Rappler Talk: Why almost all Filipinos hold biases against women

MANILA, Philippines – A recent study from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) found that almost all or 99.5% of Filipinos hold biases against women.

Broken down by gender, Filipino women who hold biases against their gender were just an increment higher – at 99.67%, compared to men who had biases at 99.33%.

The UNDP’s Gender Social Norms Index measured biases against women based on their attitudes towards women’s roles in four dimensions: political, economic, educational, and physical integrity. Survey participants indicated whether they agreed with statements like “men make better political leaders than women,” or “men should have more right to a job than women.”

The Philippines was among the countries which saw an increase in people with biases in gender social norms from 2010 to 2022. Worldwide, the study found that there was virtually no progress in eliminating biases against women in the past decade.

This comes despite the passage of some pro-woman laws in the past decade, like the reproductive health law, the Safe Spaces Act, and the continuous hard work of the women’s movement at the grassroots level.

Rappler’s Michelle Abad sits down with Nathalie Africa-Verceles, professor at the University of the Philippines’ Department of Women and Development Studies, and former director of the UP Center for Women’s and Gender Studies, to help us understand why the Philippines remains a largely patriarchal society.

Watch the episode live at 2 pm on Monday, June 19. – Rappler.com