Like Jayson said, Tagalog is an Austronesian language and therefore uses gender-neutral pronouns. As far as equality goes, precolonial societies had gender divisions but that didn't necessarily mean that women were powerless either. Women called binukots in Visayan societies who were knowledgeable in poetry, magic and history were considered social equals with their husbands in the local nobility. Still, it has to be remembered that those societies also based a large part of their economy on raiding other tribal groups for valuables and slaves, which naturally made women particularly susceptible to violence. This obviously doesn't occur anymore and the Philippines is generally seen as a country with a lot of gender equality, especially with two female presidents in the last few decades.