Philippines moves up to 20th spot in global gender gap ranking

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines moved up five places to rank 20th out of 148 economies in the World Economic Forum (WEF)’s index tracking progress in closing the gender gap.

The country also maintained its position as one of the top performers in Eastern Asia and the Pacific.

WEF’s Global Gender Gap Report 2025 released yesterday showed the Philippines has closed 78.1 percent of the gender gap, an improvement from its overall gender parity score of 77.9 percent last year.

It also showed that the Philippines continued to be the third top performer in the Eastern Asia and Pacific region, behind New Zealand and Australia this year.

The WEF ranks economies by measuring gender-based gaps in economic participation, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment.

In the economic participation and opportunity sub-index, the Philippines placed 13th with a parity score of 79 percent, up from the 20th spot and score of 77.5 percent last year amid slight improvements in wage equality and estimated earned income.

The WEF said the Philippines’ parity score in the economic participation and opportunity pillar is the highest in Eastern Asia and the Pacific this year.

In terms of educational attainment, the Philippines ranked 87th with a parity score of 98.8 percent, sharply down from the previous year’s first place and parity score of 100.

The WEF said gender parity in education declined with the primary school net enrolment rate for boys surpassing that of girls for the first time.

In health and survival, the Philippines placed 85th with a score of 96.7 percent this year, from the 86th spot and a score of 96.8 percent in 2024.

The WEF said the Philippines has faced growing sex imbalances at birth over the past decade as the sex ratio at birth of females to males has declined from 0.944 in 2016 to 0.926 this year.

As for political empowerment, the Philippines climbed to the 30th spot with a parity score of 37.7 percent this year from the previous year’s 34th place and a score of 37.3 percent.

The WEF said the Philippines’ parity score in political empowerment is supported by the nearly 16 years of female leadership under former presidents Corazon Aquino and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

While the Philippines has the second highest score in the head-of-state indicator, the WEF said progress in female representation in parliament remains modest with the score at 38.9 percent.

In addition, the score for ministerial positions declined to 21.1 percent this year from over 30 percent in both 2006 to 2007 and 2023.

Overall, Iceland topped the list, maintaining its position as the world’s most gender-equal economy for the 16th consecutive year, with 92.6 percent of its gender gap closed.

Other economies in the top 10 are Finland, Norway, United Kingdom, New Zealand, Sweden, Republic of Moldova, Namibia, Germany and Ireland.

While the global gender gap has closed to 68.8 percent due primarily to progress in political empowerment and economic participation, the WEF said it would take an estimated 123 years before full gender parity can be achieved.

“At a time of heightened global economic uncertainty and a low growth outlook combined with technological and demographic change, advancing gender parity represents a key force for economic renewal,” WEF managing director Saadia Zahidi said.

By making gender parity a national priority, the WEF believes that countries can rapidly accelerate the progress in closing the gender gap.

“The evidence is clear. Economies that have made decisive progress towards parity are positioning themselves for stronger, more innovative and more resilient economic progress,” Zahidi said.