Abstract:
The research aims to answer if the concept of women's vote, or the
behavior of women as a voting bloc, exists in the rural areas of the Philippines. It
adopts the standpoint theory as the framework for analysis, with the event of
gaining the women's right to vote as the starting point of the women5s experience
in the electoral process. The conceptual framework draws political socialization,
presence of pro-women policies of the state, and the presence of nongovernmental
organizations as the independent variables responsible for the
development of the concept. The perception of respondents from rural areas
regarding the concept of women's vote and their acceptance that a women's vote
is needed serve as the intervening variables of the study.
Women's vote developed from a type of democracy that the American
regime implanted on the country. Women then begun to have the access to the
electoral process. The Western theoretical discourses on women5s vote claims that
it stops there. Women's vote exists when women's issues are addressed by the
government. However, the progressive view contests the idea, saying that legal
standards are still patriarchal in nature and the involvement of women in the
political arena must go beyond voting before it can be considered as gender
equality.
After the enumeration of standards for the development of the women's
vote, a case study was conducted to test the perception of women of the concept.
It was found that they are perceptive but the concept fails to be operationalized
due to the hindrances posed by limited political participation and a cynical view
towards politics.
The research then analyzes why the women's vote, as claimed by all key
informants, does not exist. The researcher then finds through similar case studies
that the matenal condition of women, being tied to economic issues and the
gender role, makes the progressive idea on women's vote possible but can only be
achieved through intense electoral education.
