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

Women go solo as they climb the property ladder

Mortgage lenders are noticing the new trend among those buying alone as the gender pay gap narrows

On Buckingham Street, just off the Strand in London, an elegant Georgian townhouse with a storied past is on sale for £3.25 million. Its blue plaque marks it as the former headquarters of the Women’s Social and Political Union and the place where the suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst once stood at an upstairs window, addressing the crowd below. “We are here, not because we are law-breakers. We are here in our efforts to become law-makers,” she declared, her voice carrying down to the River Thames.

Pankhurst was speaking to a crowd of women who would not have been able to get a mortgage to buy the house she was speaking from, no matter how much they earned. In Edwardian Britain, women were barred from taking out a mortgage or any form of credit without a male guarantor.

It would be another 60 years before that changed. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Sex Discrimination Act 1975, the landmark law that outlawed discrimination in employment, credit and services on the grounds of sex or marital status.

For the first time, women could open bank accounts, apply for loans and take out mortgages in their own names. “The change in women being able to have access to a mortgage in their own name is within my lifetime,” says Helen Pankhurst, great-granddaughter of Emmeline and convenor of the women’s rights campaign group Centenary Action. “And we know women still struggle with the motherhood penalty, the gender pay gap, and the pension gap.

Charting a century of progress, from suffragettes to independent homeowners  

Something so fundamental as financial independence took decades to achieve, and it reminds us that the fight for equality is far from over.” Half a century later, the evidence of that hard-won independence is no longer written on placards, but on property deeds. Skipton Building Society processed 11.5 per cent more solo female mortgage applications than applications from single men in 2024.

Skipton also found that 37 per cent of women planning to buy a first home intend to do so alone, compared with 35 per cent who plan to buy with a partner. The proportion of female-only mortgage applicants has risen from 36 per cent in 2020 to 41 per cent last year, according to the broker Mojo Mortgages.

The numbers show that more and more women would prefer to buy on their own terms than wait until they are coupled up.  ‘I need to support myself’ For Jess Pursey, 33, a customer operations manager, that resolve took root this spring when she bought a 40 per cent share of a new house at Dorchester Living’s Heyford Park development near Bicester, Oxfordshire. Her share cost £162,000 of the £405,000 full market value, and she put down a £16,200 deposit through the part-buy, part-rent shared-ownership scheme. She finally felt she had “space to breathe”, she says, and a garden for her cats, George and Winnie. “It’s challenging to buy a home on a single income,” she says, “but it’s all about adjusting your lifestyle. It was important for me to lay these foundations for the future because nothing in life is guaranteed. I might be single for the rest of my life, or I might be the breadwinner even if I did meet a partner.

Relationships and marriages don’t always work out, but that house will always be mine.” Pursey’s determination to buy alone was shaped by experience. “The house I bought with my ex-partner was in both our names, and we split the mortgage 50/50, but he paid the deposit and always said it was his house. You don’t forget things like that,” she says. After their split, she moved in with her father to save rather than rent, determined that the next time she bought, it would be on her own terms.  “There’s a lot of propaganda suggesting women should prioritize finding a partner over their careers,” she says. “But I refuse to settle, and in the meantime, I still need to support myself.

While I could live at home, at nearly 34 that wasn’t what I wanted for myself. “I prefer to budget monthly so I can return to a home filled with my belongings, a place I’m proud of. I may not have children, but I have pets to care for, and they help make my house a home.” ‘Owning a flat in London is a dream’ For Fionnuala Carr, 31, buying her own home was about finding stability after years spent navigating London’s volatile rental market.

Carr works as a data analyst in Canary Wharf, east London, and in March bought a two-bedroom, two bathroom flat at Springfield Place, a Barratt London development in Wandsworth, south London, for about £600,000. She saved £60,000 on her own over four years for her 10 per cent deposit. “Owning a flat in London is a dream, and I knew it would be a good investment,” she says. “You get better value for money in London than in Dublin.”

She had been renting with three other women in Balham, southwest London, her rent almost as high as her mortgage, but saw that many of her female friends were starting to buy on their own. This gave her the courage to approach a financial adviser to see whether she could do it too. “He said there was never a good time to buy, which scared me, but he also said there’s never a good time to sell either. If it’s right for you and you can afford it, go for it,” she says.

Not ready to live entirely on her own, she looked for a two-bedroom, two bathroom property so she could shelter a friend from the stormy rental market to help her pay for the mortgage. She says, “I’m not under pressure, wondering if the landlord will sell or if we’ll be asked to move. I can decorate as I want and choose who I live with. I remember a friend complaining about her housemates not putting out the bins, and I just can’t deal with that any more.” ‘

Shared ownership was my best option’ For Victoria Broomham, 32, affordability was the hurdle. When she and her partner separated, she sold their jointly owned house in Maidstone, Kent, for £272,000, using £15,000 of equity as a deposit to buy a 48 per cent share of a one-bedroom apartment at David Wilson Homes’ The Poppies development, also in Maidstone, in May this year. “I spoke to a mortgage adviser who told me it would be impossible for me to buy outright,” she says. “If I didn’t want to rent, shared ownership was my only option.”

She now pays £652 a month for mortgage and rent, plus about £140 on energy bills, and has stayed close to her job as a pharmacy technician at Maidstone Hospital. “It wasn’t like I was moving out on my own; I still had Buddy (her miniature dachshund) with me, so I’d have to find somewhere where I could rent with him,” she says, “but I wanted to stay on the property ladder if I could. “For the first time, everything is solely on me.

There are moments, like finding a really big spider, that make me wish I lived with someone else, but mostly I absolutely love it.” ‘I crave independence’ If Broomham’s story illustrates how shared ownership keeps women on the ladder, Georgia McGregor’s experience shows the persistence it takes to climb onto it.

The 29-year-old insurance underwriter is still searching for a one or two-bedroom flat in southwest London. She has lived with family to save and, with an inheritance from  her grandparents, has a larger budget than she expected. “I was surprised by how much I could borrow,” she says. “But it feels as if I’m being dismissed, with the assumption that I’m not a serious buyer.

Some [estate] agencies don’t seem to genuinely listen to my requirements.” She has been outbid on five properties and describes the process as demoralizing, yet remains undeterred. “Buying your own place gives you independence, and that’s what I’m craving,” she says. “I haven’t got a partner at the moment and I don’t want to wait. If I buy by myself, my security is on me and I’m not dependent on someone else for somewhere to live.”

McGregor has seen friends caught in break-ups that turned property into a battleground. “Some of my friends bought with partners and their relationships ended, which led to messy arguments over who gets what,” she says. “Others bought with friends, made clear agreements and now they’re using that equity to buy individually.”

She also plans to take a lodger for extra financial breathing space once she finds the right home. Fifty years ago, a single woman applying for a mortgage might have been asked for her husband’s permission or have been required to bring a male guarantor.

Today, lenders are actively courting female buyers, and developers are tailoring homes with second bedrooms suitable for lodgers, secure entry systems and shared amenities such as co-working spaces, residents’ lounges and gyms that appeal to solo occupants. Back on London’s Buckingham Street, the townhouse where Pankhurst made her stand has been modernized with a vaulted kitchen, marble bathrooms and a small terrace overlooking Whitehall Gardens.

Grant Bates, the selling agent, says the property’s history adds to its allure. “It’s a house of significance,” he says. “It was a place of activism, and now it’s ready for a new chapter.” A century ago, the suffragettes rallied under the slogan “Deeds, not words”. For this new generation of women, those deeds come with a mortgage offer attached.

Source: The Times