Gap between Philippines women, men has improved – expert

MANILA, Philippines — The gap between women and men has improved as the Philippines ranked 16th in the Global Gender Gap Index, according to one of the speakers during the recent Women’s Day webinar organized by environmental group BAN Toxics.

“We seem to have come a long way in terms of gender mainstreaming as the Philippines ranked 16th place in the Global Gender Gap Index in 2021, claiming the highest in Asia,” University of the Philippines Diliman Department of Social Work professor Nancy Parreño said.

Parreño added that the gender gap index measures gender equality based on the relative gaps between women and men across areas of health, education, economy and politics.

“Yet a lot needs to be done to achieve substantive equality or equality in outcomes, which recognizes that the situation of women and men differs according to country, age, class, ethnic or social origin and other factors that should be accounted for,” she said.

“Filipino women have higher educational attainment than men, but have lower labor force participation rates, are in elementary occupations as overseas Filipino workers, have less access to resources, are in unpaid productive work and are less represented in public leadership positions,” she added.

Environmental issues often disproportionately impact women, according to Parreño, as she underscored the importance of undertaking gender analysis and gender impact assessments as crucial tools for gender mainstreaming.

BAN Toxics said the webinar held last Friday aimed to address the proliferation of cosmetic products laced with harmful chemicals.

Speakers from academe, science and development work shared their insights on the intersectionality of environment, women and gender rights as part of the celebration of International Women’s Day.

“We have identified the intentional use of harmful fluorinated ingredients in cosmetics in South Korea. Our study showed that harmful fluorinated chemicals have significantly varied concentrations in cosmetics, with sunscreens having the highest concentration,” Dr. Inja Choi of the Wonjin Institute of Occupational and Environmental Health in South Korea said.

Choi added that fluorinated ingredients, such as poly fluorinated acrylate polymers or PFAS that are known to be harmful, are used in lipsticks, sunscreens and other cosmetic products as emulsifiers, stabilizers and surfactants.