Still far from equal: Road ahead for women in the boardroom
The Philippines ranks among the world’s most gender-equal societies, a surprising fact for a country that seems to be always gripped by social malaise.
The World Economic Forum’s (WEF) 2025 Global Gender Gap Index, which measures the extent to which women and men enjoy equal opportunities and outcomes in society, placed it 20th out of 148 countries—the highest in Asia.
Women’s participation in the economy, one of the ranking’s four main indicators, is particularly strong: the Philippines ranks 13th globally on that measure.
Yet beyond quantitative league tables, a compelling test of gender parity lies in the corporate boardroom, where decisions that shape companies—and, in a developing country, the greater economy—are made.
A 2023 qualitative study finds that women improve decision-making simply by showing up prepared or asking the right questions.
Increased diversity in a board’s makeup also correlates to heightened engagement on long-term issues related to environmental, social and governance.
And companies with more women in their leadership drew as much as 5 percent higher annual returns than those with less diverse bosses, according to a 2024 Bloomberg Intelligence study.
However, data reveals the glacial pace of change in corporate boards. Only 23.3 percent of executive seats worldwide are occupied by women, according to a 2023 report by multinational professional-services firm Deloitte covering 18,085 companies across 50 countries.
It notes that just 8.4 percent of the boards are chaired by women, and women make up a measly 6 percent of the CEOs.
While it increased by 3.6 percent since the previous survey in 2022, the report concludes that it will take 85 years before there are as many women CEOs as men.
Though it ranks high on overall gender parity, boardroom representation in the Philippines tells a more nuanced story.
At 21.7 percent, it is just third among Southeast Asian countries in the Deloitte report when it comes to the percentage of women in board seats, with most of them holding fort in consumer-oriented businesses, financial services, and energy and resource companies.
This proportion, however, is larger than the Asia-Pacific average of 19.9 percent.
This contrast illustrates the quandary nagging the rest of the world’s companies: how to translate increasing gender parity into corporate governance.
A major thread of interventions is governments introducing quotas that mandate a certain percentage of women holding board-level positions in listed companies.
Quotas gained credence in Europe after Norway, in 2008, required 40 percent of public companies’ board seats for women.
Critics argued that these could seem tokenistic, demeaning women who wished to be appointed on merit. However, it clearly yielded results: The Deloitte report shows that five of the six topmost countries in their rankings—Norway, Italy, France, Belgium and the Netherlands—had mandatory quota legislation.
Even voluntary guidelines helped in the United Kingdom and Australia, with women now in 34 percent of all board seats in each of these countries.
In Southeast Asia, Malaysia is first among all countries in this metric at 28.5 percent, buoyed by the stock exchange’s requirement of one woman on the board of listed companies and a 30-percent target set by its securities commission.
Quotas set by the government, however, only applies to publicly listed companies.
The Deloitte study cites investor voting policies as another crucial factor in increased women’s participation in boardrooms in the United States and the United Kingdom, with large investors including pro-diversity targets to state gender equality as a priority.
These, however, are now being affected by a political climate that seemed to take delight in trashing interventions such as diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI).
For instance, after US Pres. Donald Trump’s reelection signaled a reduction of DEI efforts in government, major American companies had removed or watered down references to the policy and rolled back diversity hiring goals.
In the Philippines, it is unclear whether government measures, such as the Securities and Exchange Commission’s
encouraging of board diversity, can move the needle faster. However, the situation in other countries underscores that breaking the glass ceiling also depends on social and political norms.
As Inquirer columnist Raul Palabrica notes in a 2024 column, “filial affiliation or in-law relationship with the majority stockholders plays a significant role in the election of female members to the board,” reflective of the tight-knit family at the center of Filipino culture. Prognosticating on the chances of a quota set by law, Palabrica opines that it would be difficult due to a male-dominated Congress distracted by problems competing for their attention.
Filipinos have long celebrated women’s role in the household as the proverbial “ilaw ng tahanan,” keeping a steady ship amid an economy often plagued by hardships.
It is easy, therefore, to imagine a world where more of them oversee companies that drive the nation’s growth.
The country, building upon its reputation as the most gender-equal in Asia, must recognize the lesson from the rest of world: achieving boardroom parity will require more than policy alone.
