Every woman has the right -

• To good and quality education
• To comprehensive health services
• To access loans and other forms of financial credit
• To join leisure, sports, and cultural activities
• To decide on the number of children and on the number of years between pregnancies
• To share parenting responsibilities
• To have equal access to jobs, benefits, and social security
• To be paid equally based on the work she does
• To be free from all forms of slavery and prostitution
• To vote, run for election and hold public office
• To represent the country internationally

Violence Against Women

Violence against women is the result of unequal power relations between women and men. Behind these power relations is patriarchy - the social structure that is constructed, reinforced and perpetuated by socio-political institutions put in place by men and thereby ensure that men, by virtue of their gender, have power and control over women and children.

• There was a 7.7% decrease in the number of reported cases of violence against women (VAW) from 2001 to 2002. According to the Philippine National Police (PNP), a total of 9.547 VAW cases were reported in 2002 compared to 10.343 reported VAW cases in 2001.
• In 2002, most o the reported cases were physical abuses on women/life battering (5058 or 53%), followed by rape at 10.2% (972 cases) and acts of lasciviousness at 7.7% (733 cases).
• In 2001, physical injuries/wife battering also was the most reported form of VAW. There were a total of 5,668 physical injury/wife battering cases, according to the PNP, or 54.8% of all the total reported cases. This was followed by rape with 1,026 cases (9.9%) and acts of lasciviousness.
• There was a decrease in the number of reported cases on physical injuries/wife battering in 2002, with only 5,058 cases compared to the 2001 figured of 5,668 cases. However, during the previous years, the trend was increasing. In 2000, 3,824 cases were reported, while in 1999, there were 2,413 cases.
• According to the Commission on Filipino Overseas (CFO), as of March 2001, 959 cases of human trafficking has already been recorded, 65.0% of which were women.
• Of the total trafficked persons, more than half (53.0%) were trafficked to the Asia Pacific countries, 25.0% to the Middle East and 19.0% to Europe.
• The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) served a total of 2,640 women in especially difficult circumstances (WEDC) during the first semester of 2002. Most of the reported cases were on physical abuse/ maltreatment/ battering, with 45.8% followed by rape (10.6%) and involuntary prostitution (4.4%).
• Of the sexually abused women, 70.4% were victims of rape, 28.2% were victims of incest, and 1.5% were victims of acts of lasciviousness.
• Two in every five cases (39.7%) served were community-based, 37.9% were served through the Women's Help Desk, and 22.5% were center-based.

Sources: PNP, 2001 and first semester 2002
DSWD, 2001
CFO, 2001

Families and Household

Development processes are reshaping Filipino families which have become smaller in size and more nuclear in composition. Filipino women now tend to marry at a later age and education seems to influence the marrying age. However, traditional gender-role definitions still persist despite the fact that women are already economically active.

Marriage Patterns

• Filipino women have a high marrying age, by developing country standards. In 1998, the median age at first marriage of women aged 25 to 49 years was 22.1 years, an increase of 0.5 year over the 1993 figure of 21.6 years.
• Education appears to influence age at marriage. For women with high school education, the median age at first marriage was 21.5 years, compared to 19.8 and 18.7 years of those with elementary and no education, respectively. For the college educated, the median age was about 25.2 years.
• Based on the vital statistics of the National Statistics Office (NSO), the number of registered marriages in 1997 was 562,724, a 7.1% increase from the 1996 figure of 525,555.
• Of the 14.2 million ever-married women in 1995, 84.9% were legally married. Of these, 1.5% were separated/divorced.

Households

• There was a 13% increase in the number of households in the country, from 13,508,775 in 1995 to 15,271,290 in 2000.
• The average Filipino household has become smaller, its membership declines from 6 in 1970 to 5.1 in 1995 to 5 in 2000.
• The percentage of female-headed household has been increasing from 10% in 1070 to 11.3% in 1990 to 12.2% in 1995.
• Female-headed households tend to be smaller-sized than male-headed households. Female-headed households have an average household size of 4 persons while male-headed households have 5.2 persons.

Education and Training

Compared to other Third World countries, the Philippines ranks very high in terms of literacy and other educational indicators. Education policies are very liberal and expansionary. No marked differences exist in the educational status of Filipino women and men. The issue, however, is the gender-tracking of fields of study and specialization and its onward translation into the world of work where men generally occupy the highest occupational ranks and the highest paying positions. Women's larger responsibility for housework and for the family impedes their ability to use their educational training and skills for remunerative work.

