For decades, women have carried the responsibility of advancing equality, fighting for recognition, representation, and respect in workplaces and boardrooms. And while progress has been made, invisible barriers remain: the glass ceiling, unconscious bias, and outdated stereotypes. These are challenges women alone cannot dismantle nor can men afford to ignore.

On September 18, I shared my views on male allyship   with the Board and senior officers of the Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP) for an Executive Session on Male Allyship, a timely and transformative conversation about how men can step up as champions of gender equality.

Why Male Allyship?

Too often, gender equality is framed as a women’s issue. But it is not. It is a human issue, a business issue, and a leadership issue. Companies with diverse leadership are proven to be more innovative, more profitable, and more sustainable. Diversity of thought produces stronger decisions, while inequality limits potential and risks talent loss, disengagement, and reputational harm.

This is why male allyship is not optional. It is not about men “helping women” out of benevolence. It is about leaders ensuring that organizations maximize the full range of human talent and creativity. When male leaders actively support women, they model the inclusive workplaces that will define the future of business.

ECOP offers a good example. Among its 22-member Board of Governors and Corporate Officers, six are women — a significant increase from past decades when there were only two. Meanwhile, women comprise 70% of the ECOP Secretariat, the organization’s operational backbone.

These numbers show movement in the right direction. But sustaining progress requires more than representation. It requires champions and men in leadership are critical to ensuring equality becomes a daily practice, not just an ideal.

What Allyship Looks Like 

Allyship is not passive. It is active, intentional, and accountable. It means listening to women’s experiences and believing them. It means challenging stereotypes so that merit, not gender, drives decisions. It means mentoring women, nominating them for leadership pathways, and ensuring they are included in networks where influence is built.

Most importantly, allyship means holding oneself accountable, tracking representation, setting measurable goals, and embedding inclusivity into policies and structures. This is how leaders move from good intentions to meaningful change.

At the Philippine Business Coalition for Women Empowerment (PBCWE), we help companies translate these principles into action through two initiatives:

• First, the Workplace Gender Equality (WGE) diagnostic tool called GEARS—Gender Equality Assessment, Results, and Strategies— which was developed by the Australian Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) in partnership with Investing in Women, an initiative of the Australian Government. GEARS offers comprehensive insights and actionable recommendations to help companies advance gender equality. It enables organizations to assess their current standing and develop strategic roadmaps for improvement across key areas, such as parental leave, flexible work arrangements, leadership accountability, and LGBTQIA+ inclusion.

• Second, Leaders for Change (LfC) is a transformational leadership program for CEOs and senior executives. More than a program, LfC is a movement. It provides leaders with opportunities to learn from peers (“LeadersLink”), amplify their voices as champions of inclusion (“StoriesLink”), and mentor the next generation (“MentorsLink”). Together with GEARS, LfC equips leaders to align business strategies with inclusive and sustainable growth.

Access to these tools is available to our members who comprise a community of like-minded leaders committed to building workplaces where both women and men thrive.

Shared Responsibility, Shared Future

Gender equality is not a threat, but a strategic advantage. And it is not a burden for women to carry alone. Male leaders have a vital role to play in shaping workplace cultures, influencing policy, and modeling inclusion beyond the boardroom — in their homes, their communities, and society.

Every decision leaders make, every policy they approve, and every conversation they lead can either reinforce the status quo or move us closer to equality. The champions of change we need are not those who seek the spotlight, but those who use their influence to lift others up.

Because when women rise, we all rise. And when men step forward as allies, they help create the inclusive, resilient workplaces that will drive the Philippines toward a stronger and fairer future.

This article first appeared on Management Association of the Philippines by Ms. MA. AURORA “Boots” D. GEOTINA-GARCIA

The needle may move slowly at times, but it is moving. Every woman who gains confidence, access to opportunity, financial independence, or a seat at the table becomes part of that larger story.

As someone who has spent much of her life advocating for gender parity and women’s empowerment — both economic and social — I find myself reflecting on a journey that is now more than 26 years in the making. Those are years of conversations, collaborations, initiatives and countless small steps taken by women and men who believe that a more equitable world is possible.

