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  • Writer: Ziggurat Realestatecorp
    Ziggurat Realestatecorp
  • Jun 14
  • 3 min read

The Philippines jumped five spots in the 2025 Global Gender Gap Index of the World Economic Forum (WEF) to 20th out of 148 countries and retained its position as the highest-ranking Southeast Asian country.


“Compared to the previous year, the economy has climbed five positions in the ranking, with a 0.2-percentage-point increase in its overall gender parity score,” the WEF said in a report released on Thursday.


The Philippines had a score of 78.1%, well above the average global gender gap score of 68.8% and Eastern Asia and the Pacific average of 69.4%. A parity score of 100 indicates full parity, while the gender gap is the distance from full parity.


The country had the highest ranking among Southeast Asian economies, followed by Singapore (47th), Thailand (66th), Vietnam (74th), Timor-Leste (86th), Laos (96th), Indonesia (97th), Cambodia (106th), Brunei (107th) and Malaysia (108th). Myanmar was not included in the study.


The Philippines remained in third spot in the Eastern Asia and the Pacific region, behind New Zealand (5th) and Australia (13th).


The WEF’s Global Gender Gap Index grades four key dimensions: economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment.


According to the report, the Philippines scored 79% in the economic participation and opportunity subindex this year, the highest in Eastern Asia and the Pacific and 13th globally.


“In 2025, slight improvements in the scores for wage equality and estimated earned income have brought its economic parity score to 79%, the highest in Eastern Asia and the Pacific this year,” it said.


It achieved full parity when it comes to professional and technical workers.

In the educational attainment subindex, the Philippines dropped to 87th spot from last year’s first place, when it achieved full parity.


This subindex includes literacy rate, enrollment rate in primary, secondary, tertiary education.


“Despite strong performances in educational attainment, the gender parity in education has slightly declined. For the first time, the primary school net enrollment rate for boys surpasses that of girls, resulting in a 1.2-percentage-point drop in the education parity score from previous years of full parity,” WEF said.


The report showed the Philippines had gender parity in the literacy rate, as well as enrollment in secondary education and tertiary education.


For political empowerment, the Philippines improved from 30th place from 34th last year.


This subindex includes women in parliament, ministerial positions, years with female or male head of state.


“The Philippines’s political parity score is buoyed by nearly 16 years of female leadership under Presidents Corazon Aquino and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. This contributes to a 46.2% score in the head-of-state indicator, the second highest in the region,” the WEF said.


Despite this, progress in female representation in parliament is described as “modest” with a score of 38.9%.


“The score for ministerial positions has declined to 21.1% in 2025, down from over 30% in both 2006-2007 and 2023,” it added.


For the health and survival sub-index, the Philippines rose a notch to 85th spot this year.

“The Philippines has faced growing sex imbalances at birth over the past decade. The sex ratio at birth (females to males) has declined from 0.944 in 2016 to 0.926 in 2025,” the WEF said.


Reinielle Matt M. Erece, an economist at Oikonomia Advisory and Research, Inc., said the Philippines’ improved ranking in the gender parity report was mainly driven by gains in wage equality, but noted that the “country still has a long way to go.”


“This is a good indicator of improvements in job opportunities and reduction of gender discrimination,” Mr. Erece said in a Viber message to BusinessWorld on Thursday.

However, he pointed out that female enrollment in primary education remains below 90%. “Thus, improvements in education accessibility and also childhood health are equally important to ensure that students have proper access to education,” he added. 


Mr. Erece also urged the government to improve the quality of education to help reduce dropout rates, especially among female students.


In the report, the WEF said that no economy has yet achieved full gender parity.

Iceland ranked first with a score of 92.6%, keeping the top spot for 16 consecutive years. It is the only economy to have closed more than 90% of its gender gap since 2022.


The rest of the top 10 include Finland, Norway, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Sweden, Moldova, Namibia, Germany and Ireland.


“Despite decades of progress, efforts to achieve gender parity remain constrained, imposing a hidden but heavy tax on global growth and weakening the foundations of economic resilience — expressed in underutilized talent, lost productivity, slower innovation and frayed social cohesion,” WEF said.


“As the global context evolves, challenges and opportunities emerge for economies that seek to close gender gaps and adopt gender parity as a strategy for growth: expanding women’s participation in the workforce, strengthening leadership pipelines, improving skills-to-work transitions, enhancing policy implementation, and ensuring inclusive outcomes in global trade.”



