Emancipating the Patriarchal Consciousness Through Resistance vis-a-vis Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex by Noe Santillan and Andjenette Deada-Santillan
Presented during the 1st International Conference on Gender, Adult Literacy and Active Citizenship for Social Transformation (GALACST), held on 20-22 November 2019, at the University of Santo Tomas
Abstract
Naïve, indecisive, dependent… In a woman’s world, these labels are still attributed to her being even though the Philippines ranks high in gender responsiveness. Despite the advancement of feminism in the country, many men still see themselves as superior to women imposing a patriarchal chauvinism in a semi-feudal society whether in the field of work, religion, education, household, or in the larger society. Many tend to accept women as ‘the second sex’ subservient to the macho-feudal patriarchal culture. Hence, this paper aims to look into society’s patriarchal consciousness vis-a-vis Beauvoir’s The Second Sex. In doing so, participatory research is employed but not limited to conversations, dialogues, focus group discussions, and interviews. Conducted in a fourfold manner, the first thing done is asking the participants to identify the issues and problems they face in their respective households, workplace, and in the community related to parity between men and women. The second is to identify the individuals and/or institutions causing hindrance in achieving parity. The third is to chart the future of women and feminism if the issues and problems they identify are not addressed. Lastly, the participants drew solutions to their identified problems. Consequently, women are still struggling for parity with men but they’re not ‘the second sex’. There is no second sex either. Women are the equal counterpart of men. Classifying women as ‘second sex’ subsists in the subconscious. Unconscious discrimination from households to the corporate world impairs women’s self-esteem. Since the macho-feudal patriarchal consciousness subsists, there is, then, a need to sustain and advance further women’s role at home, in the workplace, in the church, and in the larger society. There is a greater need to strengthen the mainstreaming of women’s nature, role, and rights. Through the new narratives, resist the male-and-market-defined social construct women attributes.