Politics are perfectly compatible with the domestic duties a

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Philippine Senate

Fifth Philippine Legislature

First Session

The Woman and the Right to Vote

Address Delivered By

Hon. Rafael Palma

Senator for the Fourth District

In support of Bill No. 23 of the Senate in the sessions held by said

body on the 22d and 25th of November, 1919

Manila

Bureau of Printing

1919

THE WOMAN AND THE RIGHT TO VOTE

Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Senate:

I have seldom felt so proud of being a representative of the people

as now, when it gives me an opportunity to advocate a cause which can

not be represented or defended in this chamber by those directly and

particularly affected by it, owing to the leven of prejudice that the

beliefs and ideas of the past have left in the mind of modern man. The

cause of female suffrage is one sure to strike a sympathetic chord

in every unprejudiced man, because it represents the cause of the

weak who, deprived of the means to defend themselves, are compelled

to throw themselves upon the mercy of the strong.

But it is not on this account alone that this cause has my sympathy and

appeals to me. It has, besides, the irresistible attraction of truth

and justice, which no open and liberal mind can deny. If our action

as legislators must be inspired by the eternal sources of right,

if the laws passed here must comply with the divine precept to give

everybody his due, then we can not deny woman the right to vote,

because to do otherwise would be to prove false to all the precepts

and achievements of democracy and liberty which have made this century

what may be properly called the century of vindication.

Female suffrage is a reform demanded by the social conditions of our

times, by the high culture of woman, and by the aspiration of all

classes of society to organize and work for the interests they have

in common. We can not detain the celestial bodies in their course;

neither can we check any of those moral movements that gravitate with

irresistible force towards their center of attraction: Justice. The

moral world is governed by the same laws as the physical world, and

all the power of man being impotent to suppress a single molecule of

the spaces required for the gravitation of the universe, it is still

less able to prevent the generation of the ideas that take shape in the

mind and strive to attain to fruition in the field of life and reality.

It is an interesting phenomenon that whenever an attempt is made

to introduce a social reform, in accordance with modern ideas and

tendencies and in contradiction with old beliefs and prejudices,

there is never a lack of opposition, based on the maintenance of the

_statu quo_, which it is desired to preserve at any cost. As was to be

expected, the eternal calamity howlers and false prophets of evil raise

their fatidical voices on this present occasion, in protest against

female suffrage, invoking the sanctity of the home and the necessity

of perpetuating customs that have been observed for many years.

Frankly speaking, I have no patience with people who voice such

objections. If this country had not been one of the few privileged

places on our planet where the experiment of a sudden change of

institutions and ideals has been carried on most successfully,

without paralyzation or retrogression, disorganization or destruction,

I would say that the apprehension and fears of those who oppose this

innovation might be justified.

However, in less than a generation our country, shaken to its very

foundations by the great social upheavals known as revolutions,

has seen its old institutions crumble to pieces and other, entirely

new institutions rise in their place; it has seen theories, beliefs,

and codes of ethics, theretofore looked upon as immovable, give way

to different principles and methods based upon democracy and liberty,

and despite all those upheavals and changes which have brought about a

radical modification in its social and political structure, or rather

in consequence of the same, our people has become a people with modern

thoughts and modern ideals, with a constitution sufficiently robust

and strong to withstand the ravages of the struggle for existence,

instead of remaining a sickly and atrophied organism, afraid of

everything new and opposed to material struggles from fear of the

wrath of Heaven and from a passive desire to live in an ideal state

of peace and well-being.

In view of the fruitful results which those institutions of liberty

and democracy have brought to our country; and considering the

marked progress made by us, thanks to these same institutions, in

all the orders of national life, in spite of a few reactionists and

ultra-conservatives, who hold opinions to the contrary and regret the

past, I do not and can not, understand how there still are serious

people who seriously object to the granting of female suffrage,

one of the most vivid aspirations now agitating modern society.

I remember very well that in the past, not so very long ago, the same

apprehension and fears were felt with regard to higher education for

our women. How ridiculous--the same people argued--is it for woman

to study history, mathematics, philosophy, and chemistry, which are

not only superior to the assimilating power of her deficient brain,

but will make her presumptuous and arrogant and convert her into

a hybrid being without grace or strength, intolerable and fatuous,

with a beautiful, but empty head and a big, but dry heart! However,

we admitted the women to our high schools and universities and made

it possible for them to attain to the degree of bachelor of arts

and graduate in law, medicine, and other professions. Can it be said

that those women have perverted the homes of their parents or that,

when they married, they were a source of disgrace or scandal to their

husbands? We are now able to observe the results, and if these results

are found to be detrimental to the social and political welfare of

the country, it is our duty to undo what we have done and to return

to where we were before.