As we celebrate another anniversary issue, I thought it fitting to share an advocacy that has only deepened for me through time.

Women’s issues have always been at the heart of the work we do — not only because women comprise half the world’s population, but because when women thrive, families, communities and nations thrive alongside them.

While programs on the ground matter greatly, some of the most lasting changes happen quietly through frameworks, legislation and institutional support that create opportunities for women to participate more fully in society.

In the Philippines, the year 2000 marked an important milestone with the implementation of the Gender and Development Policy. This encouraged government agencies to create programs and allocate resources that would address the needs of women and promote gender-responsive development.

Progress is measured not only by milestones achieved but by opportunities made accessible to more women every day.

Over the years, there have been challenges and criticism in how some of these funds have been utilized. Yet there have also been many success stories — local governments that have invested in women’s livelihood initiatives, healthcare, protection from violence and leadership development. These efforts remind us that when resources are directed with intention, meaningful change can happen.

Another important law enacted in 2000 was the Solo Parents’ Welfare Act of 2000, which provided benefits, services and workplace protections for solo parents, many of whom are women.

My own journey in this advocacy took another significant turn through our work with Great Women under ECHOstore and the ECHOsi Foundation. For nearly a decade, I served as the private sector representative for women within the Department of Trade and Industry’s Bureau of Small and Medium Enterprise Development (BSMED). It was a privilege to bring the voices of women entrepreneurs into conversations shaping programs and support systems for micro, small and medium enterprises.

Today, representation in BSMED continues through the Philippine Women’s Economic Network (PhilWEN), with organizations such as SPARK championing the interests of women micro-entrepreneurs. The work evolves, but the mission remains the same: creating pathways for women to participate more fully in economic life.

Beyond our shores, similar efforts have been unfolding across the Asean. Over the years, women leaders have worked tirelessly to take the woman agenda into the economic pillar of Asean Community policy creation. The other two pillars are Political-Security and Socio-Cultural (where the woman agenda is presently lodged in).

In 2016, when the Philippines hosted the Asean, women of the organization now called PhilWEN pushed to have a representative at the Asean Business Advisory Committee. And the result of that hosting was the Recommendations for the Full Implementation of the Action Agenda in Mainstreaming Women’s Economic Empowerment in Asean.

The Philippines is again hosting Asean this year, and the PhilWEN work supports the substantive policy push behind our government and private sector alignments.

Here’s an update where recommendations for Gender Parity have been adopted by Asean Leaders: Ageism: 2015 Kuala Lumpur Declaration on Aging; Gender Pay Gap: Asean Declaration on Gender Responsive Implementation of the Asean Community Vision (2025) and SDGs (2017); Gender Credit Gap: Asean Declaration on Building a More Sustainable, Inclusive Resilient Future specific to Unlocking Women’s Entrepreneurship (2022); Breast Cancer: Part of Asean Post-2015 Health Development Agenda; and Women’s AI Talent Moonshot (STEM to Workforce Gap): a 2025 Joint Statement on Skills Development endorsed by all Asean Leaders and Ministers aligned to Asean’s Digital Masterplan 2025.

Since then, important conversations have expanded to include issues that directly affect women’s ability to thrive. What is encouraging is that many of these concerns are no longer viewed as isolated women’s issues. They are increasingly recognized as essential building blocks for resilient economies and sustainable societies. The inclusion of women in leadership, entrepreneurship, innovation and emerging industries benefits everyone.

Much of this work continues quietly behind the scenes. It is a reminder that progress is rarely a dramatic leap. More often, it is the steady and persistent movement of many hands pushing together in the same direction.

The needle may move slowly at times, but it is moving. Every woman who gains confidence, access to opportunity, financial independence, or a seat at the table becomes part of that larger story.

And so, the work continues.

This article first appeared on tribune.ph by Jeannie Javelosa

IT is Women’s Month, and we call for more women to join the boards of directors of companies nationwide.

Gender diversity is an economic and governance imperative, not a slogan or a compliance check box. It has been recognized that having a board diversity policy is a move to avoid groupthink and ensure that optimal decision-making is achieved.

