Gone are the days when women should be casually and unsolicitedly asked questions regarding marriage, motherhood, and fashion choices, among many other decisions.

This was highlighted in “Tama Na, 2024 Na!” — a discussion on personal journeys on shattering societal expectations and norms for women and how backward thinking can be defied in any space, from home to the workplace and anywhere.

Hosted by Telus International Philippines in celebration of International Women’s Month this March, discussed in the event were the results of a company survey on unwarranted comments and questions asked women. More than 3,500 members from its 10 sites in the country participated.

Survey results showed that women continue to receive questions and comments regarding their physical appearance, relationship status, and personal life choices.

A total of 46 percent of the respondents said they had been asked questions such as, “When are you getting married?” and “Why don’t you have a boyfriend yet?” On the other hand, 67 percent had endured comments like, “Looks like you gained weight.

It was determined that those remarks were mainly influenced by factors such as family upbringing (71 percent), local culture/cultural traditions (75 percent), and media (41 percent), and were most often asked by friends (72 percent), relatives (66 percent), and immediate family members (50 percent).

Moreover, the survey showed that the workplace is the safest place for this kind of question, with workplace leaders (4 percent) and teammates (11 percent) among the least likely to say these things.

TIP vice president and country manager Anne Muñoz said that Filipino culture and tradition have played a vital role in why societal-based expectations and stereotypes of women prevailed until the present.

She stressed that open communication in the workplace is vital in order to create spaces where people can share who they are, what they are, and where they are coming from. She also cited ways of creating a safer workplace for everyone, regardless of how one identifies himself or herself.

“One is to provide inclusive benefits. Like [what] our HMO provides us with; they can enroll their domestic partners or any partner they have. Second, we have inclusive facilities. We have gender-neutral restrooms and even our sleeping quarters, so if you’re self-identified as a woman, then you can sleep there, similarly to any of our spaces where they can engage,” she told DAILY TRIBUNE.

She added, “The third component is engaging and educating our leaders and team members in what that means. On top of the SOGIE 101 gender sensitivity training, our leaders are going through a development plan for removing their bias and then really talking about it.”

“Lastly, the way we know that it’s working or that we need to improve that. There is our engagement survey, which is (done by) a third-party vendor that launches questions they validate. There are specific questions that ask about whether you feel safe in the workplace and whether your opinion counts. So those are the things that allow us to get 360-degree feedback to see anything else that we needed to do.”

The Philippines made progress last year after ranking 16th out of 146 countries in the Global Gender Gap Index Report of the World Economic Forum, which reveals countries’ gender gaps across economic opportunities, education, health, and political leadership.

The Philippines ranked 19th the previous year.