Sustainable

Development Goal 5:
How Does the
Philippines Fare on
Gender Equality?
Clarissa C. David, Jose Ramon G. Albert,
and Jana Flor V. Vizmanos

Submitted by:

Bernadette Shien B. Oropesa

Gender Equality, for so many years, have been a goal not only of our country but of many. It has
always been one of the world’ visions- a place where equal opportunities are given and equal rights
are respected. For so many years, gender equality is always included on the priority list of many
countries. Most of them were able to take step and progress their gender equality value. The
changes, innovations, and improvements are observed that helped in uplifting the quality of life of
all gender. The question is, will this goal be achieved of a third world country?

Today, we continually face the challenges that gender disparity brings. Other women still experience
violence and abuse, illiteracy isn’t completely eliminated, and the harsh reality still prevails. These
reasons made women to dream of a better tomorrow wherein they will be respected not only
because of their gender but as human beings. They hope that tomorrow society would entirely
accept the fact that there are also thousands of capacities within women and they also have
freedom to control their lives. Isn’t it overwhelming to think of a setting wherein women experience
no more fear, pain, and drawbacks? But will this tomorrow come?

The Attempt of Attaining Equality On All Genders

For a long run, the Philippines has been active with organizations and associations that assist in
providing the best for its people. One of the known association we are member of is the United
Nations. Being part of it means being part of its goals. In the discussion paper entitled Sustainable
Development Goal 5:How Does the Philippines Fare on Gender Equality? written by Clarissa C. David,
Jose Ramon G. Albert, and Jana Flor V. Vizmanos, presented the global goal in attaining gender
equality. Our country together with the other 192 UN member countries are committed in attaining
and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. Given that it is years from now and
there’s enough time to reach these goals, will it be a success? Going back, these goals aim to eradicate
poverty, ensure peace, parity and prosperity for everyone and aim to protect our planet and its people
However, for this reflection paper, we are just going to focus on its goal on sustaining gender equality for
women’s and girls’ better life experiences. The goal, to be specific, is: “ achieve gender quality and
empower all women and girls”. This aim in eliminating violence and abuse against women and girls,
empower them, putting an end to discrimination, protect them from any harsh reality, and provide
equal opportunities in every aspect of their lives. There are specific targets of this goal presented on
the reading as well as the indicators to monitor these targets. Meanwhile, there are numerous laws
and policies that aim to protect women and girls both nationally and internationally. We are all
aware of these. We are also aware that the Philippine laws, as observed, support gender equality.
The problem is that, even with the protection of these legislation, high levels of vulnerabilities to
violence and other unwanted circumstances still exist.

Indeed, our country should feel proud since there are many progressive laws that clearly assist in
protecting the welfare of people of different gender. These legislation also supports and favors the
sustainable development goals. Well yes, it is no doubt that our legal environment is innovative, but
these won’t be possible and followed unless it is strictly monitored and evaluated in different areas
of our society. As such, our gender equality conditions could be monitored through women’s
participation and representation in politics, having equal access to education, and employment
(which, I believe, were also mentioned on the second reading). Is our gender condition in the area of
education or not? How about in politics? Do women present an active involvement? And lastly, are
there fair wage employment opportunities for women? These are examined and assessed to
determine whether the Philippines has fared well in ensuring parity for women and girls.
Furthermore, the continuous attempt of achieving gender equality would never be an easy job. But I
do hope that by 2030, the sustainable development goal for this matter would be reached.

Women and Girls’ Involvement in Different Areas of our Society

Education plays a vital role in every person’s life. When it comes to women, education can also help
them gain a standing in our society. Going back to our early history, women and girls’ weren’t
prioritized for they believe it would just be a waste of time since they would just marry soon. Most
of them were able to reach primary school but not all of them are fortunate enough to finish it and
continue to secondary level. Another factor is poverty or lack of resources of parents to let their
children attend school. Men were commonly the ones who receive education. As time passes by and
as women continue to fight for their rights, we were given free access to education and I am one of
million students who are lucky to experience such.

