The Philippines has become better at addressing gender equality, ranking 16th place among 146 countries, according to the 2023 World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Gender Gap Index report.
The Philippines, which ranked 19th in 2022, garnered a parity score of 0.791.
The parity score is the level of progress toward gender equality. A parity score of 1 indicates full parity.
To determine a country’s score, the report looked into four factors: economic participation and opportunity; educational attainment; health and survival; and political empowerment.
The Philippines scored the highest in education attainment, garnering 0.999. However, it scored the lowest in political empowerment with 0.409 points.
“Gender gaps in political leadership continue to persist," the Global Gender Gap Index report read.
"Although there has been an increase in the number of women holding political decision-making posts worldwide, achieving gender parity remains a distant goal and regional disparities are significant,” it also said.
The Philippines is also among the top three countries to exhibit gender equality in the East Asia and Pacific Region, along with Australia and New Zealand.
Iceland, Norway and Finland, respectively, were named as the most gender-equal countries worldwide.
The report also showed that the world may attain gender equality after 131 years.
“Recent years have been marked by major setbacks for gender parity globally, with previous progress disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on women and girls in education and the workforce, followed by economic and geopolitical crises,” Saadia Zahid, managing director at the WEF, stated in the report.