PH among ‘most dangerous’ places for women

The Philippines was among the three “most dangerous” places for women among 14 Asia-Pacific countries covered by a report of research firm ValueChampion that measured women’s safety, healthcare and access to education and employment opportunities.

In a March 5 report, ValueChampion, a site that recommends bank, credit card and insurance products in India, Singapore and South Korea, gave the Philippines an overall rank of 12th as the country placed 12th in safety, 12th in healthcare (quality of life and crime) and sixth in opportunity.

Tied at top position were New Zealand and Singapore, followed by Australia, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, South Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and China.

Below the Philippines were Indonesia and India.

“The Philippines, Indonesia and India were found to be the most dangerous destinations for women. All of these countries were found to have subpar access to healthcare, lax laws regarding women’s safety, poor access to family planning resources and overall inequality,” ValueChampion said.

It said that despite government interventions and attempts to enact laws that protect women’s safety, deeply entrenched patriarchal attitudes either due to cultural or religious beliefs led to women fearing for their well-being more often than in other countries in the list.

In the case of the Philippines, ValueChampion said “despite women going to school for longer than men and having better literacy rates, there are still high levels of violent crime (against women).”

“This shows us that while Filipino governmental structures exist to help women achieve quality of life, violence against women is still a problem on the individual level,” it said.

Also, ValueChampion said that since the Philippines, Indonesia and India were developing countries, access to healthcare was not always the highest or high-quality healthcare and education might be inaccessible in some parts of the country.