Grassroots organizing, collective action, and advocacy remain crucial in addressing structural inequalities that shape women’s labor conditions.
By Dulce Amor RodriguezBulatlat.com
MANILA — Filipino women workers face growing economic insecurity.
Precarious jobs and shrinking labor protections have reportedly deepened under neoliberal economic policies, according to the latest Ulat Lila report.
The report showed the worsening conditions of women workers due to foreign investments, privatization, and labor flexibility that weaken job security and social protection.
“As crises worsen, women bear the heaviest burden,” the Center for Women’s Resources (CWR) said in its assessment of the Filipino women’s socioeconomic conditions.
Labor flexibilization
The report said women workers increasingly occupy flexible and insecure jobs. The 2024 data from the Philippine Statistics Authority’s (PSA) Integrated Survey on Labor and Employment (ISLE) show that women make up 42.6 percent of the country’s 5.3 million paid employees, with 85.6 percent concentrated in rank-and-file positions, indicating limited access to more secure and higher-level employment.
Labor flexibilization, which employers often implement through short-term contracts, subcontracting, and agency hiring, limits workers’ ability to secure regular employment and benefits.
Women dominate several sectors where such arrangements are common, including retail, manufacturing, service work, and the business process outsourcing industry.
These conditions, the report said, create hostile working environments where women workers face long hours, job insecurity, and limited protection against workplace abuse.
The gender wage gap further compounds these issues. A study by the Congressional Policy and Budget Research Department found that wage disparities persist across occupations, with gaps reaching 26.2 percent in service and sales jobs and 28.4 percent in elementary occupations.
Women in retail and export
The wholesale and retail sector remains the largest employer of women in the country.
Gender-disaggregated data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed that 32.4 percent of employed women—around 6.26 million workers—worked in wholesale and retail trade in 2023.
Major retail corporations rely heavily on women workers. Company reports showed that women comprise 64 percent of the workforce in SM Investments and 70.5 percent in Robinsons Retail Holdings.
Despite the sector’s enormous revenues, women workers often remain stuck at minimum wage.
SM Investments reported P654.8 billion ($11.7 billion) in total revenue in 2024, with P20.9 billion ($374 million) coming from SM Retail. Wages of retail employees remain at minimum levels despite the company’s profitability.
Women workers also form a significant portion of labor inside export processing zones (EPZs) and economic zones (ecozones) where companies manufacture electronics, garments, and other export goods.
These zones were established to attract foreign investors and boost export production. However, the report said that many workers inside ecozones continue to receive minimum wages despite the high productivity of the industries they sustain.
The same pattern appears in the garment industry and the business process outsourcing sector. While the Philippines remains a global hub for call centers and other outsourcing services, workers in these industries face demanding schedules and performance pressures.
At the same time, the country’s gig economy continues to grow as digital platforms recruit workers for short-term and task-based jobs. These arrangements often lack job security and social protection.
Women market vendors
Women also dominate informal and small-scale livelihoods like market vending.
The report highlighted the growing issue of market privatization which has affected public markets where many women earn their daily income.
Market privatization refers to the transfer of management and control of public markets from local governments to private companies. According to urban poor organization Kadamay, such arrangements often raise rental fees and other charges for vendors.
One example cited in the report is the redevelopment of the Iloilo Central Market under a partnership between the Iloilo City government and SM Prime Holdings.
Officials framed the project as modernization. However, some vendors expressed concern that redevelopment could lead to higher rent and additional fees that threaten their livelihoods.
Market privatization also sparked controversy in Baguio where a proposal sought to redevelop and privatize the historic Baguio Public Market.
The plan involved building a four-story complex to house around 4,000 vendors selling meat, vegetables, fish, clothing, and other goods. The proposal faced strong opposition from vendors and community groups who feared the “mallification” of the city’s traditional market center.
The company later withdrew the redevelopment plan following sustained public resistance.
For women vendors, the report said that such policies illustrate how neoliberal economic reforms prioritize corporate interests over small livelihoods.
Migrant women workers
The report also highlighted the vulnerabilities faced by Filipino women who seek employment overseas.
Millions of Filipinos work abroad, including large numbers of women in domestic service, caregiving, and other labor sectors.
The report linked labor migration to the lack of stable employment opportunities at home, pushing many women to seek work overseas despite the risks.
Data from the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) showed that about 3,000 overseas Filipino workers were facing cases abroad in 2025, most of them related to labor disputes. Among them were 24 individuals on death row.
The report also documented continuing cases of human trafficking, illegal recruitment, and recruitment scams targeting women seeking jobs abroad.
Authorities recorded 479 illegal recruitment cases, while thousands of fraudulent social media pages offering overseas employment were removed during the same year.
Women migrant workers also face increasing reports of attacks and discrimination in several countries, including the United States and parts of Europe.
Organizing
Despite these challenges, the CWR said that women workers continue to organize and assert their rights.
The Ulat Lila 2026 report stressed that grassroots organizing, collective action, and advocacy remain crucial in addressing structural inequalities that shape women’s labor conditions.
For many women workers, the report said, the struggle goes beyond wages and working hours. It is also a struggle against economic policies that keep labor cheap while concentrating wealth among corporations. (DAA, RVO)
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