One of the sustainable development goals presented in the reading is to “Ensure inclusive and
quality education for all and promote lifelong learning”. On the Table 1, I have seen that in the year
2001, there are 24.13% of male and 23. 83% of female attending school. If we combine both sexes,
we would have 23.98%. It is then observed how minimal the number of students in our country.
Male students have higher percentage rather than female. Even though there’s only a few difference
between the two, we could consider that the access of education back then isn’t as well as we have
now. In the year 2004, 41.41% of male students and 43.09% of female students were recorded-
combining the two we’d have 42. 19% students of both gender. The progress of the percentage had
been shown and thus, we can say that more women had access in education. Meaning, our country
has fared well in ensuring gender equality in the area of education. If we think of it, the percentage
in our recent years would be higher because of the free education. Considerably, these are good
indicators for the attainment of the SDG. The progress in women and girls’ school participation is
commendable but the problem doesn’t stop there. Let us now talk about economic opportunities.
Since the Philippines is considered to be one of the third-world countries, we would expect that
economic opportunities won’t be the same with other developed states. However, on the reading, it
is stated that our country appears to have high levels of opportunities and participation
economically but showcases gender inequity. Men dominates when it comes to employment. The
Table 3 (Working Poor in the Philippines) shown in the reading presented the difference o the
proportion of employed citizens with salary not exceeding to US$1.90 per day. The increase for
women’s participation has been stagnant which can be caused by discouragement from unpaid
work, devalued income, and lack of job opportunities. Low women participation in non-agricultural
sector has been an issue not only in our country but of other underdeveloped and developing
countries. Many women chose other alternatives such as working abroad to find a stable job with
higher income. It is also noted that some women could have jobs with different working conditions
such as on an unregistered company or organization. These kind of jobs provide limited
opportunities and social protection unlike with the legal and registered ones. On the data shown in
the discussion paper, working men are engaged in services, agriculture, and industry respectively
while women dominates in service sector following in industry and agriculture. Filipino women often
occupies white collar jobs and most of them are professionals; others working as clerks. These
occupations come with higher stipends. While women common jobs fall in service sector, men
dominates as laborers and farmers. With these variation of jobs among men and women, gender
wage gap happens. This refers to the difference between gross average nominal monthly income
between the two genders and is shown through percentage. Since women have a bigger share than
men when it comes to employment, higher payment or wage also favors them. Gender gap can be
seen where men and women work dominantly but it is no doubt that just like men, women also
provide fair share to our economy. The idea that only men can work for their family has changed as
women continue to break stereotypes.

In the government sector, we cannot deny the active involvement of women. As what mentioned in
the article, our government is the largest single employer in the country. Our government plays a lot
of functions for the welfare of its people. To perform these, it would need competent workforce.
According to the discussion paper, the highest level of workforce is occupied by female workers. As
we all know, most public school teachers are women- this makes a large proportion of female
workers in the government. In 2010, it is mentioned that 63.6% of workers in the national
government agencies in our country are women while there are only 36.4% are men. There are also
a lot of female workers in the local government units and on the Government-Owned Companies
and Corporations (GOCC). If we are going to talk about women’s involvement in politics, that would
be another case. Women representation and participation in politics are indicators of gender
equality. However, in the tables shown in the reading, poor participation of women in elections and
elected offices. Only a few women enters electoral positions. As a matter of fact, all throughout
these years we only had 2 female presidents. The senate and house of representatives are
dominated by men. This signifies that men have much interest and actively enter electoral position
while only a few women do so. I think if we have a law that implements quota between men and
women when it comes to election, we could improve the number of women willing to enter.
However, if women are discouraged to join because of several factors such as other responsibilities,
that would be another problem. What I hope is that, when 2030 comes, the proportion of women’s
participation and representation in the Philippine Politics would proliferate. Moving on, the next
area we would talk about is the Philippine industry. Women duties and responsibilities differ from
men as well as the challenges and experiences they encounter. These experiences help them build
up their competencies and abilities. Living in the modern world, diversity is widely accepted and
encouraged. Companies and organization become more gender-friendly and less-female hostile.
There are laws that help women from abuse, violence, and discrimination in the workplace and
ensure that their rights are observed to support them in their careers. The government has tried to
perform all the necessary measure to promote gender equality in every working environment. This
parity won’t only motivate women and provide better life experiences but it would also provide
social and economic advantages. Women have been proven as responsible and accountable
employees. They know how to understand consumer behaviors and consider the behavior the
behavior of female clients. They are known to be committed to ethics and understand and are good
in socializing and dealing with other people. Well, it doesn’t necessarily mean that women are better
than men but it rather means that women are also capable of working in different levels of our
industry. Once there’s an increase with women’s participation in leadership and management in
higher-level positions, we could promote social equity. It would help in eliminating gender
discrimination and encourage parity between men and women.

