Within the marriage, the wife is the servant, the "helper" of her husband.
While the Catholic Church has changed its position on the role of filipina women in marriage, the Church in the Philippines has done little to change that mindset.
As a result, filipina women in urban areas still view themselves in the role of "helper".
And help she does, she helps everyone. In rural areas she belongs in the home.
It is her that the children approach for money and help. She supports the education.
If others outside the family need support of some sort, they approach the wife.
However, the wife is not the one who gives out the money.
She follows the final decision of her husband. Mama holds the respect, Papa holds the power.
In urban areas filipina single girls are liberating themselves with the influence of westernization.
While still culturally taboo for a filipina single girl to ask a man on a date or show interest in him, more and more woman use body language to show their openness to a relationship.
However it is in their work that filipina girls and Subanen tribal women find their pride.
Unlike Western culture filipina women do not feel alienated from what they do.
It is because they work with their family, a job which is the most dignified of all jobs, that they pride themselves on their strong sense of responsibility.
The family and the children are the priority in a woman's life. Filipina women make their families work.
Divorce is seen as not only negative and destructive, but impossible if you consider that the core social unit is the family.
Keep this attitude in mind because we are not dealing with a Western culture.
The question for the wife is not what her rights are, but how is she going to take care of her family.
Divorce is not a solution then to any problem in the marriage because it does not help the smallest community unit.
A filipina girl who leaves her marriage through divorce will remarry.
But the divorce and remarriage does not deal with the problems she had before her divorce.
Likewise, if a man divorces his wife because the marriage doesn't "work", he will only remarry another filipina woman and encounter the same problems.
In the end, you have two marriages with big problems instead of one.
And in the end, you have two families that are destined to fail.
Therefore, the problems between men and women must be fixed within a marriage.
