Ironically, many countries in SEA in general are actually better in terms of gender equality than many western countries (referring more to countries in NA/SA, Europe is home to a lot of progressive countries generally speaking but that of course doesn’t mean all European countries are).

The Philippines in particular, even is actually very progressive in terms of gender equality (one of the top of the world, significantly moreso than the US for example) especially in terms of wage gap, representation in public office/executive positions as well as literacy and employment rate. (Source: [http://reports.weforum.org/global-gender-gap-report-2018/data-explorer/](http://reports.weforum.org/global-gender-gap-report-2018/data-explorer/))

Despite that, it’s also still filled with a lot of issues among the general populace and it’s been an uphill battle against a lot of inappropriate and indecent treatment in public. So… that should show just how far we still are as a whole