The Philippines has landed in eight place among the top 10 countries with low gender gap or, according to the World Economic Forum, the top 10 best countries to be a woman.
However, the WEF’s annual report said the global rate in gender gap had slowed down, and it would take 108 years to close the gender gap.
“Although progress continues to proceed at a very slow pace, the fact that most countries are moving toward greater gender parity is encouraging,” the report said.
Despite the Philippines’ high rank in Global Gender Gap, women in the labor force are still outnumbered by men.
According to the 2017 Labor Force Statistics of the Philippine Statistics Authority, the labor participation rate of women is only 46.2 percent while men is 76.2 percent.
However, the PSA’s data from 2001 to 2014 showed that women have higher average pay compared to men, and there are more women (66.3 percent) professionals compared to men (33.7 percent).
The data also shows that men have slightly higher underemployment rate with 6 percent while there is only 5.2 percent in women.
According to the report, the PSA said, ân understanding where, why, and how gender inequality arises is a vital step in addressing gender and development problems and issues.
The Philippines also has laws catering to women in the workplace, like the recently signed Expanded Maternity Leave Act which increases the number of paid maternity leave to three and a half-months.