Fortunately, nobody would think of such a thing. From the most

cultured centers of population to the remotest villages, public opinion

fervently approves and applauds the education of women, and even the

most backward peasants send their daughters to the cities and go to the

greatest sacrifices imaginable in order to make it possible for them to

ascend to the highest pinnacles of knowledge. Though ignorant rustics,

they reason in their own rude way that woman and man are made of the

same clay, and refuse to believe that because it has been their fate

to have daughters instead of sons, they must condemn them to bear the

chains of ignorance, incapacitating them from being useful to their

families, society, and their country.

Education has not atrophied or impaired any of the fundamental

faculties of woman; on the contrary, it has enhanced and enriched

them. Far from being a constant charge to the family, the educated

woman has often been its sustain and support in times of great

need. The educated woman has not become a blue-stocking, that fatuous

creature imagined by certain elements, nor has she lost any of her

feminine charms by being able to argue and discuss on every subject

with the men. On the contrary, it seems to lend her an additional

grace and charm, because she understands us better and can make

herself better understood. Thank God, people are no longer ready to

cast ridicule upon what some used to consider the foolish presumption

of women to know as much as the men, and this is doubtless due to the

fact that the disastrous results predicted by the calamity howlers,

the terrible prophets of failure, have not materialized.

Very well; if you allow the instruction and education of woman

in all the branches of science, you must allow woman to take on

her place not only in domestic life, but also in social and public

life. Instruction and education have a twofold purpose; individually,

they redeem the human intellect from the perils of ignorance, and

socially they prepare man and woman for the proper performance of

their duties of citizenship. A person is not educated exclusively for

his or her own good, but principally to be useful and of service to

the others. Nothing is more dangerous to society than the educated

man who thinks only of himself, because his education enables him to

do more harm and to sacrifice everybody else to his convenience or

personal ambition. The real object of education is public service,

that is, to utilize the knowledge one has acquired for the benefit

and improvement of the society in which one is living.

In societies, therefore, where woman is admitted to all the

professions and where no source of knowledge is barred to her,

woman must necessarily and logically be allowed to take a part in

the public life, otherwise, her education would be incomplete or

society would commit an injustice towards her, giving her the means

to educate herself and then depriving her of the necessary power to

use that education for the benefit of society and collective progress.

I can not resist this conclusion. If woman is given equal opportunities

with man for educating herself; if she is encouraged to learn and

study the knowledge of the world and of life, it is but just that the

doors of public life should be thrown open to her in order to allow

her to play in it the part to which she is entitled.

In backward societies, woman is taught only such knowledge as she

requires for the home; that is, she is unconsciously prepared for that

gentle, that charming slavery so pleasing to the masculine sex. The

question now before us is what system we shall adopt for our women:

whether slavery and ignorance, or liberty and education.

Female suffrage is the consequence of the education of woman; it is

also the consequence of her liberty of conscience. The vote is the

expression of political faith, just as worship is the expression of

religious faith. There is no more reason for keeping woman from the

ballot box than there is for preventing her from going to church.

There is no reason why suffrage should be a privilege of sex,

considering that the duties of citizenship rest as heavily upon woman

as upon man. Is woman under less obligation to strive for the welfare

and future of her country because she is a woman? To attempt to curtail

the activity of woman in public life is tantamount to declaring that a

woman must not love her country and must not dedicate any of her time

to her duties of citizenship; that she must not feel the affection

and devotion which the idea of native land and community awaken in

every well-born creature.

Physical barrenness is combated and looked upon as a misfortune in

woman; but we condemn her to a perpetual political barrenness, to

patriotic barrenness, if we keep her away from exercising the right of

suffrage which affords the citizen the most effective means to make

his influence felt in social questions and in the improvement of the

public affairs. How are we to inculcate in our children, that sacred

pledge of the future of the nation, the cult and worship of native land

and liberty if we do not give their mothers that practical education

involved in the exercise of the right of suffrage; if they are taught

that government and politics are strange gods at whose shrines they

are forbidden to worship; if they feel upon themselves the stigma of

inferiority, of being incapacitated from speaking to their children

about the public affairs and the interests of the nation and the State?

