Feminism in Philippine Mainstream Short Stories in English

Abstract

Abstract-The study analyzed the award-winning short stories in English using Cheri Register's Feminist Perspective Criticism. Specifically, it determined the images and emerging roles of women as reflected in the short stories and the motives and reasons behind these images and emerging roles.Only the short stories with female characters, major or minor were the subject of the study.The Filipino woman manifested the following images: submissiveness to authority, frailty to human desires, assertiveness to socio-cultural conditions and responsiveness to the changing times. Almost all the women characters in the short stories under study are modern in their outlook in life. It can be gleaned that women are breaking loose from their historic cocoon which contained them for many years. They can now control their own emotions and rule their own lives.Women are no longer confined to their traditional roles as wife and mother in the home. They have asserted their equality in almost all aspects of life. They have confirmed that sex is not a determinant of a person's capacity and ability to stand as an individual.The study claimed that the score or two decades, 1981-2000 had been a time for Filipino writers to give another light to the status of women in society-that is espousing salient features of feminism.The study further confirmed that the economic conditions in the woman's world, dynamic social situations and emergence of moral concerns paved way for the surfacing roles and images of Filipino women.

Rewriting Herstory: Feminist Perspectives in Contemporary Short Stories

“…According to Dials (2017), Filipino women today are faced with challenges in this complex world. Women have created identities throughout history.…”