Undermining the Philippine Global Gender Gap Ranking: The Entrenched
Misogyny in Contemporary Philippine Politics as Illustrated
by the New Institutionalist Framework
The Philippines has continued to enjoy high ranking on the Global Gender Gap Report
(hereafter referred to as GGGR) by the World Economic Forum on the subindex of political
empowerment. In the recently released GGGR 2021, the Philippines ranked 33rd among 156
countries on the subindex of political empowerment, successfully closing 36.2% of its gender gap
(World Economic Forum [WEF], 2021, p. 37). While this percentage seems unimpressive at face
value, it is relatively high on the whole index, ranking higher than countries that are more
economically developed such as the United States and Australia; economic development has been
proven to be a positive indicator of gender equality (Mikkolla & Miles, 2007, p. 47; United Nations
Development Programme [UNDP], 2020, pp. 343-344). In the same year, only two months before
the release of the GGGR, President of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte, who is notorious for his
sexist and “rape” jokes, publicly declared his belief that the Presidency is not a woman’s job as
assurance that his daughter, Sara Duterte, will not run for the 2022 Presidential Elections as
response to the results of a recent opinion poll from which she ranked highest among the six other
preferred presidential candidates (Cunningham, 2021; Gutierrez, 2019). Such public display of
sexism and exercise of the patriarchy are no longer estranged in Philippine politics, especially
since politics is still an arena dominated by the elite-male (Hega, 2003; Philippine Plan for Gender
Responsive Development, 1988, p. 396). Commensurate to this, despite the major progress
established by Philippine formal political institutions in establishing gender parity, it is clear that
the persistence of informal institutions mainly of conservatism and its derivatives continue to
influence Philippine politics against the favor of women.
This paper is an examination on the gender parity in Philippine politics through the new
institutionalist framework. The following formal and informal institutions have been identified:
political representation and pro-women legislation (which is further divided into legislation,
implementation, and access to courts) for the formal institutions, and conservatism and its
derivatives of the patriarchy, sexism, gender norms, and gender bias for the informal institutions.
In this case, we’ll employ Huntington’s (1957, 455) situational definition of conservatism, which
is that it is “a system of ideas that is employed to justify the existing social order.” Such identified
formal and informal institutions guide the discussions within this paper.
Firstly, there are two subcategories under formal institutions: political representation and
pro-women legislation, which are also the two indicators that were considered in the GGGR
evaluation of the subindex of political empowerment (see WEF, 2021, pp. 76-83). In terms of
political representation, the Philippines has had two women presidents over the last 50 years, two
more than 119 other countries (Facts and Figures: Women’s Leadership and Political
Participation | What We Do, 2021; Hega et al., 2017, p. 8). With the election of women in politics,
especially in the presidency, it is expected that they will act in the interest of those with whom
they share similar characteristics with (Pitkin, 1967, p. 209). Therefore, it was expected that they
will pass pro-women laws and policies. However, this expectation was not fully fulfilled by either
of the two presidents, especially when it came to the controversial Reproductive Health Bill that
only became a law in 2012 (World Health Organization, 2013). Both women presidents were
devout Catholics, and Corazon Aquino, the first woman president, was largely afraid of receiving
opposition from bishops, whereas, the second and most recent female president, GloriaMacapagal-Arroyo fiercely advocated for natural contraception methods (Genilo, 2014, p. 1046;
Punongbayan, 2018). Evidently, the persistence of Catholic Conservatism prevented the passage
of important policies during these women administrations, when the possibilities of passage was
expected to be higher than in non-women presidencies. Another expected consequence to the
election of women presidents is the role model effect or the role model hypothesis which is the
observed encouragement of women to participate in political activity caused by the presence of
female politicians (Wolbrecht and Campbell 2007, p. 924). Unfortunately, according to a study
conducted by Liu (2018, p. 265), the expected role model effect, which is a phenomenon primarily
observed in Western countries, did not accrue in the Philippine context, in fact, the election of
women presidents produced an opposite, adverse effect known as the “backlash,” primarily caused
by the gender norms in Philippine society. There is a concession to the fact that Liu’s study did
not necessarily focus on the Philippines as a single unit of research, however, such findings can be
corroborated when we look at the trend of women in politics over the past decades. In fact, the
Philippines has yet to achieve the 30 percent “critical mass” in women’s political representation
that designates substantial influence, as only 23.13 percent of the elected candidates from the 2019
National and Local Elections were women, in proportion to the 76.87 percent of seats won by men
(Commission on Elections, 2019; Dahlerup, 1988, p. 280).
