How is Southeast Asia doing in closing the gender gap? There are clear improvements, going by the World Economic Forum's 2025 Global Gender Gap Index. Released earlier this month, the report found that despite years of socioeconomic and geopolitical disruption, the setbacks caused by the pandemic have been almost completely reversed.

Most of the improvements come from lower-income nations, which have successfully closed larger proportions of their gender gaps than most of the higher-income countries. Nevertheless, many of the top spots on the index are still held by European economies, with New Zealand (fifth) and Namibia (eighth) being two of the challengers.

This year's report places special attention on two Southeast Asian economies for noticeable improvements despite structural challenges.

Best SEA country for gender parity: The Philippines

The Philippines has advanced five places to rank 20th globally in the 2025 Global Gender Gap Index, with an overall gender parity score of 78.1%. This marks a 0.2 percentage-point improvement from 2024 and solidifies the country’s standing as a regional leader, holding third place in eastern Asia and the Pacific behind only New Zealand and Australia.

At the heart of this performance is the country’s strength in economic participation, where the Philippines leads the region with a score of 79%, buoyed by slight improvements in wage equality and estimated earned income. The labour force remains male-dominated, with 16.7 million women compared to 23.8 million men despite a nearly equal population gender ratio, pointing to room for improvement in workforce gender balance. However, there is strong representation of women in leadership roles: 43.4% of firms have female top managers and 35% are majority-owned by women.

Education & health show mixed signals: despite traditionally strong performance in education, the Philippines experienced a slight backslide in educational attainment, with a drop in gender parity. For the first time, boys have surpassed girls in primary school enrollment, contributing to a 1.2 percentage-point decline in the education score from past years of full parity.

In the health and survival subindex, the country faces growing challenges. The sex ratio at birth has declined from 0.944 in 2016 to 0.926 in 2025, raising concerns about gender imbalances and long-term demographic impacts.

In terms of political empowerment, the Philippines continues to benefit in political empowerment from its history of female leadership, but representation is slipping.

“The Philippines’s political parity score is buoyed by nearly 16 years of female leadership under Presidents Corazon Aquino and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo,” the report mentioned. 

This legacy supports a head-of-state indicator score of 46.2%, second highest in the region. However, female representation in parliament has plateaued at 38.9%, and ministerial roles held by women have dropped sharply to 21.1% — down from over 30% in 2023 and previous high points in the 2000s.

Gender parity improvements over the years: Indonesia

Indonesia has nudged forward in the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index 2025, moving up three spots to rank 97th globally, with an overall gender parity score rising from 68.6% in 2024 to 69.2% this year.

This modest yet meaningful climb reflects continued, if uneven, progress across political representation, education, health, and economic participation. The nation has shown particular gains in political empowerment, with its score improving from 0.138 to 0.153 and its rank rising from 107th to 103rd. Despite fluctuations due to data availability, long-term trends reveal that Indonesia has closed 5.2 percentage points of its political gender gap since 2006.

Still, the journey looks complex. While more women now occupy parliamentary seats, recent years have seen a decline in women’s representation in ministerial positions, though it still stands higher than 2006 levels.

In the economic sphere, Indonesia's performance shows slow but steady momentum. Women’s representation in senior roles — including legislators, senior officials, and managers — has jumped from 20.5% in 2006 to 49.4% in 2025.

However, labour force participation shows a wide gap — 48 million women versus 75 million men — underscoring persistent structural challenges. This is clearly illustrated in how the corporate board still remains a man's world . Boardrooms are heavily male-dominated, with women holding only 12.3% of board seats. On the brighter side, women lead 31.8% of firms and hold a majority ownership stake in 52.9% of businesses — signaling an undercurrent of female-driven entrepreneurship.

Meanwhile, education and health are the country's strongest parity drivers. Indonesia excels in educational attainment for women, with the gender parity score climbing to 0.978 in 2025. Women now surpass men in tertiary education enrollment, a reversal of the traditional gender gap. The education rank improved from 105th to 103rd year-on-year.

Health and survival remains at near-parity at 0.968, and the sex ratio at birth has remained virtually unchanged over the past two decades - nearly balanced at 49.77% female.