Mobilization for Gender Equality and the Role of the Catholic Church in the Case of the Philippines

In addition to the scholarship on the return of Catholic groups as major oppositional forces to gender and sexuality policy developments in Europe, the following paper aims at diverting attention to non-Western contexts. Through the analysis of the case of the Philippines, the paper will delineate how the Catholic Church has never stopped influencing the areas of gender equality and sexuality. The Philippines has been recognized as a forerunner in Southeast Asia in terms of gender equality advancements in legislative, electoral and bureaucratic spheres. Simultaneously, reproductive health rights are highly contested and abortion and divorce are still illegal. While it is well documented that the Catholic Church of the Philippines has been continuously curtailing advancements in the sphere of reproductive health rights, the paper will demonstrate that the Church in fact – albeit unintentionally – has mobilized and trained some of the main supporters of gender equality. The Catholic tradition in the Philippines is a legacy of a four hundred years long colonial reigning under Spain, which was heavily challenged once the United States took the colonial power over the Philippine islands. Endangered by the secular ideas of the United States, the Catholic Church of the Philippines created widespread and inclusive programs on grassroots activism and social action. This strong organizational structure served as an arena for mobilization and training of the gender activists that channelled vast number of gender equality advancements in the period of democratic transition. Furthermore, under Ferdinand Marcos, Church based organizations were the only safe spaces for the consolidation of gender equality strategies. Hence, the paper will delineate how a generation of strong gender activists was created from nuns and church based community organizers. The theoretical claims put forward by this paper will be supported with interviews, document analysis and archival research.