Literacy

• Nationally, the literacy rate of women (94.0%) stood a little higher than men's literacy rate (93.7%) in 1994.
• The percentage of women who were functionally literate is slightly higher (74.0%) than that of men (72.9%).

General Enrolment

• Enrolment data for SY 1999 - 2000 indicated that there were slightly more boys (51.1%) than girls (48.9%) in elementary schools. However, in SY 2000-2001, the proportion was reversed in favor of women in high school with 51.3% for females and 48.4% for males.

University Enrolment

• Generally, there were more women than men who enrolled during the SY 2000-2001 with 55.5% while only 44.5% for men.
• Specifically, women outnumbered men in Trade and Craft and Industrial courses (83.6%), Service Trades (76.2%) and Mass Communication and Documentation (69.4%), but were a minority in Religion (11.9%), Engineering (22.2%) and Architecture and Town Planning (26.2%). The data showed that gender tracking still continues in women's and men's fields of study.

Academic Degree Holders

• During the AY 1999-200, there were more female graduates than males in higher education courses. Female graduates totalled 212,898 (60.7%) while males numbered 137,909.

Skills Training

• As of August 2002, 1,750 women availed of skills training programs at the Technical Education and Skills Training Authority (TESDA). They comprised 28.7% of the total number of persons who were certified by TESDA.
• Two in every three females availed of skills training programs in information technology (66.2%), followed by tourism-related training programs (9.3%) and construction at 9.2%

Education Institution Officials

• As of February 2000, 9 out of the total 16 regional directors of the Department of Education were women. Also, the country's educational workforce was heavily female. Three out of five (61.5%) school superintendents were women, while 38.5% were men.
• On the higher education institutions, there were slightly more male 53.1%) than female faculty members with 46.9%.

Sources: TESDA 2002
     Department of Education, 1999 - 2001
     Commission on Higher Education, 1997 - 1998
     1994 Functional Literacy, Education and Mass Media Survey      (FLEMMS),
     National Statistics Office

Health and Nutrition

Health refers not only to the absence of disease or disability but encompasses a person's state of complete physical, mental, emotional and social well-being. Women's health, in all stages of the life cycle, is of immense importance not only because it affects the health of the next generation through its impact on children but also because women are half of the country's human resource. The past decade witnessed slow but steady progress in the overall health situation of Filipinos. Women appear to have gained more from national health improvements, as could be gleaned from the most recent standard health indicators such as life expectancy and mortality rates. Nevertheless, a look at women's health situation in the areas of nutrition, maternal health, childbearing/reproductive and other health concerns indicate that much remains to be done in terms of addressing women's generally poor state of health.

Life Expectancy

• Women continue to outlive men as shown by their higher life expectancy. In 1998, the projected life expectancy at birth of women was 71 years while that of men, 64.8 years.

Mortality Rates

• Women exhibit lower mortality than men. In 1997, the Department of Health reported that female mortality was 4,413 while male mortality was 6,151.

Causes of Death

• The top three causes of death for females in 1997 were diseases of the heart, diseases of the vascular system, and pneumonia, while for males, diseases of the heart, diseases of the vascular system, and accidents.

Maternal Mortality

• In 1993, maternal mortality rate stood at 209 deaths per 100,000 live births while in 1998, it declines to 172 deaths per 100,000 live births.
• In 1995, the leading cause of maternal mortality were complications related to pregnancy occurring in the course of labor, delivery of puerperium (35.2%), hypertension complicating pregnancy, childbirth and puerperium (23.4%), and postpartum hemorrhage (22.4%).

Family Planning

• In 2002, 48.8% of varied women used at least one contraceptive method, of which 13.8% used traditional methods and 35.0% used the modern methods.
• Pill is still the most commonly used modern contraceptive method among married women, accounting for 15.3%. On the other hand, female sterilization was found to be the most commonly used traditional contraceptive method with 11.0%.

Maternal Care

• In 1998, pregnant women received pre-natal care mostly from nurses / midwives (47.2%), and followed by doctors (38.5%). Six percent still resorted to traditional birth attendants, while 7.8% had none.
• Traditional birth attendants were still the most common type of assistance during delivery, with 41.3%. It was followed by doctors (30.9%) and nurses/midwives (25.5%).

Nutrition

• There has been an increase in the prevalence rate of anemia among pregnant and lactating women. According to the 5th National Nutrition Survey of the Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI), the prevalence rate of anemia among pregnant women in 1998 was 50.7, while for the lactating women, 45.7. In 1993, however, the prevalence rate of anemia among pregnant women was only 44.0 and for lactating women, 43.0.
• Forty percent (40.9%) of the girls 0-5 years old and 35.3% of the boys of the same age group in 1998 were underweight according to the FNRI.

