MANILA: More women are finishing high school and reaching higher levels of education, but those gains have yet to be fully reflected in their participation in the labour force.
Inquirer data scientist Alicor Panao pointed to the 2023 Gender Inequality Index (GII) by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), which he said “serves as a vital benchmark for progress.”
The GII is a composite metric that quantifies the loss in human development because of gender disparities across three critical dimensions: reproductive health, empowerment and labour market participation.
In 2023, the Philippines had a GII coefficient of 0.351, placing it 86th worldwide.
Panao, an associate professor at the University of the Philippines, said that “to make sense of the ranking, it is worthwhile to examine the components,” especially in employment.
He stressed that even though women are now more likely than men to attain secondary education, “this academic achievement is not yet fully mirrored in labour force participation, where women remain underrepresented.”
Within Asia, Panao said, the Philippines occupies a paradoxical middle-tier position as “it leads the region in female educational attainment, yet remains an aberration for its relatively low female labour force participation and reproductive health challenges.”
Based on World Bank data, the labour force participation rate has increased since 1990, with women at 49.9 per cent in 2024. The rate, however, is still lower than among men, which was at 72.3 per cent.
This is despite higher enrollment rates for women in high school and college than for men — 63.6 per cent compared with 60 per cent.
In the rankings, Panao said, the Philippines performed better than Indonesia (108th) but trailed significantly behind China (41st), Thailand (73rd) and Vietnam (78th).
“Female labour participation rate in Thailand is 60.6 per cent, while it stands at 67.9 per cent in Vietnam,” he said.
He said Indonesia’s employment context arguably fares relatively better than the Philippines’, with a 53.4 per cent female labour force participation rate compared with the Philippines’ 50.2 per cent. - Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN
