Most Filipino women think a woman’s place is in the home, survey finds

The Philippines ranks among Asia’s most gender-equal societies by several international measures. Yet ask Filipino women where they truly belong and most will still tell you: at home. A new survey has found that 83 per cent of Filipino women agree “being a housewife is just as fulfilling as working for pay”, up from 70 per cent when the same question was posed in 1994. The findings, released by independent pollster Social Weather Stations earlier in March to coincide with National Women’s Month, paint a portrait of a society largely at peace with traditional gender roles. This is despite the Philippines topping a World Economic Forum gender equality ranking among Asian nations in 2018 and placing second in a US News & World Report survey in 2024. Some 77 per cent of men and 73 per cent of women told Social Weather Stations they “extremely” agreed that a man’s job was to earn money while a woman’s was to look after the home and family. Three-quarters of women surveyed said a job was fine, but what women really wanted was a home and children – a figure unchanged since 1994. “I’m not surprised,” said Dr Sylvia Estrada-Claudio, emeritus professor of women’s studies at the University of the Philippines. She pointed to labour force participation figures to explain why: women’s participation stood at 53.5 per cent last year, compared to 75.8 per cent for men, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority. Claudio said she had reservations about how the survey questions were framed, however. By casting gender roles in opposition – a man’s responsibilities set against a woman’s – she said respondents were nudged towards traditional answers before they had a chance to think otherwise. “It’s sort of already casting it in the light of traditional family roles,” she said, suggesting an additional question might ask, for example, whether men should share equally in housework and childcare. Claudio drew on a parallel from her own research: at Likhaan, the sexual and reproductive rights organisation she chairs, a broad question about abortion morality drew 90 per cent agreement that it was wrong. But when the same respondents were asked about specific circumstances, such as abortions after rape, support for that absolute position fell sharply. Dr Mahar Mangahas, Social Weather Stations president and a social scientist, acknowledged there were complications with the survey’s framing but noted that the questions were not the pollster’s own. They came from the International Social Survey Programme, a 51-member cross-national research collaborative whose modules, including “Family and Changing Gender Roles”, are standardised to allow meaningful comparisons across countries. Despite her methodological caveats, Claudio stood behind the survey’s broader conclusion: that Filipinos of both genders were committed to traditional family roles. Working women who needed to do housework were “doubly burdened”, she said, “because the other partner is not picking up the slack either”. The Duterte effect Other experts have pointed to another force shaping Filipino gender attitudes: the presidency of Rodrigo Duterte. “His presidency definitely pushed the women’s movement back,” said psychiatrist Nuelle Duterte, the former president’s niece. She cited his sustained attacks on prominent women: Leni Robredo during her time as vice-president, Senator Leila de Lima and Rappler CEO and Nobel Prize winner Maria Ressa. Growing up in Davao City, where her uncle served as mayor for 22 years, shaped her understanding of entrenched sexism. “He forever objectified women. That’s how he sees us,” she said. “Davao City is the sexist capital of the world.” She described a city of double standards where men’s affairs went unremarked, women were vilified for the same behaviour, and unmarried professional women were subjected to relentless jokes and gossip. It was what compelled her to build her career in New Zealand instead, she said. She blames an interlocking system of patriarchy, culture, family tradition and religion – but holds ordinary people accountable too, alongside “the ruling class” that dictates social norms. And the Philippines is far from alone. Other parts of the world, such as the US, were “regressing” as well, she said. Congresswoman Sarah Elago of Gabriela Women’s Party agreed the survey results were unsurprising and traced their roots to a lifetime of social conditioning – reinforced at school, in media and at home – that taught girls their primary value was in the domestic sphere. The nation’s top leader was not held accountable for his sexist and misogynistic remarks Sarah Elago, congresswoman The cycle was self-reinforcing, she argued. With few good jobs and chronically low wages available to women, unpaid domestic labour became the rational, if coerced, choice for many families. “Domestic care given by the wife is then presented as a natural or inherent choice, [due to] a system that denies true freedom to women,” she said. Elago also highlighted a telling contradiction in President Duterte’s record: he signed the Safe Spaces Act, which criminalises sexual harassment including wolf-whistling, yet faced no reckoning for his own behaviour. “The nation’s top leader was not held accountable for his sexist and misogynistic remarks,” she said, adding that women who raised their voices to demand higher wages were derided as being “noisy because they’re women”.

Most Filipino women think a woman’s place is in the home, survey finds

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}A record 83 per cent of women in the Philippines now say they find domestic life as fulfilling as a career, a 30-year high

A record 83 per cent of women in the Philippines now say they find domestic life as fulfilling as a career, a 30-year high