PH Goes Down in Ranking of Yearly Gender Gap Index

In the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index for 2022, the Philippines went down two slots in light of the diminishing enrollment of females in primary school.

This month’s report released by WEF shows the PH in 19th place out of 148 recorded economies in the gender parity index. Last year, the Philippines took 17th place.

The country is home to approximately 54 million women.

According to the report, “In 2022 the Philippines records a gender gap of 21.7%, similar to last year. As a result, the Philippines dropped two spots in the general ranking, from 17th to 19th, with minor variations across subindexes,”

In the East Asia and Pacific region, the Philippines is second for the year, behind New Zealand.

Since the year 2013, the WEF has noted that the Philippines’ progress is in the 78.3% to 79.9% range.  This year’s ranking puts the Philippines in a higher spot compared to developed countries such as Australia, Denmark, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

The study showed that the country improved by 4.2% since its first gender parity score.

To measure the gender parity of the country, the index takes into account four categories such as educational attainment, economic participation and opportunity, political empowerment, and health and survival.

The main problem identified by the WEF was the effect of school closures during the pandemic. The past Duterte administration put the entire country in one of the longest lockdowns in the world and ordered online learning systems for schools.

Source: Philstar