This book brings together pertinent scholarly essays on gender dimensions in Philippine culture and society and primarily highlights some of the changes that women from different walks of life have experienced as well as the different structural and person- or individual-related factors that have brought these changes about.
The book includes a historical overview of the status of Filipino women and men prior to the advent of Spanish colonial rule and up to the present. It also provides a powerful narrative of how gains in advancing the social status of women are often challenged and eroded by the resurgence of misogynist ideas.
This book features a special chapter that explores the narratives of Filipina marriage migrants in Australia who are in cross-cultural relationships with non-Asian Australians. It examines the strategies they employed as they settled in a new host country and positioned themselves at shifting locations of disempowerment.
Exploring the subjective experiences and socio-psychological dynamics behind the advocacy work of selected players in the Philippine LGBT rights movement, this book also tackles the subject of LGBT rights movements by analyzing the rights and causes pursued by these movements. It foregrounds various strategies used by the Philippine government in cooperation with private institutions, to address the serious and persistent gender issues in the country.
Formerly the dean of the University of the Philippines Asian Center (AC), Philippine Studies professor Carolyn I. Sobritchea obtained three degrees from UP Diliman: a PhD in anthropology in 1987, a master’s degree in Asian studies with Southeast Asia as area of specialization in 1973, and a BA in anthropology in 1968. She served as director of the UP Center for Women’s Studies (2000 to 2007) and as its deputy director for Training and Extension Service (1991 to 1999). She is also a member of the editorial board of Asian Women of the Research Institute of Asian Women (RIAW), Sookmyung Women’s University, Seoul, Korea, and a member of the editorial board of advisers of Gender, Technology and Development, a refereed journal of the Asian Institute of Technology of Thailand. Sobritchea authored and edited several books, journal articles, policy papers and advocacy materials on women’s issues. Some of her works include “Gender Poverty and the Philippine Economy” published in Gender: An Asian Perspective in Tokyo, Japan in 2008 and “The Philippine Laws on Violence Against Women and their Children” in Ochanomizu University, Japan, in 2007.
Marie Aubrey Villaceran, PhD is the Deputy Director for Research and Publication at the University of the Philippines’s Center for Women’s and Gender Studies. She is also a professor at the Department of English and Comparative Literature in UP Diliman. She holds a BA and MA degree in Creative writing from the same university and received her doctorate degree in Sociology from La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia.