Breaking barriers, embracing change: A closer look at the Philippines’ national gender policies
by Nathania Azalia
14 March 2025
Several ASEAN Member States have pushed forward with gender inclusivity in their national policies. In the region, ASEAN has issued the Declaration of the Advancement of Women in the ASEAN Region, established the ASEAN Committee on Women, and adopted regional gender-related plans to push for gender mainstreaming. Among all member states, the Philippines has made notable institutionalised efforts on this matter, through the establishment of Philippines Commission on Women (PCW) since 1975. This has ranked the country at number 25 in the 2024 Gender Gap Index, making the Philippines the most gender-equal country in ASEAN. In the energy sector, the Philippines’ Department of Energy (DOE) has included gender balance through the DOE Gender and Development (DOE-GAD) group, acknowledging women as equal partners in decision-making processes. Through this article, we will look at several fundamental gender policies that the Philippines have adopted, including gender mainstreaming efforts in the energy sector, which has slowly transformed the inclusivity and gender balance in the country.
The Philippines established the Republic Act No. 9710 in 2009, known as the Magna Carta of Women (MCW), a human rights law that seeks to eliminate discrimination against women through the recognition, fulfilment, and promotion of the rights of Filipino women, especially those from marginalised sectors. The law guarantees equal treatment of women before the law, representation in politics and the private sector, and equal participation in education, among others.
As a foundation for gender-related policies in the country, this declaration provides a solid ground for an effective inclusion of women in all dimensions of the country’s governance. The key point of this declaration is not only prioritising women protection but also together with women empowerment. This perspective puts women as equal agents in development, policy-making, and decision-making processes instead of only being a factor in an equation.
To implement concrete steps to realise the MCW, the Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (GEWE) Plan is published to support the country’s development plans. This aligns with international commitments like the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), providing a long-term vision for national policies. The most recent GEWE Plan 2019-2025 updated its plans to fit into the post-COVID-19 context, urging the government to make gender equality and women’s empowerment central to the crisis response and recovery process. It also strives to prevent backsliding on the progress towards inclusion, equality, and empowerment, as well as considering recommendations by civil society and international organisations like the UN Women. In relation to the energy sector, the updated plan includes the goal to expand opportunities for women in science, technology, and innovation (STI), information communication technology (ICT), infrastructure, and energy. This highlights the country’s effort in prioritising education and pushing for gender balance in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) field.
The PCW also established a Gender and Development Strategic Plan (GAD-SP), the blueprint in pursuing gender mainstreaming in the country. It consists of several interventions, indicators, and targets to be pursued nationally. The GAD-SP compliments the GEWE and serves as further guidelines tailored to the mandates and priorities of each government institutions. This includes clear variables to measure achievements and progress of gender mainstreaming in policy implementation, which are outlined in the Compendium of Monitoring and Evaluation of Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in the Philippines (the Compendium), published in 2019.
There is a total of 205 indicators in the Compendium, responding to different sectors and thematic areas, including but not limited to education, health, politics, institutional mechanisms, environment and climate change, and formal labour, among others. Every indicator has to be presented in a comprehensive matrix which includes 10 sections: indicator number (based on the Compendium), indicator statement, description, disaggregation, mode of data collection, frequency of data collection, data source, estimation procedure, sector, and notes.
This mechanism obliged government institutions to mainstream gender in their respective fields, to develop outcome-based planning and implementation, set up an effective and efficient monitoring system to track progress and results, and identify any gaps and challenges.
In 2020, the Department of Energy (DOE) established Department Order No. 2020-12-0015 on the Reconstitution of the Department of Energy (DOE) Gender and Development-Focal Point System (GAD-FPS) and Special Order No. SO2020-12-0046 on the Designation of the Members to Compose the Gender and Development Focal Point System (GAD-FPS) to integrate gender mainstreaming in the energy sector. Through this department order, the DOE is mandated and obliged to carry out the functions of the GAD-FPS, including but not limited to the generation of sex-disaggregated data, publishing GAD Accomplishment Reports required under the MCW, coordinating with different units of the agency for the integration of GAD perspectives, and conducting regular meetings, among others.
It was found that there were two main challenges related to institutionalising gender in energy projects in the Philippines. First, most energy projects are upstream endeavours, making it hard to apply gender analysis or direct people-level benefits and issues. Second, there is insufficient support among DOE to incorporate the GAD agenda in their projects.
