Redesigning work so women can thrive
As we celebrate Women’s Month, we often highlight the achievements of individual women who have broken barriers. These stories matter because they inspire us, but they also prompt a hard question: How many capable Filipino women out there never had the opportunity to lead in the first place?
According to CEIC Data (2023), the labor force participation rate of women in the Philippines aged 25 and above stood at 58 percent, compared to 82.6 percent for men. If we look at the aggregate data in the prime working years (ages 25 to 54), participation rises to 63.5 percent, yet still trails men at 88.7 percent. These are not small gaps; these numbers represent millions of women whose talent, skills, and leadership remain underutilized.
From our work across industries, we see that the barrier is rarely women’s ambition but workplace systems.
A persistent barrier lies in how work itself is designed. Women carry a disproportionate share of unpaid care work. This isn’t the problem; it is that workplaces are still designed around a linear, uninterrupted career path. Maternity and caregiving years, including care for children and disabled or elderly relatives, often mark the steepest drop-off from labor participation.
Research by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies shows that married women are three to four times more likely than men to cite family duties as the reason for not working. This tells us that caregiving duties, not lack of ambition, drive women out of the labor force.
Meanwhile, reentry is one of the least supported transitions, and women frequently return at lower levels than where they exited, creating permanent gaps in earnings and pathways to leadership roles in their careers.
Another barrier is gender bias in hiring, promotion, and leadership pathways. According to Grant Thornton in its end-2023 survey, 43 percent of senior management positions in Philippine companies are held by women. However, many women in leadership continue to occupy functional or support roles rather than strategic line roles that lead to top decision-making positions.
Leadership potential is still equated with traditionally male traits, such as assertiveness, risk-taking, and competitiveness, while assumptions about women’s availability once they become mothers persist. These biases are reinforced by informal sponsorship networks that tend to exclude women. When women are absent from decision-making, organizations lose vital perspectives on fair pay, access to high-value roles, and workplace equity.
As industries shift toward digital and artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled roles, a third risk is emerging. Women are already underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, and high-growth sectors, which are shaped by male-dominated cultures and male-coded work systems and policies, such as expectations of constant availability. Without deliberate action in these emerging sectors, women may remain concentrated in routine roles vulnerable to automation, thus widening the gender wage gap in the country in the years ahead.
Addressing this means revisiting policies and institutionalizing bias-resistant hiring and promotion practices with transparent criteria and measurable targets. It means redefining “quality jobs” to include flexible and predictable work without wage or promotion penalties.
It also means recognizing that care is not a family issue but an economic one. Stronger childcare support systems, employer-supported programs, and social protection for part-time and nonstandard workers are essential if participation gains are to be sustained. Reentry pathways must be structured and normalized through returnship programs, digital refresher trainings, and fair recognition of transferable skills gained during caregiving.
Finally, access to enterprise-based upskilling must be equitable. As our industries shift toward digital, AI-enabled jobs, who gets reskilled determines who advances. A gender and life-stage lens must shape how training opportunities are designed and offered.
Data from Gallup (2023) show that highly engaged hybrid teams deliver 23 percent higher profitability and 18 percent higher productivity, while the World Bank estimates that closing gender gaps could boost long-term gross domestic product by up to 20 percent in some economies. Redesigning work so women can fully participate is not just a women’s issue; it is a matter of national competitiveness.
Flexible working arrangements like flexitime, location, and load help women balance work and caregiving, retain employment, and advance professionally, empowering them to take leadership roles and sustain career growth.
If we are serious about unlocking the Philippines’ economic potential, we must move beyond simply creating jobs. We must redesign systems so that everyone, regardless of gender, can enter, stay, grow, and lead at every stage of life.
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Julia R. Abad is the executive director of the Philippine Business Coalition for Women Empowerment.
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Women Who Lead is an initiative of PhilWEN.
