Feminism and the Women's Movement in the Philippines: Struggles, Advances, and Challenges woman question” expanded to include in­depth analysis of the various manifestations of patriarchy. More importantly, women's groups underscored the need to resolve gender problems at the personal level. They provided support to friends, both within and outside the movement, who were either victims of sexual abuse by the military during the Martial Law period or who had problems with their marriages and family members. PILIPINA, founded by social development advocates, envisioned a'Philippine society where women possess dignity, autonomy, and equality'(Santos, Perrena and Fabros, 2007: 11) and proactively engaged in social work and capacity-building for women. It has always seen development work as an arena for its advocacy, where the private issues of women intersected with the public realm(Santos, et al., 2007:11). PILIPINA defines women's liberation in many ways: liberation from sexual and domestic violence,'liberation from the dominance of global capitalism, which relegates Third World countries to the status of wage labor, and Third World women to the lowest end of this labor: piece work, sexual services;' liberation from unemployment; liberation from the prospect of environmental disaster(Estrada-Claudio, 2005). The leadership of the organization was instrumental in the formation of the Women's Action Network for Development(WAND) 4 and of the party-list Abanse! Pinay. KALAYAAN, on the other hand, was more similar to MAKIBAKA in its active engagement on issues of national importance. Estrada-Claudio(2005) noted that'the major call“ Kalayaan ng Bayan, Kalayaan ng Kababaihan, Sabay Nating Ipaglaban! ”(Let us simultaneously fight for the freedom of the land and of women) was to a large extent a veering away from the primacy of class struggle and a broadening and deepening of the Marxist/socialist perspective that had imbued the national democratic struggle.' Further, Estrada-Claudio(2005) observed that while the founders were all activists and cadres of the national democratic movement, it accepted members from various political streams as well as women from neutral political positions. These broad types of members contributed to a'delightful tension of politics' (Estrada-Claudio, 2005) that later on led to its feminist politics of'the personal is political', which meant that the personal experiences of the members could form the basis for the various issues and problems that feminism would like to address such as discrimination, exploitation and oppression of women. KALAYAAN was indeed a direct predecessor of the largest women's network alliance in the contemporary history: GABRIELA (Elumbre, 2010: 213-214). GABRIELA or General Assembly Binding Women for Reforms, Integrity, Equality, Leadership, and Action was founded in 1984 by women's groups of various political persuasions and class composition from the politically and ideologically inclined, to civic associations. It was the first attempt at unifying the women's organizations around a feminist agenda,'even as political differences [were] recognized and yet disallowed to derail the effort towards the building of an autonomous women's movement'(Valte, 1992: 54). Estrada-Claudio(2005) noted that GABRIELA'faced the challenge of sharpening and deepening of feminist issues as opposed to merely integrating women's issues into its dominant class­oriented political perspective.' GABRIELA's membership began to dwindle when some members questioned how the coalition was managed. From the original 41 member-organizations, at least half decided to leave and only those closely identified with the national democrats remained. Valte(1992: 55) observed that'[w]hat was originally envisaged as a genuine coalition of forces of women, became reduced to simply another association of organizations influenced by a single ideological tendency.' GABRIELA is now referred to as the GABRIELA Women's Network with a party-list group called Gabriela Women's Party. It'has maintained the position that class oppression remains the primary enemy of the people even as it has taken on feminist issues like violence against women'(Estrada-Claudio, 2005). With the toppling of the dictator Marcos in 1986 and the subsequent restoration of democracy under the Corazon “Cory” Aquino administration, civil society organizations and non-traditional political parties blossomed. Political activists decided to set-up non-governmental organizations(NGOs) or social development agencies as an extension of their commitment to democratic 4 The Women's Action Network for Development(WAND) was founded as a coalition of NGOs and POs working on women's issues in January 1990. Its precursor, the“Women's Forum” had convened a year earlier to provide women NGOs and POs with venues for information exchange, support and collective action(https://wandphilippines.wordpress.com/wand-profiles-2/wand-history/) 4