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Reaction paper of ‘The Young Women Of Malolos’ on Gender Equality.

By Jose Rizal

I. Summary

Jose Rizal wrote an essay addressed to all kinds of women. In this essay, he wrote his expression of
being a feminist and his pride by the fighting spirit that the Malolos women portrayed. This impressed
Rizal immensely and nudged him to express more on feminism. He was concerned on women being
oppressed and gave his strong opinion on gender equality.

II. Highlights

Rizal gave important notes that married women should portray like the responsibility they hold to their
children, the qualities they have to posses in order to be a great mother and the wife’s duty to her
spouse. Rizal also gave his say to unmarried women like creating standards to her future partner and
drawing lines as to how men should behave towards her. He also gave counseling to the general
woman audience and helped them realize their worth. Most importantly, he stood strong for gender
equality as a message to all.

III. Reaction

It’s hard to think of a time where women weren’t able to attend universities to learn and have little
freedom to do whatever they want in life. The role of women in the society is much lower to the role of
Men. We should have the same opportunities as what is received by men.

I definitely agree to the standard Jose Rizal set in his essay on gender equality. I am born to a liberated
generation and I don’t see a problem on female liberty. However its concerning to point out that some
feminists think feminism is gaining superiority to undermine men. I believe feminism means women
fighting for their rights in order to be seen equal as men because even to this day, some women are
still being oppressed.

A lot of women could benefit reading the essay because I feel as if we are gradually forgetting the way
Filipino women conduct themselves. We treasure appearances than values that it’s the first thing we
look for. We forget to look at a man’s character and his lofty ideas. On the other hand, its imperative
that we educate ourselves properly so we can think for ourselves than follow the trend. We are the
primary source of who would lead the next generation so its very important mothers teach her child
manners.
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Reaction paper of ‘The Young Women Of Malolos’ on Feminism.

By Jose Rizal

I. Summary

This is a short essay regarding a particular young woman from Malolos, where she stood up to her
beliefs. This essay is Jose Rizal’s legacy to Filipino women giving his thoughts on everything they
should embody and practice.

II. Highlights

Rizal gave me so much to ponder about like his advices to unmarried women. He states that we, single
woman, must find a man who is noble and has an honored name. He must have a manly heart. He,
most importantly, must have a high spirit incapable of being satisfied with engendering or breeding
slaves. We woman should protect our dignity and honor and lastly, educate ourselves with the world
aside from retaining good racial values.

III. Reaction

There is no gender limit to education as much as there is no gender limit to learning household work.
My dad says that a man who can clean and cook like a woman is a rare gem. Everyone should be
independent to his own action and independent to his own mind. Rizal mentioned that education is the
fundamental source of liberation. Everyone must educate themselves to sharpen their opinion
especially women who are shy to speak their minds. As a woman, I try to acquire as much knowledge I
can and deliberately serve my opinion when asked. Rizal reminds us to stop being ignorant and indulge
ourselves to what happened in the past and what is happening in the present to formulate a better
future.

Jose Rizal surely reminded me of my father’s standards as well. I see my father who struggled raising
two daughters and a little boy alone. He never got home drunk nor imposed physical punishments, I
never saw him smoke a cigar and definitely only saw him drink on special occasions like his parent’s
golden wedding. My father cooks a mean rib eye steak, dusts the windows spotless and washes our
uniforms all the while working an 8- hour shift until we were old enough to split the chores. He set the
bar high which is why I am ever so picky with men. However, he has one hard limit: No Boys until there
is a stash of saved up money from our paychecks. This is his way of reminding us to care for our
dignity and honor mentioned by Rizal. Just like my father, Rizal reminds me that I am an equal and
should not tolerate being seen less.
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Reaction paper of ‘The Young Women Of Malolos’ on Filipino Indolence.

By Jose Rizal

I. Summary

La Indolencia de los Filipinos, is Spanish for the Indolence of the Filipinos, is another essay written by
Jose Rizal. It is an essay that elucidates putative Filipino idleness during the Spanish term because of
his opinion that the Spanish colonization shift Philippines’ economic movement negatively.

II. Highlights

Rizal stresses on our country’s economic declination because of the Galleon Trade, which cut off
previous Asian trading, foreign invaders and pirates, poor education, extinguished native love of work,
bad role models in manual labor, gambling, crooked system of religion where Filipinos believe that poor
people go to heaven because they live a simpler life all while they become richer, and lastly, extremely
high rate of taxes.

III. Reaction

Our country till this very day is still struggling economically. In my Sociology class last week, we
watched a short film concerning Filipino farmers aged 57 above still farming to earn a living. There was
a decline in agriculture students shown in that film and it proves our extinguished love of work. Farming
is seen as a poor man’s job while doctors are praised not knowing of how equally necessary they are in
an economy.

Bad Role Model still exists because most Filipinos are not time conscious. Do we need to meet at
exactly 5:00 PM in the afternoon? Foreigners would arrive 5 minutes before the allotted time while
Filipinos will leave their homes at 5:00 PM or 5:30 PM. Children would pick-up the habit of being late
from their parents making it a cycle.

We still struggle from high taxes too, because of corruption. There have been no strict rules on
government corruption imposed by the previous presidents, which is why our land has been
progressing painfully slow.

Crooked Religion still play its part with priests asking for church donations in bills than coins, owning
expensive cars and creating acts defying the scripture like rape and thievery.