Resource information
Just as development means less poverty
or better access to justice, it also means fewer gaps in
wellbeing between males and females. Women's
empowerment and gender equality are development objectives
in their own right, as embodied in the Millennium
Development Goals. It is espoused as well in the Convention
on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against
Women (CEDAW), ratified by the Philippines in 1981; the
convention established a comprehensive framework for the
advancement of women and has been mainstreamed in the Magna
Carta of Women, RA 9710. Gender equality is smart economics:
it can enhance economic efficiency and improve other
development outcomes in three ways: first, removing barriers
that prevent women from having the same access as men to
education, economic opportunities, and productive inputs can
generate broad productivity gains. Second, improving
women's absolute and relative status contributes too
many other development outcomes, including those for their
children. Third, leveling the playing field, where women and
men have equal chances to become socially and politically
active, make decisions, and shape policies, is likely to
lead to more representative, and more inclusive,
institutions and policy choices and thus to a better
development path.
