APEC WEF back to office highlights from PCW

October 15, 2019

Prepared by Pamela Suzara, Planning Officer of the Philippine Commission on Women
Submitted by Chiqui Escareal-Go

1. The APEC fora discussions have been very enriching. While the Philippines has been consistently in the top 10 of the most gender equal countries worldwide, we recognize that much remains to be done to fully bridge the gender gap. The sharing of practices from the different APEC economies shed interesting insights where we could learn from.

2. Many APEC economies have brought forth their respective challenges on addressing unpaid care work, transitioning of women from informal to formal economy, cultural gender stereotypes that limit the participation of women in STEM-related courses and the jobs and their preparedness for the inevitable Fourth Industrial Revolution. The initiatives to help address these concerns shared by New Zealand, USA, and Singapore during the PPDWE and HPLDWE sessions can be further studied for its applicability in the Philippines.

3. The digital transformation has become the buzz word in all fora during the whole WEF event, acknowledging it as the ‘make or break’ scheme to reduce the gender divide. All the APEC economies have been taking it seriously to adapt to the digitalization that is rapidly transforming the global economic landscape. We could share with DICT the materials and networks we have gathered for their further use and reference. It should be noted that 2020’s priorities include, among others, the digital connectivity and inclusivity where more advanced efforts are expected to be highlighted.

4. For women to fully participate in more lucrative jobs, which are mostly STEM and !CT-related, gender tracking in academic courses and jobs which results from inherent socio-cultural bia􀀊es must be curbed. The education sector must take ‘leap-frog’ approaches to encourage women and girls to take on the non-traditional track that could give them higher potential to excel in tne male-dominated fields. Giving quotas, scholarships, and other incentives to women and girls may entice them to take on the STEM and ICT tracks.

5. Strengthening women’s labor force participation is one among the five key areas stipulated in the Santiago Roadmap. With our current declining female labor force participation rate, pushing the agenda on the transition of informal economy to formal, unpaid care work and the review/amendment of daycare program can help improve the participation rate. Short-term interventions could be focused on monitoring of strict compliance of existing laws and policies on sexual harassment in the workplace, availability of women-friendly spaces at work such as lactation/breast feeding stations, daycare/child minding services at work and punishment/penalty for offenders.