Asian Journal of Language, Literature and Culture Studies

Aims: This study examines how selected Filipino novels in English represent women’s experiences of prejudice and deprivation within patriarchal and class-stratified contexts. Specifically, it aims to (1) identify recurrent patterns of objectification, gender inequality, sexism, social stratification, and socioeconomic deprivation across the selected texts; (2) compare how these themes are constructed through women characters’ lived realities and narrative trajectories; and (3) analyze narrative framing to distinguish depiction of prejudice (as social critique, realism, or conflict) from any implied endorsement within the texts.

Methodology: The study adopts a qualitative thematic content analysis design and purposively selects five Filipino novels in English as the primary corpus. Textual segments—scenes, narrative descriptions, and dialogue—were coded using a deductive codebook derived from the five thematic categories. The coding process involved repeated readings to refine category boundaries, consolidate subthemes, and track cross-novel similarities and divergences. To strengthen interpretive trustworthiness, the analysis records narrative context (speaker, plot function, and consequences), notes counterexamples that complicate one-direction conclusions (e.g., resistance, irony, or explicit narrative critique), and avoids generalizing beyond the textual evidence presented.

Results: Across the coded segments in the five selected novels, women are frequently represented through objectifying frames that emphasize physical appearance, sexual attributes, or socially imposed roles aligned with male interests, often limiting women’s agency, autonomy, and subjectivity. Gender inequality is portrayed through restricted mobility, constrained access to leadership and public authority, diminished decision-making power in domestic and civic spheres, and uneven legal or institutional protection. Sexism operates through interpersonal and institutional forms—including ambivalent and hostile expressions—that normalize patriarchal expectations and discipline women’s bodies, choices, and labor. Social stratification and socioeconomic deprivation intensify vulnerability by restricting access to education, employment, housing quality, healthcare, and financial stability, thereby deepening dependence and precarity.

Conclusion: By synthesizing recurring representational patterns across five novels, the study shows how Philippine anglophone fiction can illuminate intersecting systems of gender and class oppression while also staging ethical critique and everyday negotiations of dignity and resistance. The thematic map and analytic procedure offered here support further feminist and socio-literary scholarship and can inform pedagogy aimed at fostering social awareness and critical reflection on women’s enduring struggles in patriarchal societies.