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Participation of Women in Politics

In: Social Issues

Submitted By f233
Words 6755
Pages 28
Participation of Women in Philippine Politics and Society: A Situationer
Introduction
This paper is intended to provide an overview of the status of women in the Philippine society especially in the aspect of politics and the labor market. This should be considered as a work in progress which the author aims to further develop as a comprehensive situation paper that can both provide the reader a consolidated picture of the gender equality challenge in the country and motivate them on the need to contribute in changing the so-called “divides and mirages” in Philippine sexual politics.
According to the latest gender disaggregated data, women constitute 37.9-million
(49.6%) of the 76.5 million Filipinos as of May 2000. Almost 15.5-million are between ages 15 to 40 reflecting a young female population. However, while women constitute nearly half of the population, its status in the Philippine society is still characterized by sharp contradictions of obvious gains, on one hand, and glaring inequalities on the other. One can find both major advancements for women’s role and graphic gender inequality in specific areas of the society. The Human Development Report 2002 (UNDP) revealed that 35% of Filipino administrators and managers are women -- which is one of the highest in the world. Additionally, approximately 17.2% of all the legislative seats are occupied by women and 2/3 of professionals and technical workers are women. This puts the country’s Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM) of 0.523 as the highest in East
Asia. But a dark side of these gains exists. Thousands of women are discriminated in employment by virtue of marriage and parenthood. Many more are contracted for 5 months to avoid regularization of employment while a glass ceiling for women pervades in many sectors of the society – especially in the fields of politics and

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