99.5 Percent of Filipinos Have Biases Against Women, According to UN Data

Much like most countries in the world, the Philippines, unfortunately, has yet to progress in terms of its social perception of women, a report by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) confirms.

In its Gender Social Norms Index (GSNI) report, the Philippines was among 91 countries that were surveyed. Each yielded saddening responses to questions about women in the society. The index relied on the numbers from three waves of the World Values Survey (WVS), namely from 2005 to 2009, 2010 to 2014, and 2017 to 2022. 

“The report argues that these biases drive hurdles faced by women, manifested in a dismantling of women’s rights in many parts of the world with movements against gender equality gaining traction and, in some countries, a surge of human rights violations,” the UNDP noted.

And the results were disappointing, to say the least.

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“In fact, lack of progress on gender social norms is unfolding against a human development crisis: the global Human Development Index declined in 2020 for the first time on record—and again the following year," Pedro Conceição, head of UNDP’s Human Development Report Office. "Everyone stands to gain from ensuring freedom and agency for women.”

Harmful Social Norms Plague the Philippines and Beyond

In the Philippines, WVS figures from 2017 to 2022 say that 99.5 percent of the Filipino population has biases against women. This accounts for 99.3 percent of all men and 99.67 percent of all women.

The study also found that three out of four Filipinos, or roughly 75 percent of the population, have political biases against women. One of the main statements for the participants to respond to is if “men make better political leaders than women do.”

That goes the same for economic biases, too, where about four out of five Filipinos, or 77.81 percent of them, have these against women. The respondents were tested with the statements, “men should have more right to a job than women” and “men make better business executives than women do.”

On the subject of education, 43.61 percent of Filipinos have educational biases against women, as well.

As for the statements “It is justifiable for a man to beat his wife” and “abortion is never justifiable,” 92.83 percent of the population were recorded to have biases against women's physical health.

The results echoed much of the same sentiments among the general population worldwide. One of the more harrowing figures from the report suggests that 85 percent of the total population, or roughly 9 out of 10 men and women, hold biases against women.

Even more troubling is the fact that 25 percent of people believe that it would be justified for men to beat his wife. The report also concluded that 50 percent of people believe that men make better political leaders than women. Meanwhile, 40 percent of people think men make better business executives than women.

Conceição added that these social norms prove to be quite the hurdle for women's rights in a country. The report also calls upon the government to stir the ship in terms of shifting these gender social norms through policy measures, insurance mechanisms, social protection, and other forms of innovative interventions to mitigate and challenge these stereotypes, patriarchal attitudes, and outdated social norms.