HIV/AIDS

• As of June 2001, there were more males (60.9%) than females (39.1%) among the reported cases of HIV ab Seropositives.
• Sexual contact is the most common mode of HIV transmission accounting for a high 82.6%. Majority (73.5%) of these came from heterosexual contact while 20.3% came from homosexual relationships.

Drug Abuse

• Female users tend to be younger than male users. For the period of 1993 to 1996, the highest percentage of reported female users was recorded at ages 15-19 (22.7%) while that of male users, 20-24 (25.8%) users were women.

Sources: AIDS Registry, DOH 2001, Family Planning Survey, National Statistics Office (NSO) 2001, Dangerous Drugs Board 1999, Food and Nutrition Research Institute, 1998, National Demographic and Health Survey, NSO 1998, 5th National Nutrition Survey, FNRI 1998, Field Health Service Information System Annual Report 1998.

Overseas Employment
The growing inability of the country's economy to generate enough jobs resulted to migration flow - to other countries. Filipino women have been crossing the Asian nations as overseas contract workers, mostly as domestic helpers and entertainers which are very low paying as seen in the remittances sent to their families.

• According to the 2001 Survey on Overseas Filipinos (SOF) of the National Statistics Office (NSO), there were more male overseas Filipino workers (OFW) (51.3%) than females (48.7%). This includes those family members who traveled outside the country within the last five year reference period, documented and undocumented.
• One-third (33.6%) of the total number of OFW in 2001 were laborers and unskilled workers (which includes sales and service workers, agricultural, forestry, fishery and related workers, and laborers in mining, construction, manufacturing and transport). Of these, 85.3% were women while only 14.7% were men.
• Data from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) showed that in 2002, more women were deployed as OFW (69.0%) compared to men (31.0%).
• Forty four percent (44.6%) of the total deployed female OFW belong to the service sector, while 43.0% were in the professional, technical and related fields. Majority of those in the service sector were domestic helpers (71.0%).
• Most of the female OFW seek overseas employment as domestic helpers, which in 2000, accounted for a total of 49,310 female OFWs, followed by choreographers and dancers with 24,788 female OFWs, and composers, musicians and singers with 15,607 female OFWs.
• Data from the Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO) showed that there were more female (31,741 or 61.0%) than male registered emigrants in 2001.
• According to the 2000 SOF, one-thirds (32.9%) of the total cash remittance in 2000 was contributed by female OFWs. OF the P12.22B, P7.7B was remitted by service workers and P2.5B from professionals.
• Majority of the female OFWs worked in East Asian countries (46.3%), mostly in Hongkong (24.8%, Taiwan (11.8%) and Japan 8%), while male OFWs still prefer the Middle East (43.8%).

Sources: POEA 2002, 2001 Survey on Overseas Filipinos, National Statistics Office CFO, 1997 Saudi Arabia (37.2%).

Politics and Governance

While Filipino women took an unprecedented active role in the political events of the past decade, their participation in politics and governance continues to be limited. They continue to work harder to influence policy and decision-making as legislators, chief executives and top administrators at both the national and local levels.

Electoral Politics

• Voter turn-out in the Philippines has generally been higher among women than men. In the 1998 national and local elections, the turn-out rate for women was 87.0% while that of men was 85.7%.
• As of September 2002, there are 3 women senators in the Senate and 35 women district representatives in the House of Representatives.
• At the local level, the Commission on Elections data showed that women covered 15.2% of the total gubernatorial posts (12 out of 79) and 12.7% of the total vice-gubernatorial posts (10 out of 79).
• One hundred and eighty nine women were elected to mayoralty posts while 161 women occupied the vice-mayoralty posts.

Bureaucracy

• There were more women than men in the government bureaucracy, with women accounting for 53.0% of the total 1.45 million government personnel in 1999. This figure was 0.8% lower than the 1998 figure of 53.8%.
• Women dominated only the second-level positions with 71.9% in 1999. At the first level, they were outnumbered by men at 34.6% at the third level, the highest, they formed 34.8%.
• There were also more men holding contractual/casual positions with 61.5%, while women, 38.5%.

Decision-making Positions

• As of August 2002, the cabinet included 4 women (18.2%) heading the budget and management, labor and employment, science and technology, and the social welfare and development departments.
• Likewise, the Commission on Higher Education, Civil Service Commission and the National Anti-Poverty Commission are also headed by women.

Judiciary

• Women comprise 23.4% of the total incumbent judges in the Philippine courts (352 out of 1,505) as of December 2002.
• There are four women justices (28.6%) in the Supreme Court out of the 15 posts, as of December 2002. This is higher compared to 2 representatives (15.4%) out of 13 filled up posts from 1999 to 2001.

