Female workforce seen held down by expectations of childcare, housework

The Philippines is grappling with weak female labor force participation even though it has some of the best gender gap ratings in the region by traditional metrics, advocates for women in the workplace said.

At a conference this week, participants singled out the persistence of social norms like childcare roles as well as what they called structural workplace biases.

Julia Andrea R. Abad, executive director of the Philippine Business Coalition for Women Empowerment, said societal expectations remain the primary hurdle, as both men and women continue to view men as the primary providers.

“In a stage of a family, whether it’s caring for a child or household duties, it will be the woman who drops out because it’s the man who’s seen as the primary (breadwinner),” she said at a panel discussion in Mandaluyong this week.

She added that even when women reach executive levels, estimated at nearly 40% of leadership teams in publicly listed firms, they are often confined to secondary roles rather than operational positions with the high visibility required for top-tier promotions.

Anna Leah Colina, project officer and women coordinator for the Federation of Free Workers, said that culture that favors men remains deeply rooted despite technological advancements.

She noted that 17 million women aged 15 and above remain outside the labor force, largely due to invisible labor or unpaid care work.

“We are still perceived as secondary to men economically, politically, and socially,” Ms. Colina said, adding that even when women seek work, they often are relegated to vulnerable informal jobs.

Anita E. Baleda, deputy executive director for operations at the Philippine Commission on Women, said that as of 2024, women spend an average of 3.2 hours a day on unpaid care and domestic work, compared to just 1.7 hours for men.

“If we’re talking evidence-based, we know for a fact, that women do twice as much, spend twice as much time as men in doing unpaid care and domestic work,” she said.

Reducing this burden, she said, requires investment in care-support infrastructure such as facilities and labor-saving household technology.

Merriam Leilani M. Reynoso, director of the Bureau of Workers with Special Concerns at the Department of Labor and Employment, noted a 99.9% compliance rate among monitored establishments for laws protecting women workers, including maternity and solo-parent leave benefits.

Panelists urged employers to complement regulatory enforcement with proactive workplace reforms, including bias-resistant hiring practices, transparent promotion pathways, and intentional inclusion of non-traditional candidates in leadership pipelines.

These discussions accompanied the launch of the “Juana Trabaho Framework,” an initiative of the Department of Economy, Planning, and Development in partnership with the Australian government. The program aims to achieve the female-related goals of the Trabaho Para Sa Bayan Plan 2025–2034, which targets a female labor force participation rate of 59% by 2034, up from 53.7% in 2025.

“This reality underscores why increasing women’s labor force participation is a clear priority of the Philippine government,” Economy Secretary Arsenio M. Balisacan said. “Achieving this requires not only creating quality, secure, and accessible jobs for women but also ensuring that these jobs align with emerging industry demands brought about by a modernizing economy.”

Australian Ambassador to the Philippines Marc Innes-Brown added that the collaboration focuses on policy reforms that support gender-inclusive workplaces and a care economy to drive sustainable economic growth in the region.

Source: Business World

Women, Business, and the Law report finds PHL improvements

The Philippines improved in two of the three pillars in the World Bank’s Women, Business, and the Law (WBL) 2026 report, with scores surpassing the global and East Asia and Pacific averages.

The report, released on Tuesday, measures how laws, policies, and practices shape women’s economic opportunities. It studied 190 economies’ performance in three indices: legal frameworks, supportive frameworks, and enforcement perceptions.

In the 2025 report, the Philippines scored 72.53 in legal frameworks, 77.43 in supportive frameworks, and 53.97 in enforcement perceptions.

Compared to 2024, the Philippines scored higher in both legal frameworks and supportive frameworks, from 70 and 54.2 points, respectively. Its score fell in enforcement perceptions from 58.8 two years ago.

“In the Philippines, the legal frameworks score is 73, the supportive frameworks score is 77, and the enforcement perceptions score is 54, showing that gaps still persist between law and practice,” the World Bank said.

Nevertheless, the Philippines’ performance outperformed global and the East Asia and Pacific averages across all pillars and topics, except for mobility, marriage, and childcare.

The report covered 10 topics — safety, mobility, work, pay, marriage, parenthood, childcare, entrepreneurship, assets, and pension.

“On paper, most countries are doing reasonably well: the average country scores 67 out of 100 on the adequacy of laws to enable economic equality between women and men,” said Indermit Gill, World Bank chief economist and senior vice-president for development economics.

