FILOMENA NAVARRO COLENDRINO’S WHY WOMEN WASH THE

DISHES

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A Feminist Analysis
Presented to Ms. Kieth Candace C. Obero
Letran de Davao Inc.

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By:

Reina C. Nishiyama
Zoe Rob Quiapo
St.Benedict and Scholastica

December 5, 2018

INTRODUCTION
 Have you ever wondered, why women wash the dishes?, why not men?.
It is all because of this legend written by Filomena Navarro Colendrino "Why
Women Wash the Dishes".

About the Author

The Story of “Why Women Wash The Dishes” was written

by Filomena Navarro Colendrino. She was a prolific short story writer and has a
collection of these stories in a book entitled “Home to the Rice Fields”.
Unfortunately there are only a few websites that can give any information about
her and her works and one of them is Ma’am A (not her real name) from the
website lexetmusica.blogspot.com who claims to be the granddaughter of the
sister of Filomena on her father's side. And from what she could remember is
that in their home in Quezon City there used to be a whole bookshelf containing
copies of Filomena’s books until years later the number of copies stored in the
bookshelf dwindled until only one was left. Also the fact that Filomena trained in
the Uk back when people traveled to places by boat and rarely by plane.
And when Ma’am A came to visit her in her home then in Quezon City, she
would always look at her photographs of her travels in UK as well as other
places where the boat and sometimes the airplane would take her – all around
Europe and some parts of the Middle East. Ma’am A then understood that
Filomena went to Cambridge on a scholarship grant after she won several
awards for her story writing – I believe the best awarded was “Why Women
Wash The Dishes”. Then, when she came back from the UK, she went into
teaching in Private schools and later became Superintendent of Private Schools in
one of the upper Luzon regions (where Baguio City is). She would often show
Ma’am A pictures of her leading PRISAA meets because she was the Private
Schools superintendent. And when she retired, she either spent her time in her
home tending her plants or off somewhere visiting some exotic country at first
and then much closer home later in our native land. The best thing Ma’am A can
remember about Filomena in her childhood is that she promised to take her with
her when she said she would travel all around Asia. But of course, she died
before this could happen and Ma’am A felt really sad about losing her even
before she could know her better and ask her everything there is to know about
writing the way she wrote.

Summary
 “Why Women Wash The Dishes” is a story about a married couple named
Hugo (Ka Ugong) and Imelda (Ka Maldang) who lived in the town of Santa Rosa
who always quarreled over the chore of washing the dishes. Imelda would scold
Hugo if he refused to wash the dishes. Sometimes she would become angry and
call him names, and if he talked back she would get coconut midrib broom and
chase him with it. He would run to the house of his compadre and hide there till
his wife’s anger had passed. Then one day as they were finishing eating their
lunch the two decided a wager to settle their quarrel once and for all. A wager
where the first one to speak after the game begins will ALWAYS wash the
dishes. Neither move nor talk once the game began and not leaving each other
sides as they fear that one would talk to him self without the other’s hearing.
They sat there just staring. Until a neighbor discovered them in such a way and
when they refused to move or talk just like a statue the neighbors decided to call
for the village herb-man, yet even with the herb man’s ritual the two still didn’t
speak nor move which made the herb-man ordered the men to make two coffins
for the couple as there is nothing they can do for the couple. So Ka Ugong was
put into his coffin and then Ka Maldang but Ka Maldang is afraid to be put in the
coffin so she opened her eyes and quickly pushed the men saying to not touch
her. As a response, Ka Ugong leaped from the coffin and shouted towards Ka
Maldang that he won as she spoke first. And after that moment Ka Ugong never
wash dishes.

Definition of the Approach

Feminist literary criticism (also known as feminist criticism) is the

literary analysis that arises from the viewpoint of feminism, feminist
theory and/or feminist politics. The basic methods of feminist literary criticism
include:

 Identifying with female characters: By examining the way female

characters are defined, critics challenge the male-centered outlook
of authors. Feminist literary criticism suggests that women in
literature have been historically presented as objects seen from a
male perspective.
 Reevaluating literature and the world in which literature is
read: By revisiting the classic literature, the critic can question
whether society has predominantly valued male authors and their
literary works because it has valued males more than females.
 A feminist literary critic resists traditional assumptions while reading a
text. In addition to challenging assumptions which were thought to be universal,
feminist literary criticism actively supports including women's knowledge in
literature and valuing women's experiences.

Guide Questions and Discussions

A. Does the work challenge or affirm traditional views of women?

The work has somewhat challenge and affirm traditional views on women
as it is clearly seen in the story how Ka Maldang stood up against Ka Ugong and
in the traditional views on women, women are seen as submissive towards their
husband and do not argue with them as it is believed then that men are far more
superior to women and this clearly does not show on the story. We can also say it
somewhat affirms to the traditional views on women as it is stated in the story
that Ka Maldang do all the household chores in the house while Ka Ugong works
in the fields and in a traditional sense, it is an already known fact that women do
the household chores while men do the working. As a matter of fact, many
people still believe in these traditional views on women.

B. How do the images of woman in the story reflect patriarchal social forces that
have impeded women's efforts to achieve full equality with men?

The images of women in the story that reflect patriarchal social forces that
have impeded women’s efforts to achieve full equality with men are emotions
and pride. Emotions because society seems to believe emotions hinder women to
make the right decisions or choices and women are often the emotional one’s and
sometimes let these emotions cloud their better judgement which the society find
quite inferior to men who are believed to have much more control on their
emotions and are naturally intelligent just like in the story where Ka Ugong
didn’t even budge when he was being put in a coffin while Ka Maldang has yet
to be put on a coffin is quick to have her fear control over her and act without
thinking which led her to lose against Ka Ugong. Also the other one is pride, one
of the greatest hindrance to equality because most women has this mindset that
equality with men means doing things that men can also do and there are some
who tried to prove it but no matter what they do, it is a fact that there are certain
things that men can only do and certain things that women can only do and if
they would just look at it in a different perspective, we could say men and
women are already equal, it’s just the society making it look like women are
inferior to men.

C. Is the form and content of the work influenced by the writer's gender?

No, we think that the form and content of the work is not influenced by
the writer’s gender because Filomena Colendrino is a woman and why would
she write a story that would further make the society believe that women are
really meant for doing household chores. Also because she let Ka Maldang, the
female character in the story lose against the bet of her husband and if that were
us we would make our own gender win the bet regardless how impossible it
sounds.
 REFERENCES

Linda Napikoski, “Feminist Literary Criticism.” 28 November 2018.

https://www.thoughtco.com/feminist-literary-criticism-3528960

JoanneSuan, “Why Women Wash Dishes?.” 14 February 2012.

http://blissfultjoanne.blogspot.com/2012/02/why-women-wash-
dishes.html

Ma’am A, “FILOMENA COLENDRINO and the Story "Why Women Wash

Dishes." 8 January 2012

http://lexetmusica.blogspot.com/2012/01/filomena-colendrino-and-
story-why-women.html