The Philippines is a place not known to many of us except for drug smuggling and terrorist attacks. How many people know that this country’s current president is a female? Maria Gloria Macaraeg Macapagal-Arroyo was born on 5 April 1947, is a professor in economics, and president of the Philippines. She is the second female president the Philippines have had in office.

While the possible presidential election of Hilary Clinton in the USA created waves worldwide, the Philippines continued to advocate women’s rights, headed by a female leader. Equality is the premise of the Philippines on the issue of the role of its female citizens. But this was not always the case. Just as every other part of the world has a historic period of infamy regarding the treatment of women, so too does the Philippines.

The Philippines was a country known to afford women an equitable role in their communities. Women owned property, undertook household trades such as the selling of crafts, and had more of a say in their own lives than most women in the greater part of the world. But, like its neighbors Thailand and Malaysia, the Philippines was also subject to European colonization. The subsequent Roman Catholic influence in the country caused a dramatic shift in the role and status of women in the Philippines.

The woman’s function changed from one of considerable influence in her community to a subdued woman, answerable to male figures in her life. It should be noted, however, that certain areas to the north and south of the country were never fully incorporated into this doctrine of Roman Catholicism and maintained their ideologies and customs regarding women’s’ rights.

Later, the Philippines underwent a short period of colonization by the USA, liberating women weighed down by the shackles of the Spanish colonization. In the late 1900’s a new constitution was drawn up, stipulating women’s rights in respect of politics and other areas. A new era had prevailed and the fighting spirit of the Filipinas resurfaced. President Corazon Aquino headed an advocacy for women’s rights in the Philippines that can be considered the turning point for women in that country. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo took over the reins from her, and succeeds Aquino with the confidence of the nation’s women as her driving force.

The story of the Filipinas’ rise to equality is no doubt one that countries the world over can take a lesson from. However, the struggle lives on as women’s rights groups continue to fight for freedom in indigenous parts of the country. The absence of a divorce law in the Philippines owing to Roman Catholic influence is also a topic of great dispute in the region. While laws are in place to stipulate fair treatment to women in the Philippines, law enforcement is notoriously poor. Obstacles to our progress as women are inevitable and only time will tell whether true liberation of the Philippine women will become a tangible reality.