“But when it comes to enforcing the laws, the average score drops to 53. And when the systems needed to implement those rights are assessed, the adequacy score is just 47,” he added.

He said lower averages in law enforcement and implementation “reflect huge opportunity gaps.”

On the WBL 1.0 index, the Philippines scored 81.9 in 2026, higher than 78.8 in 2024. It measures 35 data points across 8 indicators.

This score is middle-of-the-road in Southeast Asia, exceeded by Vietnam (88.1), Timor Leste (86.3), Cambodia (84.4), Singapore (82.5), and Laos (82.5) but better than Thailand (78.1), Indonesia (70.6), Myanmar (61.9), Malaysia (60.06), and Brunei (53.1).

The report also found that the Philippines was the only economy to have enacted reform toward legal gender equality on the topic of mobility, via the Philippine Passport Act.

“The Philippine Passport Act allows married women to choose whether to adopt their husband’s surname, removing the blanket requirement for all married women to present a marriage certificate,” the World Bank said.

In total, the report tallied 68 economies that have implemented reforms toward legal gender equality from 2023 to 2025.

“Over the past two years, 68 economies enacted 113 positive legal reforms across most areas of women’s economic life, with the greatest progress in entrepreneurship and safety from violence,” the World Bank said.

“Seven countries also expanded paternity leave to help redistribute caregiving and support women’s employment,” it added.

Women, Business, and the Law assesses the global state of women’s economic participation across 10 key areas, including safety from violence, access to childcare, entrepreneurship, employment protections, asset ownership, and retirement security.

Norman Loayza, director of the World Bank Policy Indicators Group, said the report identifies safety from violence as a key shortcoming, as it makes women less able to work consistently.

“True equality begins with safety. Whether at home, at work, or in public, women deserve protection to thrive,” he said.

“Globally, we’re falling short. We have only a third of the safety laws we need, and even then, enforcement is failing 80% of the time,” he added

Women, Business and the Law 2026.pdf

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Source: Business World

Can One Income Still Buy a Home? Lessons from The Simpsons

For many viewers, The Simpsons feels unrealistic—not because the characters are bright yellow or because Homer is somehow a nuclear safety inspector, but because the Simpson family enjoys a comfortable middle-class life on just one income. A detached home, a car, and the occasional family holiday, all supported by a single breadwinner with only a high-school education, feels increasingly out of reach for modern homebuyers.

In today’s housing market, single-income households are becoming rare. Data from the United States show a sharp shift over the past several decades. In 1960, more than three-quarters of young married couples who had just bought a home relied on one income. Today, that figure is closer to one in three. While this reflects positive changes—such as greater employment opportunities for women—it also highlights the rising cost of homeownership and family life.

From the 1960s through 2000, more women entered the workforce, with participation rates among prime-age women rising from around 40% to over 75%. Although that growth has leveled off in recent years, the share of single-income homebuyers has continued to fall. The steepest drop occurred between 2012 and 2023, a period marked by rapidly rising home prices. In short, dual incomes are now often necessary not just for lifestyle upgrades but for basic affordability.

The debate around single-income families continues. Some analysts argue that dual-income households have helped push up the cost of housing, childcare, healthcare, and education. Others say that many families would prefer one parent to stay home, but financial realities make that difficult. Surveys suggest that about half of American mothers would prefer to stay home rather than work, yet most continue working—largely because the additional income is essential.

Housing costs play a major role in these decisions. Studies show that in families where the primary earner’s income rises significantly, the likelihood of the other partner working full-time drops—but mostly among homeowners rather than renters. This suggests that once housing is secured and financial pressure eases, some families choose to scale back to a single income. However, the income required to make that possible today is far higher than it was in previous generations.

It’s important to note that this isn’t simply a story of hardship. Many people enjoy their careers and choose to work for reasons beyond necessity. Expectations have also changed. Homes today are larger, more comfortable, and better equipped than those in the mid-20th century. With bigger homes and higher living standards come higher costs—and often the need for two incomes.

For real estate professionals and homebuyers alike, the takeaway is clear: housing affordability and lifestyle expectations are deeply connected. If housing were easier and cheaper to build, more families might find it feasible to live on a single income again. Until then, the “Simpsons-style” single-breadwinner household remains more of a nostalgic ideal than a common reality.

Source: The Economist