Phl tops Asia in bridging gender gap in education, health

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines is Asia’s most gender sensitive nation after it bridged the gap on health and educational opportunities for males and females, according to this year’s edition of a global survey released yesterday.

The country improved its score in the World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Gender Gap Report, while retaining its ranking from last year. It still placed eighth out of the 135 nations surveyed but recorded a score of 0.7757 this year, up from 0.7685 a year ago.

This made the Philippines “the highest-ranking country from Asia in the index,” the report said. It also led other lower income countries and placed second, next only to New Zealand, in the Asia-Pacific region.

The annual report scored countries on the basis of four sub-indices namely educational attainment, health and survival, economic participation and opportunity and political empowerment. States were graded in a scale of 0 to 1 for total gender inequality and equality, respectively.

“The Philippines is the “only country in Asia this year to have closed the gender gap in both education and health,” the report stated.

Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman welcomed the news, saying in a text message that the universal health care agenda of the Aquino administration implemented through various programs are “slowly having impact in the lives of women.”

The country recorded a perfect score in educational attainment, putting it at the top rung among 19 other countries. It also ranked No. 1, together with 31 others, in health and survival with 0.9796 score.

We also posted, improvements in economic participation and opportunity and political empowerment segments, the report showed.

Our economic participation score, which measures labor force participation and salary levels, increased to 0.7719 this year from 0.763 a year ago, putting us at the 17th place, down two notches from the previous survey.

The country likewise notched a higher 0.3515 score in political empowerment, which looks into the distribution of government positions. This was higher from 2011’s 0.331, enabling the Philippines to climb one notch in the list to 14th place.

“The Philippines also performs in the top 10 of the following indicators: legislators, senior officials and managers, literacy rate enrollment in secondary education, and years with female head of state,” the report noted.

Iceland still topped the annual list, followed by Finland, Norway, Sweden and Ireland. Completing the top 10 were New Zealand (6th), Denmark (7th), Nicaragua (9th) and Switzerland (10th).

At the bottom were Yemen (135th), Pakistan (134th), Chad (133rd) and Syria (132nd) and Saudi Arabia (131st).