Part 3

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 coöperate 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 coöperate 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.

The other day, when I made a flight in a seaplane for the sake of the experience, I felt--I frankly admit it--some apprehension, a certain fear of the unknown, but after the first few moments were happily past, I felt perfectly comfortable and enjoyed the flight through space and the view of the magnificent landscape far below me. Ah, it is beautiful to cleave the air like a swallow and to ride upon the clouds and the winds of heaven, looking down upon the cities and human dwellings spread like a relief map upon the crystal sheet of the waters, to traverse enormous distances in a few minutes almost without noticing it, and to emulate in everything the bird and like the bird to alight suddenly, without fatigue and physical hardships. When the voyage was over, I realized that my apprehension and fear had been unfounded; that it was not more risky to fly through space on an aeroplane than to speed across country on an automobile, and I then realized the numerous advantages to be derived from the flying machine, that product of our time which is destined to revolutionize not only warfare, but also the pursuits of peace.

The same thing occurs with all new ideas and reforms of a moral and political order. They are adopted with the instinctive fear, the vague apprehension inspired by the new and unknown. There is much talk of their objectional features and dangers for the established order of things. You might think the firmament was going to crumble to pieces or the world was threatening to go out of joint. However, after the innovation has been made, it is found to be quite natural and logical, because things go on in their natural course, the heavenly bodies continue in their orbits as before and the mountain peaks do not slide down into the valleys. Courage and hope are born again in the human breast, the masses get used to the new state of affairs, and soon even the most recalcitrant would be furious if any one should propose to return to the old order of things. This has happened in our country before, and has always been and always will be the way in which progress is worked out.

We must make up our minds to overcome our scruples and fears. If in discussing the aeroplane, we were to speak of nothing but of the number of aviators who have been killed, we would never accept that invention. We must embark in one in order to prove to ourselves that our fears and apprehensions are unfounded. Sight must not be lost of the fact that suffragism is not a new thing in the world, that it is far from being an experiment and is already an established fact in some countries. Exactly the same as the aeroplane: if we desire to become acquainted with the advantages of that apparatus, we do not ask those who have never traveled in it, but those who have experimented with it, and if we wish to know the advantages of suffragism, we must not listen to those who oppose it as a matter of principle and theory, but must consult countries that have made experiments with it and have already had a chance to see its results. We must take note of the fact that suffragism is gaining in strength every day and is becoming a general movement in the countries where it has found acceptance. Exactly like the aeroplane. Would it not be perfectly ridiculous to declaim against the aeroplane on account of the accidents that are liable to occur, and would we not be stupid to refuse to follow the lead of other governments who utilize its advantages for defence or aggression in war and for rapid communication in time of peace? And is it not just as stupid and even senseless to oppose suffragism on speculative or rather hypothetical grounds, instead of being guided by the experience of other countries in this respect and accepting suffragism as part and parcel of our modern customs and institutions?

In conclusion, permit me to quote a few passages on this subject from an address which I made at an entertainment given at the Opera House in honor of Rizal by various schools for young ladies in 1913:

According to the old idea, woman's sphere of action should not extend beyond the home, beyond her domestic occupations, and she should be nothing but the glory and delight of her husband and her children. This is not right. Like man, woman is born and lives in society, and she can not and must not remain indifferent to social distress and suffering. To think otherwise would be selfishness and aberration and would leave society a prey to much suffering which only the blessed hand of woman can cure or relieve. Let woman be the glory and happiness of the home; but do not forget that she must extend her beneficent action beyond the confines of the household, that she must make the world outside the participant of the wealth of kindness and charity that bountiful Providence has lavished upon her. Just as she shares the duties of life with man within the home, so should she without it, in public life, share with man the responsibility of remedying and alleviating public distress and misfortune.

It is very significant that beneficence, charity, and morality are feminine virtues, it being woman's mission to exercise all these virtues in society. She must take a part, and should, in my opinion, always take the initiative, in all work for the protection of the orphans, the relief of distress, and the elevation of the standard of public morality. She must strive and suffer, in the society in which she is living, for all that is feminine in life, must with a wave of her hand attenuate the fierceness of the struggle for existence, and must brighten the gloomy night of human suffering with her gentle presence. Our country needs not only the strength of her men, but the kindness and charity of her women; she needs not only heroes, but also heroines. And heroines exist and always have existed in the history of humankind; and there are and always have been heroines in our country, the special privilege of which, according to serious foreign authors, consists in its women being superior to its men.

And the girls who to-day pay homage to Rizal and dedicate their songs and prayers to him, will to-morrow be citizenesses who will not, like unhappy Maria Clara, be made the victims of social injustice, but will help to banish social injustice and strive for justice, virtue, and the glory and greatness of their native land.

Yes; I cherish that hope and have faith in the liberty of woman. It is not possible to keep one-half of humanity in the upper part and the other half in the lower part of the balance without producing disequilibrium, tears, and suffering. Everything tends to reach the same level in life, the same as in death, the great leveller. Humanity has seen a new light which will shine brightly, though error and prejudice may endeavor to shroud it with darkness. Woe to those who refuse to see the light! The world continues to progress and stops for no one. He who wishes to lag behind is free to do so, but he will surely deplore it afterwards.

I can not prophesy what will be the outcome of the efforts which the Filipino women are now making to obtain suffrage; but I know that these efforts must be to them, and are to us, a source of pride and glory, because they show that there is no part of our people which has remained indifferent to the great movements of the century. There are persons who scoff at them and many shrug their shoulders; but this must not discourage our women, because neither scoffing nor shrugging the shoulders are very weighty arguments. The same persons who now laugh at them and shrug their shoulders, probably because they do not know that the world and society are moving and progressing, will some day recognize that these women were in the right, just as the men who scoffed at Rizal lived to deplore their mistake and have since made amends.

What we must do is to diffuse the light and spread the new doctrines, in order to convince those who unwittingly refuse to see justice and truth, the only firm foundations of the stability and prosperity of civilized society.

Senado de Filipinas Quinta Legislatura Filipina, Primer período de sesiones