Family Planning in the Philippines: Gender Equality and Rights

Introduction

This paper explores planned parenting in the Philippines as it relates to gender equality rights and cultural preferences, using an anthropological perspective and analysis. The paper begins by outlining the evolution of family planning perceptions in the Philippines through recent history and defines how previous perceptions have influenced male and female responsibilities regarding planned parenting. The paper explores this subject using an applied anthropology approach, investigating human behavior and its applications to contemporary issues — in this case, planned parenting. This approach offers a view of human behavior in the Philippines grounded in cultural exploration and the actions resulting from such cultural investigation.

Background to the Study

A report provided by the Republic of the Philippines Fertility Survey, part of the World Fertility Survey, found that in the 1980s only three of every ten women who wanted no children used an efficient method of contraception, and fewer than half of those exposed to preventive methods reported they would consider using them (WHO, 1981). Women most likely to accept or use contraception included college graduates or those who had graduated from high school, with up to 68 percent of college graduates using some form of contraception when pregnancy prevention was sought (WHO, 1981). Of the survey participants, roughly half reported affiliation with the Catholic Church, with Muslim followers reporting the least interest in contraceptive methods. Recent studies confirm that lack of family planning remains a substantive issue in the Philippines, despite women's affirmations and desires to have fewer children (Lakshminarayanan, 2003), as will be demonstrated in the historical analysis of family planning presented below.

Evolution of Family Planning Perceptions in the Philippines

To understand the evolution of family planning perceptions in the Philippines, one must take an ethnographic approach to exploring the historical culture of planned parenting and gender in the country. Ethnography is the description of cultures derived from a researcher's observations and analysis of the culture under study (NPS, n.d.). Ethnography can explain "systems of meaning, ways of organizing society and material culture or body of learned behaviors common to a given human society" (NPS, n.d.). The results of this study show that multiple factors affect family planning, including cultural beliefs, political policies, and access to education.

Baretto (1974) notes that in early 1972 the Bureau of Census statistics, working with other agencies interested in international development, began sampling families living in the Philippines to explore their "knowledge, attitudes, and practice" — a mini-ethnographic evaluation of the culture and their ideas about family planning (p. 294). This survey focused on sampling households including married women between the ages of 15 and 49, with a total of more than 11,000 households interviewed. According to Baretto (1974), "large" families are the cultural norm in the Philippines. While there is evidence in Baretto's studies and observations that a trend began in the early 1970s moving away from the concept of a large family, most of the study participants had large families. Based on observations and census reports conducted at the time, most households included three or four children, with women surveyed reporting they did not want additional children.

Study results from the census bureau, as well as results from a 1968 demographic survey of Philippine women, suggested that in 1968 roughly 39 percent of women expressed an interest in families with fewer than four children, with that number increasing to almost 66 percent by 1972 (Baretto, 1974, p. 294). This suggests a growing interest among women living in the Philippines in having fewer children. The study results acquired by Baretto (1974) suggested the move toward smaller family size took hold more strongly in rural than in urban areas. When questioned about family planning, most survey participants — as many as 86 percent — indicated they were aware of contraception, with most women able to identify at least one measure of protection against pregnancy. Despite this, there is little evidence that women were motivated to use any method available to them at the time of the study. Traditional and natural methods of planned parenting, including the rhythm method, were most commonly reported as "known" methods of contraception; however, a sharp increase in knowledge of preventive measures is indicated between the 1968 and 1972 surveys (Baretto, 1974).

Laidlaw and Stockwell (1980) observed that there was positive evidence supporting the desire among third-world countries, including the Philippines, to reduce their rate of population growth through regulated birth control measures. The surveyors noted that at the time of publication roughly 2.5 billion people, or 58 percent of the world's population, lived in areas of Asia where the statistical rate of population growth reached roughly 1.8 percent per year (Laidlaw & Stockwell, 1980). In Southeast Asian countries including the Philippines, the rate of population growth at the time of review was higher, at 3.3 percent — higher than in most other Southeast and Middle South Asian countries (Laidlaw & Stockwell, 1980).

In a study published by the World Health Organization task force in 1980 (WFS, 1980), factors influencing women's choice and use of fertility control methods included their education on contraceptive alternatives, the attitudes of service providers, and a woman's own attitudes toward contraception. In this particular study, the WHO found that women in the Philippines largely preferred use of the IUD when educated about its benefits and when husbands approved of efforts toward family planning (WFS, 1980).

Gallen (1982) conducted a study of abortions in the Philippines, noting that roughly 31 percent of women using this method of pregnancy termination reported they had no knowledge of family planning methods before becoming pregnant. The rate of women using contraception following such a procedure, however, often doubled, as many practitioners worked to provide educational services to their clients. Half of clients receiving an abortion at the time of this study were provided with information and advice about family planning when they sought assistance from a private or community practitioner, while fewer than one-third of women seeking hospitalization for side effects of self-induced abortion were provided advice on family planning (Gallen, 1982, p. 43).