All social classes are entitled to representation in the legislative

houses and are thus enabled to work for legislation favoring their

interests: the merchants, the laborers, the manufacturers, all can

choose one of their own number; but the women, who are not merely one

group or class, but a collection of groups or classes, who represent

one-half of the country and have interests of their own to defend,

not only with relation to their sex, but also with relation to their

position in the family, are not allowed to vote and are therefore

not permitted to have representatives to promote and defend laws

and measures necessary for their protection and betterment. Is this

just? Is this even moral? Female labor can be exploited in shop and

factory; feminine virtue can be made the object of commerce, and yet

woman is not allowed to defend directly the interests of her sex,

owing to one of those aberrations of the moral sense that spring from

the crass egoism and brutal tyranny of man.

If woman were at least exempt from complying with the laws! But no;

the law binds the woman as well as the man; the Penal Code menaces man

and woman alike with the sword of justice, and the burden of taxation

rests upon both the masculine and the feminine wealth. Consequently,

before the law, their duties are the same, but their rights are not.

Is it not strange that our laws should contain so much social injustice

towards woman, so much exasperating discrimination, all based upon the

theory of the servile dependency of woman upon man, resulting from her

congenital mental and physical inferiority? Moebius is incarnated in

our Codes, governs our policy, and influences all the customs and

usages of our social and political life, to such a point that we

ought to be ashamed that in the midst of this era of vindication,

when all classes have secured their right to liberty and equality,

woman has been kept indefinitely upon the same level as in the

centuries of subjection and slavery.

True democracy can not exist with one-half of the people free and

the other half in a stage of slavery, with one-half of the people

with representation in the public affairs and the other half without

it. The people does not consist of men alone, but of women as well,

and conditions being equal, woman should have the same political

rights as man. She should, at least, have those fundamental rights the

exercise of which, like that of the right to vote, requires nothing

but intelligence and capacity, in order that she may have some voice

in the decision of her own destiny and may herself fight the battles

for her honor, her liberty, and other rights neglected or ignored by

man on account of the undisputed monopoly exercised by him over the

public affairs.

The injustices and social and juridical discriminations contained in

our codes will not be eliminated in a radical manner and the condition

of woman will not improve while man alone legislates and controls

all the spheres of public life, dictating to woman what she must do

and what she must not do; and woman will be incompetent to take care

of her own interests and shape her own life so long as she does not

look higher, so long as she consents to the superiority of man and

believes that her lot is simply that of serving and pleasing man

in bed and home, instead of being his true helpmate and companion,

for the progress and felicity of the human race.

All arguments that are or may be adduced against female suffrage

tend invariably towards these two objects: the confinement of woman

to the home and the perpetuation of her civil and political slavery.

Woman must busy herself with nothing but her household duties and

must live only for her husband and her children; she has her hands

full from the rising to the setting sun if she manages the cook,

cleans the house, and mends the clothes: this is the great argument

of the partisans of the old regime. Another is, that it is not in the

nature of things that woman should struggle with man in the battle

of public life; that if she enters that struggle, man will cease to

look upon her as a being to be worshipped, as a sacred idol at whose

feet he must kneel, and will see in her a rival to be combated and

overcome, for his own preservation, and woman will not only drag the

pure flower of her virtue into the mire of political life, but will

lose the esteem, respect, and consideration now tributed to her.

I have the most profound respect for all men and women who honestly

believe this to be the case. It is not their fault that they believe

that what has always been so is the best. They do not realize that

life is motion and that the new elements of life and character which

are being imperceptibly introduced into society demand changes and

innovations. Society can not become stagnant, otherwise it runs the

risk of becoming like stagnant water, which generates pestilential

miasma. The theory that woman exists for the home alone has been a

dead issue for some time past. Woman has quietly taken her place in

public life and aids and directs man, even though he may not notice

it and may not recognize her right to do so. In modern society, woman

participates in the direction of public charity and in the education of

the children, she practises law and medicine, engages in literary and

journalistic pursuits, occupies many public offices, and takes interest

and cooperates in the suppression of social vice and suffering.

Who does not admit that woman has duties towards her home and her

husband and children to which she must ordinarily give the preference

over all other duties? However, does this exclude the performance of

other duties towards God, her neighbor, and the State? Like man, woman

has many duties to perform, and the true merit lies in the orderly and

complete performance of these duties. Does not the Filipina dedicate

part of her time, sometimes a very considerable part, to the church

and to her so-called social duties, receiving and making calls and

attending celebrations, theaters, and balls?