Diplomatic Service

• As of August 2002, there were 78 Philippine embassies and consulates (59 embassies and 19 consulates) around the world, 22 (28.2%) of which were headed by women. Of these, 12 hold the Ambassador rank while 10 hold the Consul-General position.

Military and Police Service

• During the SY 1999-2000 admission exams at the Philippine Military Academy, a woman topped the exams, with 2 other women who made it to the top 10. Seventeen percent (17.3%) passed the admission exams (257 out of 1,486).
• As of August 2000, there were 5,295 women (4.9%) out of the total 108,291 police personnel, 778 of whom were police officers and 4,517 were non-police officers.

Source: Department of Foreign Affairs August 2002, Commission on Elections August 2001, Supreme Court 2002 Philippine National Police 2000, Civil Service Commission 1999.

Labor and Employment

Filipino women have been joining the labor force partly out of economic necessity and partly in response to economic opportunities. However, there remain wide gaps in female and male labor force participation rates. The low labor force involvement of women reflects the greater preference given to the employment of men over women.

Labor Force Participation Rates

• In October 2002, 33.6 million Filipinos joined the labor force. Of these, 13.1 million (29.0%) were women while 20.5 million (61.0%) were men.
• Women's labor force participation rate (LFPR) still lags behind men's LFPR. In October 2002, women's LFPR was 51.7 while that of men's was 80.8. In 2001, both LFPRs were slightly lower (48.4 for women and 80.3 for men) than their LFPRs in 2000 (50.0 for women and 81.8 for men).

Employment and Unemployment Rates

• Almost ninety percent (89.9%) of the total labor force were employed as of October 2002. Women's employment rate was slightly lower (89.8%) than men's (9.9%).
• In the October 1999 and 2000 rounds of the Labor Force Survey, women's unemployment rates were lower at 9.2% and 9.9% while men's were at 9.5% and 10.3% respectively. However, in October 2001 and 2002, women had higher unemployment rates than men (10.4% and 10.2% for women and 9.4% and 10.1% respectively).
• Women's unemployment rate continued to increase from 1999 to 2001. In October 1999, women's unemployment rate was only 9.2%. It increased to 9.9% in October 2000, and to 10.4% in October 2001. However, in October 2002, it decreased by 0.2% at 10.2%
• Among the unemployed women in October 2001, 27.2% completed high school education while 22.1% graduated from college. The comparable figures for men were 29.9% and 13.4% respectively.

Gender-stereotyping of Occupations

• There were more women than men in October 2002 among the professionals (68.2%), clerks (66.9%) ad officials of government and special interest organizations, corporate executives, managers, managing proprietors and supervisors (58.4%). Men, on the other hand, were mostly plant and machine operators and assemblers (92.4%), in farming, forestry and fishing occupations (83.8%) and in trades (72.8%).
• For the new major industry groups, there were more women in the education (75.4%), health and social work (71.8%) and wholesale and retail trade (62.6%) industries, while men continued to dominate the construction (97.9%), transport, storage and communication (95.4%), and fishing (93.7%).

Class of Worker

• In October 2002, men constituted majority of the country's paid workers as own-account workers (65.5%) and the wage and salary workers (61.7%), while women were unpaid workers at 54.8%.

Income

• The average household annual income of female-headed households is higher than those of the male-headed households. In 1997, the average household annual income of female-headed households was P135,400 while for male-headed households, it was P121,003.

Source: October 2002 Labor Force Survey, NSO

Population

The Philippines now ranks as the 13th most populous country in the world. Its projected total population in 2002 is 79.5 million, while its actual population in 2000 based on the 2000 Census of Population conducted by the National Statistics Office (NSO) was 76.5 million, an 11.5% increase or 7.88 million persons over the 1995 Census count of 68,616.536 persons. The annual population growth rate slightly increased from 2.32 percent in 1990 - 1995 to 2.36 percent in 1995 - 2000.

• There was a slight predominance of men over women population. In 2000, men numbered 38,524,267 or 544,457 more than the women population of 37,979,810.
• The sex ratio remained the same at 101.4 from 1995 to 2000.
• The population of the Philippines grew at the rate of 2.36% annually during the 1995 - 2000 intercensal period, 0.04% higher than the annual growth rate of 2.32% during the 1990 - 1995 intercensal period.
• The Philippines has a relatively young population. In 2000, 64.7% of the total population were below 30 years old. Of these, 50.6% were men and 49.4% were women.