Philippines: Only Asian country in top ten gender equality survey

How do women throughout the world fare, compared to men. in economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment?

According to a global survey done by researchers from Harvard University, the London Business School, and the World Economic Forum (WEF) and reported by Agence France-Presse and Reuters, there is still no country in the world that has achieved gender equality.

Saadia Zahidi, of the WEF is quoted to have noted that "the nations studied had, on average, closed about 90 percent of the gender gap in education and health, but only 50 percent in economic participation and opportunity and 15 percent in political empowerment."

The Gender Gap Index showed 115 nations ranked in terms of their gender equality performance with the following interesting results:

Sweden led all others, followed by Norway, Finland and Iceland and Germany.

The Philippines ranked 6th, " the only Asian country in the top 10. Together with Dominican Republic, France, Honduras and Lesotho, the Philippines was observed to be "one of only five countries to have closed the gender gap for both health and survival and educational attainment. "

New Zealand is rated seventh, Denmark eighth, Britain, ninth , Australia, 15th, and the United States, 22nd, reflecting "women empowered to participate in the labor force, but not in politics, according to Harvard University's Ricardo Hausmann, one of the authors of the report.

European Union (EU) newcomers Latvia and Lithuania, which only joined in 2004, are in the 19th and 20th positions, ahead of Austria (26th) and Belgium (33rd) and five other EU members that ranked toward the bottom of the scale - Greece (69th), France (70th), Malta (71st), Italy (77th) and Cyprus (83rd).

In Africa, South Africa came out as the best performer, at 18th place.

Saudi Arabia and Yemen had the biggest gender gaps with Yemen ranked at the bottom of 115 nations included in the report.

While the Philippines may bask in the honor of being number six among 115 countries in terms of gender equality, there is still much to be done to bridge the gap between males and females in this country especially in terms of employment opportunities, wages, working conditions and hours, health, and political participation.

While more Filipino women may have entered the world of politics, reaching as high as the presidency, statistics confirm the reality that Filipino males still dominate this country's economy, politics, and domestic realms. Like the rest of the world, we still have a long way to go to improve the gap between men and women.

Together with the world, however, we can learn much from the experience of Sweden that is now coming out as the best example of a welfare and gender-equal society. The research noted that "Sweden is the only country in the world with an equal number of male and female politicians... ( together with Norway ), Sweden offers the longest maternity leaves and among the best maternity leave benefits in the world, while retaining high levels of women's labor force participation."

Despite some progress noted , the research noted that still and all, there is much gender gap that needs to be bridged throughout the world.

* * *

Email us at [email protected]