"The Power of Pinays" – A Short Essay by Wilfred Galila, Kularts SF

The Power of Pinays

At its core, Philippine society is a matriarchal society. To this day, women directly and indirectly run the family, businesses, and institutions. Women also, most often than not, by default, become the family’s treasurer. The husband would turn over his salary to his wife for safekeeping and budgeting.  Not to mention the power and strength of the matriarch in Filipino families, whose authority is respected, even feared, by all the members of the family.

The underlying power and strength of Pinays is rooted in pre-colonial indigenous Philippine society where equal importance was given to women and men. Women were traditionally entitled to property, to engage in trade, and, in the absence of a male heir, hold the position of village chieftain. Women were also powerful and esteemed high priestesses and healers known as babaylans or catalonans. Such was the power of women in pre-colonial Philippine society that they also had the right to divorce their husbands if they chose to do so.

Patriarchy was introduced with the unfortunate arrival of the Spanish colonizers. The Spaniards restructured indigenous Philippine society, delegating and confining women to the home to take care of the family and do household chores. With this came a shift in the image of the Filipina as a conservative, meek, and submissive individual. But this colonial overhaul of the psyche and sociopolitical structure of indigenous Philippine society did not eradicate the underlying power and influence of the Filipina.

In spite of colonization and its consequences, powerful and strong women were prominent figures throughout Philippine history, from the warrior princess, Urduja, in pre-colonial times, to Gabriela Silang, a revolutionary leader of an Ilocano movement for independence from Spain who took the role of commander of the rebel troops after the assassination of her husband, Diego Silang, to the first woman president of the country, Corazon Aquino, who came into power after the assassination of her husband, Benigno Aquino Jr., that brought an end to the dictatorial regime of Ferdinand Marcos. And the list continues as history is being written.

This Pinay power has been carried over to the Pilipnx diaspora. In San Francisco’s SOMA Pilipinas alone, the majority of the major organizations that comprise the Filipino Cultural Heritage District are led and run by women. This extends to businesses that are owned and run by women entrepreneurs. A testament to the indelible and enduring power of Pinays.