Building A Safer Haven For Women

Gender Equality won’t be possible if all forms of violence still exist. Let us take note of fifth
sustainable development goals: Eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls in the
public and private spheres, including trafficking and sexual and other types of exploitation. For the
past few years, this has been a battle of every country and also because they found it difficult to
address. As mentioned earlier, there are numerous legislation tat are enacted to help in instilling
protection and reinforcing a safer country where women and girls will live with less fear. These
marked improvement and changes in every girl and woman’s life. However, there are still reports
and cases about the violation of these laws. There are girls who’ve experienced abuse leading to
trauma, women who were discriminated making them worthless and insecure of themselves,
mothers who can’t find a decent job to have a proper source of income to feed their family.
Whenever I read reports like this, I always ask myself, “When will these violence against women and
girls end?” I bet that would far away from now.

Family should be the source of strength of female members. It must be the one that primarily gives
them security and supports their welfare. Unfortunately, according to the reading, violence is
commonly committed by domestic partners such as husband, live-in partner, or ex-husband with
51.6% preceded by parents, guardians or step-parents with 46%. Common cases are wives being
beaten to death by her husband and sexual violence. These kind of incidences usually happen among
those with no proper education or on primary level of education. Women who have college degree
are last on the list. High or not, these incidences should never be belittled. Even small numbers can
generate fear.As cases like these continue, the more women and active movements demand for
equality and justice. What could be the possible roots or factors or violence against women and
girls? Poverty. Illiteracy or lower educational background. Emotional drawbacks. Economic
dependence to men. Lack of support. These are the common factors stated in the reading but we
can also add patriarchal norms and values. If we are going to talk about human trafficking such as
prostitution, other people may say that women who chose to do this have freedom of will. Thus,
they should held accountable for their actions and face its consequences. But let us include the fact
that most women in prostitution have experienced physical sexual abuse- from their family
members or other people. Psychologically speaking, this kind of experience lead them to think and
accept their worth as sexual objects rather than to choose on improving their life condition. If we are
able to lessen or completely eliminate these kind of occurrences there would be less women to
enter such work. If we are able to create more possibilities to them through job opportunities, they
would choose to have a decent life. Normalizing all kinds of violence means raising gender
inequality. And this is not why we have SDG. To build a safer haven for women, we must all work
hand in hand ensure security as well as parity.

Today’s To- Do List to Let Gender Equality Exist

We cannot deny the fact that our government together with domestic and international movements
exerted much effort to promote fairness among all genders in every aspect of our life. Our country
as shown in the discussion paper, has fared well on some of the SDG indicators. However, the work
isn’t yet over. Our government and its citizens must continue the promotion in gender equality. For
example, eliminating the glass ceilings in industry and to our government itself- providing more
opportunities to women or at least increase its proportion. Through continuing work to legislative
efforts, our government would be able to implement more laws and policies, it would lessen cases of
violence and abuse, and more importantly, would completely eliminate the barriers among all
genders. Our government should also give importance to the LGBTQ+ just like how it helps in
improving women’s lives. Strict enactment and monitoring of this laws could be a great help too.

There are list of recommendations of what should be done in the reading and I also think these are
effective. Once the quantity and quality of women participation in industry and politics, it could help
in empowering women. Improving our justice system is also important to ensure that justice would
also be beside the marginalized. Filling the gaps and lacking of our government responses toward
these issues could pave a way towards parity. Ensure universal access to education and health care,
eliminate poverty, and eradicating gender stereotypes should also be prioritized. If we continue in
overcoming these challenges and provide more innovations, it is not impossible for us to reach the
sustainable development goals in 2030. Despite of the current challenges we are facing right now, I
believe that these concerns should never be neglected. As we continue emphasizing such issues, we
would find ways to amend it. It’s not our government sole duty. We are all in this together.