A global survey has named the Philippines as one of the world’s best countries for gender equality.
The World Economic Forum’s ‘Global Gender Gap Report 2017’, released today (Thursday, November 2) placed the country in tenth place, well above the UK (15), Australia (35) and the USA (49).
However, the strong result was actually a fall for the country, as the Philippines was ranked in seventh place last year.
Nonetheless, the ranking still puts the Philippines head and shoulders above its Southeast Asian neighbours, as the only country in all of Asia to make the top 10.
The WEF’s report ranked 144 countries on their progress towards gender equality in four areas: economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment.
This year’s survey also included an analysis of the dynamics of gender gaps across industry talent pools and occupations.
The world’s top 10 most gender-equal countries are:
1. Iceland
2. Norway
3. Finland
4. Rwanda
5. Sweden
6. Nicaragua
7. Slovenia
8. Ireland
9. New Zealand
10. Philippines
The survey says that 79 per cent of the overall gender gap in the Philippines is considered to be “closed.”
The WEF said the reason the Philippines fell slightly down the league table was due to “wage equality for similar work” worsening from 7th last year to 21st this year.
The country’s health and survival gender gap has been considered “closed” since 2006, but dropped to 36th place this year. Education attainment gap remains fully closed.
The Philippines maintained its first place ranking in the educational attainment category, and improved its ranking in the political empowerment category, from 17th place last year to 13th.
The country with the next-best gender rankings in Southeast Asia is Singapore, placing a relatively lowly 65th.
Here’s how some other neighbours fared:
Singapore, 65
Vietnam, 69
Thailand, 75
Myanmar, 83
Indonesia, 84
Cambodia, 99
Malaysia, 104
WEF reports have not always been so favourable to the Philippines. In April we reported how it ranked 79th out of 136 countries in the organisation’s ‘Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report’.
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