Has anybody ever complained against this? Has woman ever been

criticised for her assiduous attendance of the religious services and

the public performance of her religious duties in crowded churches,

in the public streets, filled with tumultuous throngs of people,

marching in a procession behind some saint, jostled about and

exposed to disagreeable incidents, which she bears with resignation

because she suffers them for the cause of the public confession of

her faith? Our women go not only to church, but to the theater and to

popular entertainments and celebrations, where they may show off their

elegant dresses and satisfy their feminine curiosity. In all this we

see no pitfalls or dangers to their virtue, though we know that the

women who go to those places and exhibit themselves in this manner

are mothers, wives or daughters who have duties to attend at home.

Now, what is the difference if woman leaves her home to attend or take

part in a political meeting where the public needs or the election

of candidates for public office are discussed? In what way is the

virtue or purity of woman imperilled by her taking an interest in

public questions affecting the welfare of the families, considering

that whatever her status may be in life, woman always occupies some

position in the family? Why should we fear that woman will leave the

flower of her charms on the brambles of politics if she listens to

a political speaker, after having listened to sermons all her life,

or if she herself makes a speech giving her opinions on some subject

of interest to the family, on the necessity of remedying some social

evil or of providing a home for abandoned and indigent children?

Let us take the case of one of the most vital questions of the

present time, the subject of gambling. Do you not believe that this

question has a direct bearing upon the welfare of the families,

especially of the feminine part of them? Who suffers the most if the

father or husband spends the money of the family in order to satisfy

his craving for gambling? The women, of course, the daughters who

are often condemned to undergo unnecessary privations and suffering

because of the conduct of the head of the family. And you try to deny

to woman the right to take a part in political affairs, to enlighten

the electorate with regard to the fatal results of gambling or cast

her vote for the candidate who promises to secure the passage of

measures against it? And why should the opinion of woman on issues

like this not have as much weight as that of man? Should it not be

given greater weight, it being she who suffers the consequences and

results of the evil? There are many questions like this which vitally

affect the welfare and happiness of woman.

I fail to see anything pernicious in the activity of woman in the

field of politics: I even believe that her activity in this respect

will be highly salutary and beneficent not only for womankind, but

for society in general. It will serve to instruct woman and give her

a more extensive knowledge of the world and of life. She will not be

considered as an outsider where society and government are concerned

and will therefore not remain indifferent to their short-comings and

progress. Nothing could possibly be more harmful to society than the

presence in it of foreign bodies absolutely indifferent to its weal

or woe, of useless parts in the machinery of progress.

We are terrified by the idea that the impulsiveness of woman and her

fanaticism and narrow-mindedness, according to some, her weakness and

lack of character, according to others, and her unpreparedness and

deficient culture, according to still others, will make female suffrage

a mere farce and will convert it into a tool for certain elements

and interests. My opinion is that all these impulses, sentiments,

weaknesses, and imperfections of woman are due to nothing but to

the seclusion in which she has been kept. They are the effects of an

educational and social system tottering to decay, of a system that does

not give the natural faculties of woman that room for expansion and

development which is as necessary to life as steam is to electricity

and electricity to light. And those defects and imperfections can

not be cured by continuing the system under which they have formed

and developed, but there must be a radical reform, a regeneration,

in order that, as a bird on its first flight stretches its wings and

soars forth into space, where there is an abundance of air and light,

woman may have an opportunity to develop to their fullest extent her

faculties and instincts and to show the graceful essence of her being.

We must give woman new objectives in life and lofty occupations in

which she can test her aptitude, in order that everything defective

and ill-developed in her character and education may be eliminated

in the atmosphere of liberty and publicity, where all defects can

be brought to light without fear or pity and all vices crushed with

iron heel. This is why I desire and demand political rights for our

women. I am convinced that one of the results of this concession

will be to enrich, improve, and develop her aptitude and aspiration

to serve the high ideals of life and society. Woman will devote less

time to dress, fashions, gossip and all the other petty and trifling

things that are generally the subject of their conversation and will

endeavor to study and discuss the more serious questions of social

betterment and welfare.

Politics is not a permanent occupation that absorbs all the time of

a person who has other regular business to attend to. As a matter

of fact, not speaking of political officers and a few professional

politicians, most of the citizens devote to politics only the time

strictly necessary and which they can spare. Any man or woman depending

for his or her living or future upon politics will soon come to the

conviction that politics bring starvation instead of bread.

