Introduction
Gender equality is an essential indicator of overall social development, ultimately affecting citizens’ safety, well-being, and longevity. Comparing gender-related measures across countries allows for conclusions about similarities and differences, which might suggest the particularities of the societies’ most relevant gender issues. For this cross-national comparative assignment, the United States of America and the Philippines have been selected. It is claimed that since the Philippines is a developing country, its gender inequality might be more evident in comparison to the USA due to the relatively limited resources for developing and implementing gender-focused policies.
Labor Force Participation Rate
The rates of men’s and women’s labor force participation are significant indicators of a country’s gender-specificities. Based on the data provided by the World Bank (2024b), the USA’s “labor force participation rate among females is 56.5% and among males is 67.5% for 2022” (para. 5). In comparison, the same rate for the Philippines for the same year reaches the levels of 46% for females and 70.6% for males (The World Bank, 2024a). These indicators are similar in terms of males’ involvement dominance in both countries; however, the main difference is that the gap between women’s and men’s participation is much larger in the Philippines. Thus, women’s workforce participation is higher in the USA, while men’s participation is higher in the Philippines.
Mortality Ration Due to Pregnancy
Another important criterion for evaluating the level of gender inequality in a country is the examination of the ratio of women’s mortality due to pregnancy-related problems. Indeed, mortality and morbidity are fundamental indicators of a country’s health status, which is why efforts to reduce these rates are pivotal for society. As the data retrieved from the World Bank (2024b) demonstrates, “21 women die per 100,000 live births due to pregnancy-related causes” in the United States (para. 1). Although this problem has been a significant issue for the country for the past decades, this level is lower than the average indicators in the region on North America (The World Bank, 2024b).
As for the Philippines, this indicator suggests that pregnancy complications become a cause of death for 78 women per 100,000 live births (The World Bank, 2024a). Similar to the USA, the situation has improved over the past decades; however, the Philippines’ women’s pregnancy-related mortality rate remains at the level of the region’s average. This aspect distinguishes the USA from other countries and indicates that the United States is more successful at implementing policies to regulate mortality.
Lower Secondary School Completion Rates
In addition to the abovementioned criteria, education in general and the finishing of secondary school are other particular aspects of gender equality evaluation. When comparing the two countries, the statistical data on women’s and men’s lower secondary school graduation have been examined. In particular, the World Bank (2024a) indicates that “96.3% of girls and 83.6% of boys complete lower secondary school in the Philippines as of 2021 data” (para. 3).
However, the same indicators for the USA are characterized by 104.2% for girls and 103.5% for boys, which is significantly higher than the world average and the average of the high-income countries (The World Bank, 2024b). These indicators are similar to those of the Philippines due to the prevalence of girls’ rates of completion over boys’. However, the USA has a lower gap between the two gender groups, which demonstrates a less significant gender inequality in the country.
Ownership of a Bank Account
The level of economic prosperity might be characterized by the availability of financial institutions to representatives of both genders in the two countries being compared, and in particular by the possession of a bank account. According to the World Bank (2024b), in the USA, 92.7% of female and 93.6% of male citizens had accounts in 2017. As for the Philippines, these indicators reached 38.9% for women and 30% for men as of the same year (The World Bank, 2024a). The Philippines’ rates are much lower than the regional average and the overall level of account ownership in lower- and middle-income countries globally. Therefore, the striking difference here is the overall economic insufficiency for the Philippines’ citizens.
Moreover, the USA has a less pronounced gender gap than the Philippines. Indeed, the persistence of economic independence inequality between women and men has been noted by Pepin and Cohen (2021), who found that women were generally less likely than men to have accounts at financial institutions in developing countries. This particularity demonstrates the presence of a high level of economic gender inequality in the Philippines.
Time Spent on Unpaid Domestic Duties
In the context of gender inequality, women’s involvement in unpaid domestic work and care is particularly relevant. Indeed, according to Wade and Ferree (2018), women “provide feminized, unpaid work in the home for their husband and children” (p. 178). As the statistical data indicates, in the USA, “in 2019, women in the United States spent 15.3% of their day, and men spent 9.7% of their day on unpaid work” (The World Bank, 2024b, para. 6). These numbers vividly prove that women are disproportionately exposed to more unpaid household chores than men in the USA. However, for the Philippines, these data are unavailable, indicating that such information is not collected or analyzed in the country (The World Bank, 2024a). Thus, the most evident distinctive feature between the USA and the Philippines is the USA’s attention to domestic work, which is lacking in the Philippines.
Employment in Senior and Middle Management Positions
Finally, the criterion of management employment rates for women is essential for interpreting gender-related inequalities. The rate for this data measure in the USA is 42.8% of individuals in middle and senior management are women (The World Bank, 2024b). However, this percentage differs in the Philippines, where women constitute only 38% of people in middle- and senior-level management positions (The World Bank, 2024a). Despite this difference between the countries, they share a similar trend: men are the majority in such positions, accounting for more than 50% of the middle and senior management workforce.
Conclusion
In summation, comparing the Philippines and the USA on gender-related data measures indicates that the latter shows a smaller gap between men and women. Despite the overall differences, the two states share a similarity in women’s lower rate of labor force participation in comparison to men and have a descending trend in pregnancy-related female mortality. In addition, both countries have higher rates of women’s secondary school completion and employment in senior management positions. Importantly, there is a smaller gap between the genders in terms of bank account ownership in the USA, as well as in household duties accomplishment statistics, which are lacking in the Philippines.
References
Pepin, J. R., & Cohen, P. N. (2021). Nation-level gender inequality and couples’ income arrangements. Journal of Family and Economic Issues, 42(1), 13-28.
Wade, L., & Ferree, M. M. (2018). Gender: Ideas, interactions, institutions (2nd ed.). W. W. Norton & Company.
The World Bank. (2024a). Philippines.
The World Bank. (2024b). United States.