Feminism and the Women's Movement in the Philippines: Struggles, Advances, and Challenges Contemporary Period: From the Ramos Presidency (June 1992) to the Present Women's Political Participation Women in positions of power or decision-making structures remain crucial in advancing women's empowerment, to the extent that the United Nations (UN) encourages member-states towards equal participation of women in decision-making bodies. However, the dominant patriarchal framework of politics and governance has made it hard for women to assert themselves in traditional centers of power like states, courts of law, congresses, and even local governments. Globally, the gender gap in political leadership remains high, with the UN reporting that only 22.8% of all national parliamentarians in the world are women. As well, only 10 women serve as head of states. This goes to show that globally, men continue to dominate politics (Firmalo-Fabic, 2016). In this regard, the Philippines has done fairly well. For a developing, Catholic, and patriarchal society, the Philippines exceeded expectations when it ranked 7th in the Global Gender Gap Index (World Economic Forum, 2016) which measure factors like gender equality, health, economic and political opportunities, and political empowerment. Analysis of these figures in relation to previous global gender gap reports may lead to the conclusion that the gap will finally close in a span of 82 years(World Economic Forum, 2016). The succeeding sub-sections will examine women's participation in government, political parties, and trade unions, as well as the representation of women's interests in the legislative arena. Women in national and local elective offices The Philippines elected not one, but two women presidents in a span of less than 20 years. The first was Corazon“Cory” Cojuangco Aquino, who was installed in 1986 following the snap elections orchestrated by the dictator Ferdinand Marcos, Sr. Cory Aquino, the widow of slain anti-Marcos senator Benigno Aquino Jr., ran for the presidency after a petition for her to oppose the dictator garnered a million signatures from Filipinos nationwide. The second was Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, a former senator and vice-president, was the daughter of Former President Diosdado Macapagal. Coincidentally, both women were swept into office through people power. Did having a woman president significantly promote the women's agenda and the women's movement? Although the women's movement made certain gains during the said presidencies, it can be argued that such happened in spite, and not because of them. Although it was during Cory's presidency that spaces were opened for the women's movement to grow and allow for the progressive participation of women at different levels of society, Aquino stayed on the conservative path vis-a-vis reproductive rights. The same may be said of Arroyo. From 1998 to 2013, the Philippines showed a continuous increase of elected officials from 16.15% in 1998 to 19.92% in 2013(see Table 2 below). Considered a good indicator of increasing women political participation in the country, two out of the five presidential candidates in the 2016 elections were women. Women legislators are Table 2. Percentage of Elected Officials in the Philippines Election Year Women 1998 16.15 2004 16.63 2010 18.56 2013 19.92 Men 83.85 83.37 81.44 79.75 Source: COMELEC cited in Rodriguez(2016) 8