Marcos: ASEAN needs more women leaders

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Tuesday called for women’s greater representation in leadership across Southeast Asia, saying their participation is essential to the region’s security, resilience and prosperity.

“Women’s leadership is not optional to our regional agenda. It is the core driver of our security, resilience, and prosperity,” Marcos said in his speech at the opening of the fourth ASEAN Women’s Leaders Summit at the EDSA Shangri-La in Mandaluyong City.

“For decades, women across Southeast Asia have sustained our families, strengthened our communities, driven our economies, and yet their contributions have too often been undervalued. That must change. Women are not simply beneficiaries of our progress,” he said.

Marcos noted the work toward gender equality was “far from complete,” pointing out that women remain underrepresented in the cabinets and parliaments of ASEAN member states.

He warned that violence against women has extended into cyberspace, saying that efforts to empower women cannot succeed while they continue to face online harassment and abuse.

The President’s remarks came as the Philippine Commission on Women (PCW) raised concerns over women’s declining leadership and participation in various fields across the Asean region.

PCW chairperson Ermelita Valdeavilla said the commission has evolved beyond its policy-making role and now serves as a vision leader for gender mainstreaming.

She cited a recent World Economic Forum study showing that women’s leadership and participation had declined across multiple fields, with all 11 ASEAN countries either remaining “just stable” or going down in the rankings.

“Our leadership of women, our educational attainment of women are high, and yet their leadership participation does not equate to their achievement in the fields of education and even health,” Valdeavilla said.

“So let’s do something better, let’s do something smarter, and let’s commit to raising the representation of women in ASEAN. We are all leaders here,” she added.