Politics are perfectly compatible with the domestic duties and

occupations of woman, whether she be mother, wife, or daughter. An

educated woman realizes her responsibilities; she knows how to divide

her time and will give her domestic duties the preference over any

other duties outside of the home. A woman is not liable to engage

in political activity if she is very busy at home, and when confined

to her bed by the labors and cares of maternity, she will be unable

to engage in politics, even if she were willing. Therefore, when I

hear the argument that woman will be remiss in her household duties

on account of politics and that she will neglect to take care of her

husband and children if she is given the right to vote, I frankly

confess that I am, perhaps, too dull to see the truth of it.

You insist that by divine precept the place of woman is in the home

and that of man in society, and that this is the true and proper

division of labor between the two halves of the human species. If this

is really the plan of God, will you tell me then why all religions

and all schools of ethics coincide in prescribing duties towards the

neighbor and teach us to love our fellow-beings? Did the Lord speak to

man alone, and not also to woman when amidst fire and smoke, on the

quaking mountain, he gave to the world the tables of the Decalogue

and said: "Love thy neighbor as thyself?" And the universal precept

contained in every code of morals and in every religion, "Whatsoever

ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them,"--does

it refer to man alone, or does it include woman also? To me, these

precepts indicate that man and woman have duties towards others,

that they have duties towards their fellow-beings, and that they must

not confine their efforts towards happiness to the home, but extend

them beyond it, to society. Will you tell me whether there can be

happiness in the homes if society is not happy, seeing that society

is nothing but the extension and sum of all the homes, and that all

the suffering and evils that afflict society find their echo in the

home, just as the happiness of the home exercises an influence upon

the happiness of society?

You attempt to do something impossible: You try to divide the human

being into halves: one-half that is happy in the home and the other

that is happy in society, or vice versa. You can do it if you wish,

but then you will either have to consign all your codes which confer

upon man the government and administration of the home to the waste

basket and make others vesting these powers in woman, or if you do not

wish to do that, you will have to give woman a share in the public

affairs in order that she may, the same as in the home, assist man

in building up and strengthening the happiness of that other big home

which we call society.

You say that woman, upon appearing on the stage of politics, will

lose the respect and admiration of man; that instead of gaining

any advantages, she will lose all those inherent in her present

position, in which she is removed from any direct struggle with man,

is adorable and adored everywhere, and reigns supreme in her home with

the undisputed authority of the wife or mother, clad in the purple

of the grace and majesty with which Nature has endowed her, pure and

undefiled by the mire with which political strife and intrigue always

bespatter the reputation and dignity of those who engage in them.

I believe I have stated the position of our adversaries in terms both

poetical and precise, and when I speak of our adversaries, I include

that numerous legion of women who still hesitate to ask for the right

of suffrage, for reasons which, perhaps, deserve being called selfish.

However, the idealistic woman I have depicted will not disappear if

our women are educated in politics the same as they are educated in

the arts and sciences. A political education, far from being harmful

to the natural charms of woman, will in my opinion enhance these,

for the same reason that our modern education has given woman charms

which the woman of the past did not possess. Unless you argue that

education is in itself an evil rather than a blessing, and that it

vitiates the character instead of improving it, you can not escape the

conclusion that by increasing the knowledge and experience of woman,

you give her more vigor, more energy, and a greater personal charm.

Nothing commands greater respect than education. Education elevates a

person. From the moment that you show that you possess education, the

consideration and respect of the others are yours. Education does not

know the bar of race prejudice; through it an individual of a colored

race can win the respect and often the admiration of the white man.

Does woman ever inspire man with greater respect than when she

is instructed, when a college education has brought her to his

own level? Was woman more respected in the past, when she remained

ignorant, than she is now? I am willing to concede that she may have

been courted more assiduously, but that does not mean that she was more

respected. Do you understand by respect and consideration those empty

forms of etiquette which make a man bow down to the ground to a woman

and regale her with a few hollow compliments, designed to tickle the

vanity or turn the head of a credulous and frivolous being? Do you

call respect the singular habit of certain men to always find the

eyes of the woman to whom they are speaking divine, to compare her

mouth to a rosebud, her teeth to a string of beautiful pearls, and

her form to the slender willow, and other stupidities of that kind? If

that is the sort of respect and consideration that woman will lose if

she goes into politics, she ought to be very glad to get rid of it,

because all these empty phrases of gallantry are like the crowing of

the rooster who wishes to dazzle a silly hen on which he has designs.

