Philippines Maintains 20th Spot in Global Gender Gap Index, Progress Slows

The Philippines has held on to the 20th spot out of 145 economies in this year’s Global Gender Gap Index released by the World Economic Forum (WEF). The report, which tracks progress in closing the gender gap, showed that the Philippines maintained its ranking even as its gender parity score declined slightly to 78 percent this year from 78.1 percent last year. It also showed that the Philippines remained one of the most consistent and higher ranked performers in East Asia and the Pacific, placing third in this year’s edition. "Despite this, the Philippines has failed to keep the momentum that kept the economy in the top 10 on 13 prior editions," the WEF said. Over the last two decades, the Philippines has narrowed the overall gender gap by 2.8 percentage points from 75.2 percent in 2006. WEF ranks economies by looking at gender parity across four dimensions: economic participation, educational attainment, health and survival and political empowerment. In economic participation, the Philippines placed 17th with a score of 78.3 percent, down from the previous year’s 13th spot and 79 percent score. WEF said the result also reduces the country’s two-decade advancement to a total of +2.5 percentage points over its 2006 score as economic indicators had varying trajectories. When it comes to educational attainment, the Philippines ranked 89th with a score of 98.9 percent. The ranking is down from last year’s 87th spot, but the score improved slightly from 98.8 percent. In terms of health and survival, the Philippines’ rank and score improved to 76th and 96.9 percent, respectively, from last year’s 85th and 96.7 percent. The Philippines also saw its ranking and score improve in political empowerment to 27th and 37.9 percent, respectively, from 30th and 37.7 percent last year. Overall, Iceland topped the rankings for the 17th consecutive year, with 93 percent of the gender gap closed. This was followed by Finland and Norway, which placed second and third for the third year running. Completing the top 10 are Namibia, United Kingdom, New Zealand, Sweden, Australia, Germany and Ireland. WEF managing director Saadia Zahidi said that the data in the last 20 years show that gender parity is achievable, with economies at every income level making progress.