 
 
 
  • Writer: Ziggurat Realestatecorp
    Ziggurat Realestatecorp
  • Mar 7
  • 3 min read

Since March is Women's Month, it's timely to talk about gender equality and women representation in corporate boards.


Gender equality is one of the sustainability goals of the United Nations. Ending all discrimination against women is not only a basic human right, but a necessary foundation for a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable world. It is proven that empowering women helps economic growth and development (United Nations Development Program, Goal 5, available at https://www.undp.org/sustainable-development-goals/gender-equality).


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There is also a push for general equality or diversity in corporate boards. Under the Revised Corporation Code, the board of directors shall exercise the corporate powers, conduct all business and control all properties of the corporation.


The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has recognized that the ability of the board to ensure strategic guidance of the company depends, in part, on its composition, which should include directors with the right mix of background and competencies. There is research that suggests that gender diversity on boards has positive spillover effects on board dynamics and governance


In a diversity tracker or study conducted by Egon Zehnder in 2024, it was reported that 96 percent of corporate boards have a least one woman director, and on average, women accounted for 34.9 percent of new board appointments in 2024. The study found that despite more women joining boards globally, setbacks in new board appointments and slower advancement to leadership roles highlight the need for more intentional board succession planning (The Progress of Board Diversity: Slow Advancement Amid Waves of Change, available at https://www.egonzehnder.com/global-board-diversity-tracker).


A study conducted by the Philippine Women's Economic Network showed that women comprise only 17 percent of directors in Philippine publicly listed companies or PLCs.


Gender parity


According to the World Economic Forum, gender parity in the workforce can be advanced through both formal measures like quotas and policies, as well as through informal factors such as professional networks.


Norway, Spain, France and Iceland have laws requiring that women comprise at least 40 percent of boards in publicly listed companies. Six countries require between 20 and 35 percent, and four countries — India, Israel, Korea and Malaysia — require "at least one" female director. Malaysia is the first Southeast Asian country to impose a one-female director quota.


It is still debatable if a quota will be good for the Philippines, which has historically been in the top 10 of the World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap Report until 2018. But we slid to No. 25 in 2024, dropping nine slots from its 16th place 2023 ranking. (It was said the slide was due to losses in economic parity and a reduction in the share of women ministers).


Other than quota, LinkedIn data suggests that gender gaps in online professional networks lead to men typically having larger networks and stronger networks than women. Stronger networks are associated with increased probability of career progression and receive more recruiter outreach.


However, one silver lining is that women have more "weak" ties, which have been linked to better career outcomes (Global Gender Gap Report 2024, Insight Report, June 2024, available at https://www.weforum.org/publications/global-gender-gap-report-2024/digest/).


It is thus important that women corporate directors be in strong networks worldwide, including the Philippines.


Here at home, NextGen Organization of Women Corporate Director (NOWCD) is pushing for more women directors in Philippine PLCs and boards. NOWCD is an organization of women directors in the boards of highly esteemed and reputable publicly listed companies or companies vested with public interest. It is the Philippine affiliate of Women Corporate Directors, the world's largest community of women corporate board of directors.


From its inception in 2021, NOWCD has made its mission to develop highly qualified women directors to become drivers of visionary and effective boards. Its goal is to help increase the representation of women in leadership positions of public and private company boards in the Philippines. The organization believes that diversity is key to bringing about balance and success to the future of any corporation.


The Institute of Corporate Directors provides directors with multifaceted learning forums to advance their governance knowledge and build the necessary skills to enhance their contributions in the boardroom.


 
 
 
  • Writer: Ziggurat Realestatecorp
    Ziggurat Realestatecorp
  • Sep 6, 2024
  • 1 min read

The Philippines ranked 70th out of 139 countries in the 2024 SDG Gender Index by Equal Measures 2030. The Philippines scored 67.52 out of 100, one of the lowest in the region.


Despite this, the country scored slightly above the Asia and the Pacific average score of 66.48 and the world average score of 66.13. This index assesses progress on gender equality and provides a snapshot of where the world stands on the vision of gender equality outlined in the United Nations’ 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).


Based on the report, no country has achieved the promise of gender equality envisioned in the 2030 Agenda.


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