8) For centuries, women have been missing from the manuscripts of historical tomes. When Southeast Asian women are mentioned, they are seen as having freedoms today because of the colonial interlude. Do you think this is true? Using the example of an Asian society, critically examine the changing role of women in pre-colonial and colonial times in order to make your judgment.

The assertion is inaccurate in that for some Asian societies, instead of empowerment, colonialism had in fact relegated women’s status in their environment. At the same time, it is unfair to assume that colonialism had no contribution to the development of women’s status given that different situational conditions would have garnered distinctive colonial policies,
5). While both Canada and the United States have been involved in a series of prolific women’s movements, the merits of Filipina activism have often fallen below the radar of the West’s mainstream feminisms. De Jesus (2005) refers to mainstream feminism in North America as “hegemonic, white liberal feminism” which serves to perpetuate the Imperial power structure of the supposedly inferior Filipinos and their superior American wards (p. 8). Significantly, Tolentino (1996) contends that the systemic oppression of Filipino women within North America is further perpetuated by the colonial appropriation of the Filipina body within the international sex trade and the proliferation of mail-order brides marrying White American men (p. 2). To put the scale of the mail-order bride phenomenon into perspective, over 50, 000 Filipino women have moved to the United States within the last ten years, while 19,000 Filipinas migrate out of the Philippines annually as mail-order brides (Tolentine, 1996, p.
As women within patriarchal immigrant families are often seen as “keepers of the culture,” parents often exercise strict control over their daughters’ affairs in regards to dating and at times, monitoring their every move (Espiritu, 2005, p. 13-14). In sharp contrast, sons within the same families are treated with greater leniency and are not subject to the same restraints as their sisters (Espiritu, 2005, p. 14). Espiritu (2005) reveals that some Filipino parents even go as far as restricting their daughters’ from pursuing university opportunities outside of their hometowns in order to ensure their “safety” (p. 18). By controlling their daughter’s mobility and autonomy, many traditional Filipino parents perpetuate the cult of Filipina womanhood which has permeated the Pinay identity since the dawn of Spanish colonialism (Espiritu, 2005, p. 18). In turn, Filipina feminists within both North America and the Philippines have sought to reclaim the integrity of Pinays as strong and independent women who are in control of their own