The second discussion is focused on pro-women legislation, which consists of three
subcategories: legislation, implementation, and access to justice. Firstly, the Philippines has had
notable progress in terms of landmark pro-women policies, such as the Magna Carta for Women
Law that provides a set of comprehensive plans, programs, and policies that abolished
discrimination for women (The Magna Carta for Women [hereafter referred to as MCW], 2008)
and the Reproductive Health Act which recognizes gender equality and women empowerment in
terms of basic reproductive health access and services (Simon, 2013, p. 4). Moreover, systematic
analysis of the previous Family Codes had concluded that is has increasingly become less
discriminatory towards women over the decades (Feliciano, 1994, p. 559). However, it is
significant to understand that pro-women legislation is two-fold; it includes the passage of the laws
as well as their implementation. While it is difficult to assess the full and genuine implementation
of these pro-women policies, the existence of conservative beliefs and its derivatives of the
patriarchy, gender norms, and gender bias are identified as barriers for proper implementation.
Firstly, when it comes to the RH Law, it was temporarily suspended from implementation after
receiving serious backlash from the conservative Catholic church (SC Stops RH Law
Implementation, 2013). Secondly, on a study on women laborers in electronic export processing
zones, it was reported that only 25.8 percent reported their knowledge of the existence of MCW
(Crispin B. Beltran Research Center, 2015, p. 24), which serves as a great barrier to proper
implementation. Lastly, the third branch that constitutes pro-women legislation is women’s access
to justice. In line with this, the same phenomenon of conservatism, the patriarchy, gender bias, and
gender norms preventing women’s full and proper access can also be observed. In fact, in a
program developed by former Supreme Court Associate Justice Adolfo Azcuna (2006, p. 5) in
conjunction with the UNDP Justice Process Framework, he identified eight forms of gender bias
that permeates the third stage of the justice process; these are the following: double victimization,
negative attitudes towards female victims, gender insensitive rules and procedures, trivialization
of gender crimes, gender stereotypes affecting court actions, legal discrimination, under
representation of women, and sexist treatments of women in Courts. In this case, gender bias is
the differentiation between men and women and the unique and unjust treatment that they received
according to their gender (Mukherjee, 2015, p. 76). To corroborate this, a study conducted by
Lobusta and Santos (2014, p. 4) have found out that 15.71% of the respondents have expressed
their fears of feeling shameful in situations of violence as stated in the Violence Against Women
and Children Law. Therefore, while laws are in place, the prevailing social norms prevent women
from filing complaints or bringing their abusers to justice. This makes it apparent that despite
considerable success in pro-women policies, conservatism, gender bias, and their many forms
continue to subsist, preventing the proper implementation of such laws and the achievement of
justice for women.
Now that we’ve identified the current status of women’s political empowerment in the
Philippines by examining the status of formal institutions and its interactions with informal
institutions such as conservatism, the patriarchy, gender norms, and gender bias, it is pertinent to
discuss where such informal institutions originate from in Philippine society.
A. Conservativism affects the passage and implementation of pro-women legislation
and it is also the overarching informal institutions from which smaller informal
institutions such as the patriarchy, gender norms, and gender bias, are derived
from.
1.
Philippine society is still very much a conservative country, dominated by the
Catholic Church.
2.
Catholic beliefs dictate that women are subordinated to men and maintains
the sanctity of the family.
3.
It gives rise to its derivative informal institutions such as sexism and
patriarchy.
2. This is amidst the separation of the church and the state, which, Philippine
government has regularly tip-toed around.
A. Gender norms, a derivative of conservatism, has further boxed women and
prevented them from entering politics.
1. These gender norms dictate that women should be confined to their homes as
the “ilaw ng tahanan.”
2. This has also led to the conceptualization that politics is a “man’s game” and
that women should stay out of it.
B. Gender bias, another derivative of conservatism has led to the systematic
discrimination of women in the justice system.
1. This exists because of the inherent preference for sons in our society.
a. Patrilineality and patrilocality still prevails in Philippine society.
2. This is the inherent preference for men and against women in our society.
3. In our justice system, this manifests in the form of victimization, negative
attitude toward women victims, and gender insensitivity.