How were the females viewed during the revolution/colonial period?

COLONIAL PERIOD
Mananzan, Sr. Mary John. The Filipino Women: Before and After the Spanish Conquest of the Philippine.

The position of and role of women in the 16th and 17th centuries in the Iberian Family/Economy Women of colonial times who, deprived of enlightened education and any role in politics, remained active in the economic life of the country, managing the farms, engaging the business, working in the fields and factories, roles which they continue to perform today. We likewise, tend to forget that the liberation from all kinds of tyranny, foreign or local, were fought by men and women alike. Religion Having established Christianity in the country, the views of the Church on women has drastically changed the Filipino societys views on women. St. Augustines views on women prevailed in the Church. In his Confessions, he considers women as unstable animals. That when women bear the marks of marital conflict, he considers it to be the fault of the wife not the husband. He also believes that women are the occasions of sins, that if men were to follow Gods plan and mission, they must avoid them. The Catholic Church is really a patriarchal institutions. Only males become ordained priests.

In Rizals eyes, Maria Clara was the ideal woman and painted her to be treated so by the other characters, often complimented and venerated, mainly for her beauty, purity and meekness.

Family / Economy Her position in the family and economy was based on her worth as a maiden (i.e. pure, virginial, untainted, etc) and by how well she can be married off. She was not taught to aim for her own job or to be able to earn her own money. She was to marry Ibarra, and that was that. Religion / Spirituality She was often compared to the virgin Mary with her beauty and aura of purity. She was considered a good Christian because she was meek, went to Church, prayed, and went to confession. She was very faithful to her religion, but in the end, it managed to backfire on her. She was left alone in a room with Father Salvi, and he raped her, because of his strong attraction to her caused by her beauty, and ridding her of the purity she was so loved for. By the latter part of the novel, when Father Damaso was revealed to be her biological father, Maria Claras faith and obedience to the Church had been deeply shaken. At the very end of the novel, she joins a convent which is assumingly the only thing a woman can do to gain any sort of power in the religious order but is still

powerless to save herself and her loved ones, so it is implied that she kills herself. In the end, everything that is left of her purity has been erased, and that causes her downfall and demise. Politics / Education She was not as educated as Ibarra, nor was she familiar with the politics surrounding her. She was, at most, a victim who was affected by the power relations the people closest to her were partaking in, and often cried because of them, but she did not interfere, or have the means to interfere.

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