PRESS RELEASE
Contact: Henry Herrera
Phone: +1-301-801-0608
Email: info@menandboys.net
An Urgent Wake-Up Call: A Generation of Men and Boys at Risk in the Philippines
August 15, 2025 – Men and boys in the Philippines are falling behind on nearly every front. Life expectancy is shorter, education gaps are widening, and opportunities are shrinking. Without decisive action, the nation risks losing an entire generation.
Education:
Women are consistently outperforming men in literacy—74.1% of women aged 10–64 are functionally literate, compared to 67.6% of men (1). Higher education shows a clear divide: 14.5% of women complete college, while only 10.5% of men do (2). Enrollment also reflects this pattern: 40.3% of females vs. just 29.7% of males in tertiary education (3).
Health:
The 2023 life expectancy gap stands at nearly six years—72.82 for women vs. 66.89 for men (4). Adult mortality is also alarmingly unequal: 226 deaths per 1,000 adult men vs. 131.6 for women (5).
Child Labor:
In 2024, boys accounted for 61.8% of the 863,000 working children—534,000 boys vs. 329,000 girls (6).
Homicide:
The male homicide rate is 7.54 per 100,000—more than six times higher than that of women at 1.17 (7).
Suicide:
Suicide rates in 2023 reveal a sharp gender divide: 5.2 per 100,000 for men compared to 1.8 for women (8)(9).
Domestic Violence:
Data shows 25.1% of men and 55.8% of women reported perpetrating physical abuse in the past year. Limitations in the study were cited as the explanation of the statistical difference, not necessarily reflecting as dramatic a gender difference as the statistic might suggest. As victims, 30.5% of men and 27.7% of women reported experiencing abuse (10).
Workplace:
From 2011 to 2018, men accounted for 69% of occupational injuries—461,002 cases vs. 207,177 among women (11).
Conclusion:
The Philippines must act decisively to respond to these growing gender gaps—because every delay deepens the crisis and threatens the nation’s future
The International Council for Men and Boys is a non-governmental organization that is working to celebrate the contributions of men to society and to end the 12 sex disparities that affect men and boys around the world. Achieving #GenderEqualityForMen will also benefit women. https://www.menandboys.net/
Links:
3.https://humancapital.worldbank.org/en/economy/PHL
4.https://www.statista.com/statistics/971067/life-expectancy-at-birth-in-the-philippines-by-gender/
5.https://genderdata.worldbank.org/en/indicator/sp-dyn-amrt?gender=male
7.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homicide_statistics_by_gender
8.https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.STA.SUIC.FE.P5
9.https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.STA.SUIC.MA.P5