March is women’s month, and March 8 is International Women’s day. Some people may be asking, why this focus on women? Why is there no month or day designated for men? Or, like in Finex some men maybe asking why is there a need to have Women in Finance Committee—does that mean we should also have a committee for Men in Finance?
Sometimes these questions may sound funny, but these questions came from men, not women. Some men may be asking in jest, but some are serious with the insinuation that having a separate committee or group just for women within an organization will just be encouraging a clique and creating a gap when there isn’t one to begin with.
So I have to have an answer for these questions, not because I am a woman, but to convince myself, too, why the focus on discrimination against women? For one, men, since time immemorial, had been given more priorities at home, at work, in politics, in social life, etc. But women, even until this present-day age, are still being considered as second-class gender in some countries. We all know that in the past, women are relegated to household chores and that families, especially in some cultures, give bigger inheritance to the male than to female children, which is still happening now in certain families. The proverbial glass ceiling for women is still present in some companies.
The World Economic Forum 2017 Report on the Global Gender Gap Report is meant to monitor whether the gender gap is improving over time. Thus, they have this annual report because gender gaps can affect the growth of global economy. Talents of women are not being utilized when they are being discriminated based on gender. Given the education system, which has immensely improved the capabilities of women, gender discrimination is still unknowingly, by habit or tradition, or even intentionally, present in some countries. Businesses are losing out on a wealth of capacity if they do not address the gender gaps within the company.
The report, through its Global Gender Index, focuses on relative gaps between men and women across four key areas: health, education, economy and politics. It also aims to help hasten the pace of gender parity based on the report, by organizing global dialogue and a national public-private cooperation model, which is currently practiced in several future-ready countries. Gender equality—not necessarily women’s rights alone—affording both genders equal opportunities, could increase global GDP by $5.3 trillion by 2025 by closing the gender gap in economic participation by 25 percent over the same period, according to the same report. This, despite the fact that women have maternity leaves and have to spend more time with family, which are possible reasons certain businesses discriminate against women in their hiring process.
The good news is that the report shows an encouraging development in the gender gap, which is slowly getting smaller. Another good news for the Philippines is, it is leading together with New Zealand as the overall index’s top 10 performers, both having closed over 79 percent of their total gender gap for the East Asia and the Pacific region.
And the Philippines is the only one of the two countries in the region that had fully closed their Education Attainment gender gap. The Philippines and New Zealand are also leading on closing the Political Empowerment gender gap. In simple terms, in the Philippines, women are given equal opportunities with men compared to women in other countries in the region.
The future of women with regards to gender equality is very exciting and encouraging, especially for our future generations. Our country, while it continues to lead in the region as champion for gender equality, serves as a model not only for the region but for other countries outside of the region, of the economic benefits of giving equal opportunities for women in all sectors of society. Happy Women’s Month!
****
Wilma C. Inventor-Miranda is the managing partner of Inventor, Miranda & Associate; CPAs; member, Board of Directors-KPS Outsourcing Inc.; and treasurer of Negros Outsourcing Services Inc. The views expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the opinion of these institutions.