To answer these challenges, the DOE has also developed a Gender Toolkit for the Energy Sector, which provides an institutional guide on how to make their programmes and operations more aware of and responsive to gender considerations, complete with its gender design toolkit. This document includes a guide for gender analysis, crucial to identify gender gaps and underlying gender issues, with guiding questions such as, “Is the lack of female engineers because there are fewer trained female engineers? Or is it because employers favour male engineers?” or “Why do fewer women choose engineering as a career? Has it anything to do with a gendering of the field and the occupation as masculine?”
The Gender Toolkit recognises that gender issues arise from abusive gender relations, underlying violence against women, and perspectives of inequality in the field. Moreover, it also recognises that the existing gender gap is caused by a lack of recognition of women’s unpaid work and unequal division of labour, which results in unequal benefits received between men and women.
How has these gender policies impact gender equality in the country? The Philippines is ranked 25th according to the 2024 Gender Gap Index, making the Philippines the most gender-equal country in the region. Based on the PCW Accomplishment Report 2023, 24 out of 36 targeted government agencies have improved their gender mainstreaming efforts, leading to an improved gender responsiveness of government policies, plans, and programmes. Based on the Progress Report on the Philippines’ Implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (BPfA) from 2019-2024, women hold 53% of managerial positions. However, they only hold 26.2% of national parliament seats and 29.1% in local governments.
In education, efforts to minimise gender stereotypes and bias against women in the curriculum were addressed through a Gender-Responsive Basic Education Policy, adopted in 2017. In 2018, the gender gap in STEM at the senior high school level narrowed by 2.54%. At the tertiary level, women made up 48.31% of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) students in 2019. This is a result of the increased access to scholarships and other financial assistance for students enrolling in STEM-related fields of study.
In the energy sector, there has been substantial progress in women’s participation and leadership in the DOE’s technical and managerial positions, including the agency’s science and technology staff positions, as of 2020. Women’s representation in the DOE’s science and technology staff is at 61%, and they also hold 44% of chief positions. In the National Electrification Agency, 67% of the division managers are women. In the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management (PSALM) Corporation, a government-owned power company, women make up the majority of its staff, at 56%. In 2019-2020, at least 40% of participants in energy-related focus group discussions and meetings held were women.
The increase of women’s participation in the STEM and energy sector is due to the implementation of a few initiatives:
Furthermore, gender-based violence in the workplace, especially in the energy sector, has been a major concern. To combat this, the DOE GAD had been conducting orientation on the Anti-Violence Against Women Law. In a similar vein, employees of the National Transmission Corporation (TRANSCO), a government-owned power transmission company, receive consistent training on the Anti-Sexual Harassment Act. The company also has a Committee on Decorum to provide hearings and resolution of cases on sexual harassment.
Countries across the ASEAN region have made efforts to advocate for integrating gender mainstreaming principles and perspectives into national policies, especially with all member states having ratified CEDAW and adopted national laws on gender equality.
However, for a more effective mainstreaming of gender across all national institutions and agencies, they must adopt measures that can be applied to all as a guideline for standardised progress. Coupled with a robust monitoring and evaluation mechanism with clear indicators, this would help track the country’s gender progress while also contributing to building regional sex-disaggregated data, which we are seeing a critical lack of.
ASEAN Members States can also establish Gender Focal Points (GFPs) in every sectoral government level, appointing dedicated gender officers in ministries to oversee implementation and monitoring of action plans. They will be able to conduct mandatory gender sensitivity training to minimise internalised unconscious gender bias. Inter-agency coordination could also help capacity building and knowledge sharing for an integrated gender perspective across national institutions.
Furthermore, ASEAN can also benefit from knowledge exchange with other member states. This would help countries in the region learn best practices and discuss how they can best fit gender-inclusivity and the gender perspective into each of their national regulatory frameworks.
Nathania Azalia is a Research Assistant at the ASEAN Climate Change and Energy Project (ACCEPT).
The views, opinions, and information expressed in this article were compiled from sources believed to be reliable for information and sharing purposes only, and are solely those of the writer/s. They do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the ASEAN Centre for Energy (ACE) or the ASEAN Member States. Any use of this article’s content should be by ACE’s permission.
