Women's estimated earned income compared to that of men in 2025

Originally posted: Investing in Women LinkedIn

Source: 2025 Global Gender Gap Report

📉 East Asia and the Pacific ranks second in economic participation and opportunity in the Global Gender Gap Report 2025, but structural inequalities persist, hindering progress towards income parity for women in the region. Structural constraints include: 

🔹 Gender norms that restrict women’s career and business opportunities 

🔹 Unequal share of care responsibilities falling to women 

🔹 Limited access to resources and support

On entrepreneurship, government efforts like the Women’s Enterprise Fund (by DTI-SBCorp) aim to broaden access to capital for women-led firms, offering loans from PHP 30,000 to 20 million with relatively favorable terms. (Read more: DTI-SBCorp launches Women’s Enterprise Fund to empower women entrepreneurs)

However, women founders often confront higher hurdles: smaller investor networks, more stringent collateral demands, and underestimation of their ventures’ potential. (This is a widely cited barrier in gender lens investment literature; less is locally quantified in the Philippines, but the pattern holds broadly.)

Additionally, case studies (e.g., from the GPCA “When Women Lead” series) show how private capital partnerships with women-led ventures are possible, but they remain relatively rare and require stronger ecosystem support. (Read more: When Women Lead: Entrepreneurial Case Studies from Vietnam, the Philippines, and Indonesia)

Let’s work to accelerate change!

Browse the Investing in Women's Knowledge Hub for actionable insights on the gender pay gap, workplace gender equality, and women’s economic participation.