And, tell me, how is it possible for weakness and ignorance to inspire

respect? As a matter of fact, when a little cooking, embroidering, and

music, and the knowledge of the catechism were deemed sufficient to

prepare a girl for married life, which was then the only career open

to woman, she was the recipient of great consideration and courtesy

from man. These, however, were not inspired by real respect, but

rather by a sentiment of chivalry, because man thought woman so weak

and ignorant that he deemed it his duty to show her that protection,

consideration, and courtesy which are due to weakness and ignorance. Is

this the opinion that our women want us to have of them? Respect is

a sentiment engendered by the idea of equality, and unless woman is

placed on the same level with man in the field of politics, we shall

continue to hear ignominious phrases such as "But, woman, what do

you know about these things! You go and mind your own business!"

Our women need not worry that if they are allowed to vote, they will

necessarily forfeit the consideration and courtesy accorded to them

at present, when they do not come into direct collision with man on

the field of politics, and that the men will then consider themselves

free to attack them as a rival whom they must overcome and destroy

for their own preservation. In the first place it is a mistake to

conclude that the participation of woman in public life will result

in rivalry between the sexes. The attraction and sympathy between man

and woman springs precisely from the difference in sex. If there were

only men or only women, there might be such a thing as our mutually

destroying each other, because there would be no purpose in life and

the human race would not reproduce itself. It is in the interest of

one sex not to destroy the other. On the other hand, politics is not

always a personal struggle. In its proper and loftiest sense it is a

struggle of ideas and principles, of theories and methods. Therefore,

if a man is pitted against a woman in the arena of politics, they

are certainly not compelled to engage in fisticuffs and kill each

other, but each will present his own views on the points at issue,

with more or less sound arguments in support of them. I do not believe

any man has the right to insult a woman because she is his opponent,

seeing that he has no such a right where a man is concerned. And

if in the heat of political strife such an insult should be passed,

has not woman the right to reply or to pay the offender back in his

own coin? This is a case where woman will be given an opportunity to

learn to be independent in judgment and action, seeing that certain

persons do not want woman to vote unless she possesses independence

of thought and action. I do not want, either, to give voice to the

suspicion that many men are against female suffrage because they fear

they might be worsted in a public debate, and what would then become

of the prestige of the strong sex?

In the second place, if woman wants man to adore and idolize her,

she can get him to do it whether she votes or not. Man does not

adore woman because she has less rights than he has; but he worships

her because woman is woman, the archetype of grace and beauty of

creation, and man will forever burn incense at the shrine of that

divinity. Remember that it has always been said that christianity

elevated the condition of woman and gave her greater rights, and yet

it is the Christian countries where woman is accorded the greatest

consideration and respect.

Suffrage will not detract from the beauty of the long tresses

of woman, nor will it make her cheeks and lips less rosy and the

curves of her body less graceful. On the contrary, it will lend her

an additional grace, that of being able to write a ballot in her

diminutive handwriting, and man will always feel for her that love,

tenderness, and adoration which grace and beauty will always inspire

all the world over. Hercules will always bow to Venus because she is

Venus, though Venus be a suffragist.

A political education will provide woman with new means for gaining the

respect and admiration of man. Woman will realize that her duty does

not merely consist in giving sons and daughters to the fatherland,

but in educating and training them in such a manner that from their

childhood on they will take interest in everything tending to improve

social conditions, and in inspiring them with the desire to devote

their efforts to a certain cause or party, for the best of their

people. Public opinion will become much broader and stronger when

it shall reflect the sentiments of our women, who are at present

a passive element where the duties of citizenship are concerned;

and when in her dark hours the nation shall need assistance, she will

receive it not only from her citizens, but also from her citizenesses,

who will not be ignorant and inexperienced in the tasks and duties

confronting the people, but will be accustomed to the discipline of

organization and to the calls of the public service.

There is no doubt, of course, that it is greatly to the advantage of

man to maintain woman in ignorance, not only with regard to politics,

but also where other matters are concerned. For one thing, it renders

it easier for man to satisfy his whims and make of woman a toy which he

can use or drop according to his fancy. She is obedient, submissive,

and resigned; she never discusses or argues; she obeys and serves

in silence, like a beautiful piece of furniture, differing from the

rest only in that she is animate; she is a delightful doll because

she can speak and has a little sense. I know that this is the ideal

of many men, for the only reason that it suits their convenience.

