Abraham Maslow, (1954) who is noted for his Hierarchy of Needs Theory did not precisely exclude women when he stipulated that "man's needs are arranged in a hierarchy with physiological needs at the base followed by security, belonging, recognition and self-actualization. And if these needs are in a stairway, then a woman aspiring for true satisfaction in living may not hurry. You can take it one step at a time.
For this hierarchy of human needs is not rigid, which means that you need not have to fully satisfy your lower-level needs before higher-level needs can emerge as determinant for your behavior. You can prioritize different needs at different times. As partly an animal, you cannot exist without minimum satisfaction of physiological needs such as air, water, food and shelter. But because you are more than animal, you cannot live fully by bread alone. You have social, psychological and spiritual needs which have to be met., Unless these are met, you cannot develop your characteristically human potential.
Basic human needs such as air, food and shelter; belonging and "ego" satisfactions (including self-esteem, recognition from others and opportunities for achievement, self actualization and self-development) act as powerful, though often, unconscious motivator of behavior. Inner motivation can be more decisive for behavior than any external influence (Maslow, 1954).
Exposed to the economic realities of home due to day-to-day battling with the ever-increasing costs of food, shelter, clothing, education, utilities and luxuries of modern living, you can consider economic and socila upliftment of living condition of prime importance, hence the first step.
With the cooperation between you and your husband as when a higher family income is achieved, the economic desire becomes satisfied and you may now seek for the next higher level of needs in security which may take the form of savings, investments or a family business.
This Maslowinian theory of human motivation is not really a "magic wand". Some have spent their lifetime to transcend even beyond the base level.
Beyond mere physical existence, you go to the next level: the need to belong, to give and receive affection and loyalty, to use and develop your powers, and to spend your energies in the service of something you believe in.
Psychologists are in unison that deep and lasting satisfaction can be achieved only to the extent that high level needs are met. The higher level of the need, the greater the power to experience enduring satisfaction. So why stop yourself from achieving such lasting satisfaction by being a mere housewife all your life?
This yearning to satisfy a higher need is also unstoppable according to Maslow. The satisfaction of a need such as achievement or self-development does not blunt a person's appetite, but heightens it in search of higher goals.
Maslow's theory is an interesting departure in explaining women's desire to seek the best of two worlds. This issue takes paramount importance as we realize that women represent 49.83 per cent of our population today. This number is a vital factor not only in sociological point of view but also in our national quest for economic development. This woman power can be a significant force than can be mobilized for people empowerment to attain our present dream to reach a "New Industrialized Country" NIC status for year 2000.
Had our indigenous history not been interrupted by 300 years of Spanish rule, we would have been so much at home seeing women in equal status with men in all areas of endeavor. The pre-Spanish women enjoyed equal educational privileges ans social respect as men. They were allowed to engage in trade, industry and politics. If she were heiress, she was eligible to head the barangay or community (Salonga, 1988).
The Spaniards' propensity to "machoism" imposed the conservative, half-educated and subservient-to-man woman as the model of the times. What's worse was the seeming life-long subjugation as the woman passed from her parent's authority to her husband's authority when she married. Her status in law was equated with that of infants, idiots and lunatics (Romero, 1988).
We Filipino women should be a bit thankful to the Americans who feeling that women's subjugation should not include their minds accorded us equal access to the free public school and freed us from mental darkness.
A great chain that bound women's rights was broken in 1907 with the suffragette movement that made itself felt all over the world as different countries started granting their women the right to vote. The Filipino women's newly acquired literacy emboldened them to form a local suffrage movement until finally, the 1935 Constitution granted them the right to vote, a right we cherish and enjoy today.
This access to education and freedom of suffrage failed to erode the rocks of male superiority over women in Philippine society. Up to the present, the entrenched traditional, cultural religious attitudes still prevail relegating women to secondary roles. This tendency prevails in the practice of employers of giving low priority in hiring women and in the negative attention given to women's concerns by national government planners and policy makers (Romero, 1983).
Two of the most important pieces of legislation that greatly changed the status of Filipino women are the new Civil Code and the new Family Code. The new Civil Code allows a woman to transact business without the prior consent of her husband and to dispose of property which she brought into the marriage. The Family Code grants her the right to pursue a career and seek annulment of a miserable marriage.
But what is important now is for us to rise from negative perceptions and be partners of our husbands in our quest for a better world. Living the best of two worlds as my mother have envisioned should not obliterate that male desire for superiority over females but for us to capitalize on it by becoming their inspiration in the fulfillment of their aspirations for the betterment of the family and the nation, by rocking the cradle to produce leaders of the world and by growing and fulfilling ourselves in the process of discovering and using our potentials for a more productive world.
"Remember this. You look at the skyscraper, a monolith structure, a monumental edifice 40 storeys high. There is a small stone or dust of cement as part of a big block that rises at the highest point. And you're not a stone nor a cement dust. You're a human being. You're not an ordinary mortal, you're a woman. So why not reach the zenith!"
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