ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests that in appropriate measure, both reactions may be right for Filipino women— Philippine urbanism may be seen as a qualified good when one considers its effects on women's status, depending on which aspects of status are emphasized. One might see the modernizing influences in urban life as loosening traditional restraints on women. The occupational situation of Manila women, surprisingly, was not as good. Only as many Manila women were working as in rural areas, and the proportion in professional jobs was no greater. The neighborhood activity more common for rural women than for urban women was beautification—in connection, one assumes, with one of the ubiquitous civic campaigns of Imelda Marcos. Controlling education did not change the relationship between area and the sharing of household tasks: Small-city women still did less than others; Manila women did more. Urbanism appears to have a salubrious effect on women in small cities. In large cities, its effect is clearly less favorable.