But that is not woman as she should be; the woman that our century has

redeemed from ignorance and slavery; the woman whom God has endowed

with an intellect, a will and a heart, hers to cultivate and perfect

in order that she may be not the servant of man, but his companion,

not the subject of the king, but the queen enthroned by his side,

to be his faithful and constant ally from the cradle to the grave,

in prosperity and adversity, not only in the intimacy of the home,

but also in the wide arena of public life. Man and woman were created

to mate and to understand and love each other, to work, suffer, and

struggle side by side for all that is good and beautiful in life,

to perpetuate the sovereignty of human couple on earth, and to make

it a place of happiness, free from tyranny and suffering and fit to

be inhabited by peaceful and intelligent beings and not by vultures

and wild beasts.

This is the mission of woman and man on earth as I understand and

conceive it. Until man and woman are placed on exactly the same

footing, until they stand on the same plane, so that there can be

an intimate communion of thoughts, ideas, and interests, life will

always be ominous and unhappy for one or for the other, and humanity

will never overcome the evils with which it is now struggling. God

made woman as perfect as man, and it is unjust to deprive her of any

of the benefits and advantages which man derives from science, arts,

and politics. Politics is a noble occupation, as it is the art or

science of making nations happy, and it is but just that woman should

contribute her share to the attainment of that happiness.

Is there any doubt that woman has faculties, sentiments, views,

and methods of doing things of her own, different from those of

man? How often has man, when he did not dare to do a thing, left it

to woman to do! She has a personality of her own and should, like

man, be given an opportunity to develop it; she should be given a

voice where her own interests are concerned, and should on her own

account face the risks incidental to life, venturing, experimenting,

and discovering things for herself instead of having man establish an

invariable rule of conduct for her and imposing upon her the methods

which she must follow.

Politics is no longer what it should be; it has become too masculine

and is brutal, selfish, and altogether too personal, because it

lacks the kindness, the self-denial, the altruism, and the spirit of

sacrifice which are characteristic qualities of the feminine sex. Why

should we not benefit by the energy of woman, by her impulses and

her views of things, in order to improve our practices and methods in

public life? Perhaps, politics will be chastened and purified to some

extent by the intervention and presence of woman, just as her presence

at any gathering makes man more careful in language and actions!

Like a number of other institutions that are now a thing of the past,

the monopoly exercised by man over the public functions is based on

force and violence, and in order to perpetuate this monopoly, its

supporters take shelter behind the wall of prejudice erected in the

course of the times under the protection of the established order of

things, and from there they hurl the shafts of satire and ridicule

upon all who demand that this violent condition cease. Ridicule is

the most powerful weapon now used against the woman who attempts to

obtain justice and the vindication of the rights of her sex, some of

which rights, such as that of governing the peoples, were not even

withheld from them in many of the primitive states.

The result is that many persons have a very queer idea of the

suffragist. She is represented as a woman who dislikes home work and

is absent from her home at all hours of the day and night. The most

common picture is that in which the wife addresses a gathering of

other women, while the husband is busy at home, sweeping the floor

and attempting to pacify the squalling baby. This is the idea which

has been spread by cinematographs and reviews and which has impressed

itself upon the minds of the unthinking masses, who are incapable

of rising above a superficial view of things.

Nothing, however, is farther from representing her as she really

is. The suffragist is a true product of our era of liberty. Having

received the same education as man, she knows and does not shirk her

responsibilities towards her family; but at the same time she is free

from prejudice and deems it her duty to cooeperate with man in all work

concerning social reform and the public welfare of the community in

which she lives. She believes that for the very reason that there are

duties in the home which are assigned to woman, she has also duties to

perform in public life. The distribution of the work between man and

woman causes no conflict between them in their home and family life,

and there is no reason why there should be any conflict in public

life if each sex is assigned the duties adapted to it.

Being a suffragist does not mean being antagonistic to the family

duties. On the contrary, the suffragist realizes that the happiness

of the family is the foundation of the happiness of society, and she

knows that social distress and vices affect the family and that she

can and should cooeperate with man in the relief of that distress and

the suppression of those vices.

No, the general idea people have of the suffragist is altogether

a wrong one and it is high time that at least the educated and

intelligent correct their views where they are based on prejudices and

ideas belonging to the past. We can not prevent the uneducated masses

from thinking as they did half a century ago; but the fact that many

serious and otherwise progressive persons content themselves with

the opinion of the uneducated shows that here we do not go deep into

subjects and allow ourselves to be carried away by the impressions

of the moment.

Suffragism is a legitimate aspiration, an ideal of our century. It

springs from the philosophy and institutions of the modern world and

from the growing difficulty of the position of woman in the struggle

for existence. It is necessary for her to protect herself and organize,

not to create rivalry and make war upon man, but to become an asset

in the social progress and protect herself from the exploitation and

iniquity of the other social groups, whose victim she would become

if she remained indifferent and took no part in the public life.