The Philippines has been recognized as a global leader in gender equality. It is back into the top 20, climbing five places to rank 20th out of 148 countries in the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Gender Gap Report released in June 2025. With an overall gender parity score of 78.1 percent, a 0.2-point improvement from 77.9 percent in 2024, the Philippines reasserts its leadership as Asia’s most gender-equal country, ranking third in the East Asia and the Pacific region, behind New Zealand and Australia. (https://pcw.gov.ph/ph-reclaims-spot-in-global-top-20-remains-asias-leader-in-gender-equality/).

However, there is still a need to increase women representation in Philippine corporate boards. It has been reported that only 10.33 percent of directors in publicly listed companies (PLC) are women from August 2025 to February 2026. This number was already a substantial improvement (more than double) from the 4.99 percent from August 2024 to August 2025.

The NOWCD, or NextGen Organization of Women Corporate Directors, founded in 2021, aims to increase female representation in company boards. It seeks to leverage strategic partnerships to increase the number of women sitting in Philippine boardrooms to 30 percent by 2030.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) supports board diversity. At NOWCD’s general membership meeting on Feb. 16, SEC Chairman Francis Lim spoke on and affirmed the agency’s commitment to gender diversity and its support to increase more women in boards.

In this regard, Lim cited the following SEC issuances and initiatives:

– SEC Memorandum Circular (MC) 19, Series of 2016 (SEC MC 19 on the Code of Corporate Governance for PLCs), promotes gender diversity as part of stronger corporate governance and market sustainability of PLCs. Section 1.4 of SEC MC 19 recommends that PLC boards adopt a policy on diversity. This policy is not limited to gender diversity. It also includes diversity in age, ethnicity, culture, skills, competence and knowledge. A good example given is to increase the number of female directors, including female independent directors.

– Pursuant to SEC MC 09, Series of 2019, which sets out the Guidelines on the Issuance of Social Bonds under the Asean Social Bonds Standards in the Philippines, bonds have been issued to support women. ASA Philippines’ (2023) first Gender Bond in 2023 raised funds for gender-focused microfinance for women-led enterprises, and City Savings Bank’s Social Bond (2024) sought expansion of credit access for women in low- and lower-middle-income segments for enterprise development and income augmentation.

– The SEC has also given Gender and Development Awards recognizing and advancing gender-inclusive leadership since 2022, honoring organizations that strengthen women’s representation at the board level and individuals who champion sustainability with a clear social and inclusion dimension.

The Malaysian example

However, the country has yet to legislate or mandatorily require, or even strongly recommend, more women representation in boards.

We hope to follow Malaysia where all Bursa Malaysia-listed companies are required to have at least one female director on their boards. Also, the updated Malaysian Code on Corporate Governance 2021 recommends that boards comprise at least 30 percent women directors. Various organizations in Malaysia have thus launched initiatives like the Board-Ready Women Program to provide training, networking and skill development for aspiring female board members, and the creation of a registry to connect qualified women with companies seeking board members.

In any case, NOWCD, along with its partners, such as the Institute of Corporate Directors, are launching programs and forums that will help encourage women to become corporate directors, and to make them ready or prepared for the job. This is consistent with NOWCD’s mission to foster a powerful and trusted community of women corporate directors, with the goal of increasing representation of women in leadership positions of public and/or private company boards and inspire visionary boards nationwide.

Euney Marie J. Mata-Perez is a CPA-Lawyer and the Managing Partner of Mata-Perez, Tamayo & Francisco (MTF Counsel).  She is a corporate, M&A and tax lawyer and has been ranked as one of the top 100 lawyers of the Philippines by Asia Business Law Journal and is the Chair of the Tax Committee of the Management Association of the Philippines. This article is for general information only and is not a substitute for professional advice where the facts and circumstances warrant.  If you have any question or comment regarding this article, you may email the author at info@mtfcounsel.com or visit MTF website at www.mtfcounsel.com.

https://www.manilatimes.net/2026/03/05/business/top-business/more-women-must-join-company-boards/2293221

The article was published at the More to Follow Column at The Manila Times on March 5, 2026. Please see this link.