Complex State-Society Interactions and the Uneven Progress of Women's Rights: The Case of Contraception in the Philippines

Abstract

This thesis examines the uneven progress among women’s rights at the national level, particularly in terms of the deeply contested nature of sexual and reproductive rights. It sets out to provide a critical understanding of the processes behind when and why states are able to enact gender equality policies and not others by applying complexity and intersectionality theories with a specific focus on overlapping structures of power and multiple inequalities. Using the issue of public funding for contraceptives in the Philippines as a case study, this research illustrates the peculiar difficulties faced and opposition mobilised by sexual and reproductive rights, despite significant advances in other areas of women’s rights in the country. On one hand, it studies the role of state leaders in setting the tone of state-society interactions over contraception by looking at not just how different presidents frame their policy strategies but also the ramifications of their relationship with religious authorities for variations in approach. On the other hand, it also investigates the role of coalitions in shaping agendas and effecting change according to power differentials between and within coalitions. The analysis undertaken in this research is interpretive and multi-level which means piecing together the interrelations between various levels of identities, institutions and ideologies. However, it goes beyond speech and texts to also interpret textual meanings in light of actual practices or behaviours. Thus, it also involves assessing how institutions privilege certain actors, behaviours, and ideas. Data was gathered using multiple methods and sources ranging from conducting semi-structured, keyinformant interviews; legal documents; news articles; reports by international organisations; government and non-government publications; to utilising social media. Based on the Philippine experience, government provision of contraceptives goes against multiple systems of oppression making it even harder to effect change in this issue area. Specifically, it mobilises opposition from religious authorities and conservative elites who can at once be economically and politically dominant. But in as much as policy processes are multi-layered, they are also complex and open to unpredictability. Without necessarily overhauling unequal power structures, change can come with strategic institutional learning and the opening of windows of opportunities.