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By MARISSE PANALIGAN
March 7, 2019
The Philippines ranked 8th in the 2018 Global Gender Gap Index released by the World Economic Forum. Since the report was first published in 2006, it is the only Asian country to have ever reached the top 10, having consistently done so for 13 years.
Nordic countries Iceland, Norway, Sweden, and Finland claimed the top four spots in the rankings. They were followed by Nicaragua from Latin America, Rwanda from Africa, and New Zealand from the Pacific region. Ireland and Namibia completed the top 10.
The Philippines scored 0.799 in the index, meaning it has closed nearly 80 percent of its gender gap. This is the country’s highest score since the first annual gender gap report, steadily climbing from its initial score of 0.752.
Among the four indicators, the Philippines scored highest in education (1.000) and health (0.979). The country also scored well in economic participation (0.801) but scored low in political empowerment (0.416).
According to Ulat Lila, the annual report on women’s situation from the Center for Women’s Resources (CRW), many Filipino women find work either as househelp or earn a living through self-employment.
Despite the lack of economic opportunities, female heads of households earn a higher annual income, spend more cash, and save more money than their male counterparts working locally.
Among Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs), majority of women are also employed in elementary occupations such as domestic helpers. A smaller percentage are service and sales workers and professionals.
Unlike women who work locally, female OFWs send less money to their families, bring less cash home, and send less goods compared to men, who work skilled jobs in crafts and machinery.
Filipino women have a basic literacy rate of 96.80 percent. In terms of enrolment, 95.30 percent of girls of primary school age and 71.80 percent of those of secondary school age are enrolled. However, only 40.30 percent of college age-women are enrolled in school.
Among adults, 85.80 percent of Filipino women finished at least primary level of education, but only 60.10 percent completed secondary level. Only 19.20 percent completed tertiary level.
More women finished school compared to men at every level. Among male adults, 82.50 percent finished at least primary, 56.80 percent completed secondary, and only 14.70 percent completed tertiary level.
Women have a health life expectancy of 64.2 years old, older than 59.4 years old for men.
At age 25, 42.4 percent women are married, but on average, Filipino women do not have children until they reach 29.
Mothers now enjoy 105 days of paid maternity leave to recover after child birth, but their spouses currently have only seven days of paternity leave available to them post-partum.
Despite the Philippines’ high score on health and survival, women remain vulnerable to violence in the country. More than 19,000 cases of physical injury was reported to the Philippine National Police in 2017. Rape, attempted rape, and acts of lasciviousness combined account for around 4,700 cases and another 10,000 account for other cases of violence.
Among children, girls are also more vulnerable to sexual abuse, sexual exploitation, child labor, and physical abuse compared to boys.
Filipino women received the right to vote in 1937, earlier than some European countries like France (1944), Italy (1945), Greece (1952), and Switzerland (1971), according to data from electronic journal Women’s Suffrage and Beyond.
It is one of the earliest Asian countries to have granted women suffrage, along with Georgia (1918), Kyrgyzstan (1918), Armenia (1921), Azerbaijan (1921), Kazakhstan (1924), Tajikistan (1924), Mongolia (1924), Turkmenistan (1927), Sri Lanka (1931), Maldives (1932), and Uzbekistan (1938).
Among its East and Southeast Asian neighbors, only Thailand (1932) and Myanmar (1935) adopted women’s suffrage before World War II.
Two women have served as Philippine president: Corazon Aquino (1986-1992) and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (2001-2010). Interestingly, both of them have male family members who had an influential political career before them: Cory’s husband, former senator Ninoy Aquino, and Gloria’s father, former president Diosdado Macapagal.
In the present government, a woman holds the second highest post after Leni Robredo won the tightly contested vice-presidential race in the 2016 elections. She is only the second woman to serve as vice-president, after Macapagal-Arroyo (1998-2001).
For top government positions, the gender balance remains heavily tipped toward men.
In the executive department, only two out of 20 department secretaries are women: education secretary Leonor Briones and tourism secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat.
Since the First Congress of the Republic of the Philippines in 1946, only 22 women have served as senator. Until the 15th Congress in 2010, no more than four women occupied seats in the senate per term. The six female senators in the 16th and 17th Congress were the most seats occupied by women in the senate in a single term.
In the House of Representatives, only three in 10 lawmakers are women. This pattern holds even when district representatives and party-list representatives are considered separately. Among district representatives, 67 out of 165 are women. Among party-list representatives, 18 out of 41 are women.
In the Supreme Court, three of the 13 current justices are women: Estela Perlas-Bernabe, Rosmari Carandang, and newly-appointed Amy Lazaro Javier.
Among Chief Justices, Maria Lourdes Sereno was the first woman to serve the post when she was appointed in 2012. Upon her removal via quo warranto in 2018, her replacement Teresita De Castro “technically” became distinguished as the first female Chief Justice. She subsequently retired after holding the seat for two months.
Men also dominate the awards conferred by the government to individuals with outstanding achievements in the field of arts and sciences.
Only 30 percent of national scientists are women. The gender distribution is even worse for national artists: only 15 percent of them are women.
In the field of sports, female athletes carried the Philippines in the 2018 Asian Games. Out of the country’s 21 medals, 13 were won by women.
Women won all four gold medals for the Philippines: Hidilyn Diaz for weightlifting, Margielyn Didal for street skateboard, Yuka Saso for golf, and the golf women’s team of Saso, Bianca Pagdanganan, and Lois Kaye Go.
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