As a man of the law and a legislator, I would not think of opposing

this aspiration. I consider it as natural as the right to live

and the right of self-defence. I do not consider it premature for

the Filipino woman to demand this right, as her sisters have done,

successfully in some cases, in other parts of the world. To me it

makes no difference that the number of those now demanding it is

small and insignificant. It would even make no difference to me if the

women of our country did not demand or want it at all. Where rights

fundamentally in accordance with the spirit of our institutions and

with the ideals of our times are to be granted, I would not consult

those who are entitled to demand them, but would give them without the

asking, because it would be just and God wants justice to prevail at

all times and everywhere. I am not a judge, but a legislator, and

it is my first duty to provide for justice, not to administer it,

nor wait for some one to ask for it and some one to object to it.

It is a source of gratification to me that there is a group of women

who, voicing the aspirations of their sex, have dared to approach

our Legislature and call attention to a void in our statutes. This

indicates to me that the consciousness of that right has been born and

has revealed its existence in the Filipino woman, and more than that

I need not know. I do not have to count and classify the women who

think that way. When Rizal espoused the cause of the political rights

of our race, his companions were very few, because in the majority of

his compatriots that consciousness was lying dormant. But it would

be a falsehood and an error to affirm that even at that time Rizal

did not voice the cause of his entire race, and that no attention

should be paid to his demands because he and those with him were

few in number. He knew that his country was oppressed, that he was

defending a just cause, and that he was fighting for the rights of

his fellow-citizens, and he did not stop to reflect whether or not

those fellow-citizens had the consciousness of their rights.

We must conclude, therefore, that the few women who now speak to

us of the rights of their sex and for suffrage, represent all the

Filipino women, unless we wish to insult our women by saying that

they have so little common sense as to oppose the concession to

them of rights that will broaden the scope of their lives and of

their activity in society. It matters but little that the desire

for suffrage appears in its initial stage, in the vague form of an

indefinite proposition: the fact is that there has been an indication

of that desire, and in my judgment the plant has germinated and it is

useless to endeavor to smother it, as it will grow again. The more

we delay female suffrage, the more shall we suffer by it, because

why should we stifle a budding plant instead of allowing it to grow

and in due season produce delicious fruit?

We need not imitate the older nations who have been so slow in

recognizing women's rights. We have neither their traditions nor their

prejudices and our progress need not come by slow revolutions. We

must foster all those peaceful revolutions of ideas that will

result in social justice. Just as we accept the latest inventions

in mechanics, industry, and art, such as the automobile, the dynamo,

and the aeroplane, so must we accept the latest improvements in the

social and political institutions of the most advanced countries.

Female suffrage spells justice and vindication for the modern

woman and we must adopt it forthwith, without unnecessary delay and

formalities. The liberty of worship which gave us religious tolerance;

the popular suffrage which strengthened our collective conscience; the

free public school which emancipated our masses from the tutelage of

the _cacique_: in short, all the achievements of democracy of which we

are so justly proud would not yet be beautiful realities and we would

not be able to enjoy their mature fruits as we now do, if we had been

compelled to feel our way and make many tentative steps instead of at

once entering fully upon our social and political life. We have to move

quickly and anticipate the aspirations of the feminine masses, which

are as yet vague, in order to save us the agitation which otherwise

is sure to come and the justice of which will have to be recognized.

When we are told that our social condition is such that we are not

ready for female suffrage, and that our women are not sufficiently

educated to exercise political rights, I feel like asking whether

we said the same thing when we imported and implanted in our country

the democratic institutions that are the base and foundation of our

present society. Our traditional education was diametrically opposed to

a popular system of government, yet we adopted that form of government,

because we considered it better than the other, more suited to our

interests and to the ideals of the century, and did not worry about

whether or not we were sufficiently educated and prepared for it.

It is more than twenty years now that the free public school has opened

its doors to the women, and education has extended its benefits to them

in the same proportion as to the men. Many of the women educated in

these schools are now wives or mothers, and yet you still ask whether

the Filipina has attained to the maturity necessary for her investment

with political rights. I am sure there is no idea of requiring them

all to be doctors or bachelors of art before we grant them the right

of suffrage.

A political education can not be acquired except by education, just

as you can not learn how to swim except by swimming. The argument

that the Filipina is not sufficiently prepared is a justification of

the attitude of a country which never finds its colonies sufficiently

prepared or educated to exercise the right of sovereignty themselves.