CEDAW/C/SR.1406
services. In an effort to address gender stereotyping, schools at the primary, secondary and
tertiary levels had received administrative orders to identify and correct gender biases in
curricula, teaching methods and learning materials. All schools were required to implement
the Magna Carta of Women and other relevant laws fully, including those on gender-based
violence, and accountability measures had been introduced to ensure that school officials,
teachers and other staff who were in violation of those laws were liable to both criminal and
administrative sanctions. An online complaints mechanism had been set up to enable
students and other members of the academic community to report sexual harassment, rape
or other offences, and victims of such offences were entitled to receive counselling and
legal aid.
21.
Targeted financial assistance was provided to girls in very poor, indigenous or
Muslim communities, and needy students could apply for loans and special grants to help
them make the transition from school to the labour market. Women who had not completed
their basic schooling were offered remedial education aimed at improving their
employment opportunities, and free day-care services were available to women with
children who were enrolled in job training programmes. The Conditional Cash Transfer
Programme, which had been very effective, was available to the poorest families; it
required parents to keep their children in school in exchange for financial support.
22.
The Government’s attempts to end gender role stereotyping in education had
resulted in very positive overall outcomes, such as increases in female school enrolment
and completion rates and higher rates of female tertiary enrolment, employment and female
representation in traditionally male-dominated occupations.
23.
Ms. Sy (Philippines) said that an overwhelming majority of small enterprises and
micro-businesses were part of the informal sector. The Government was taking steps to
strengthen the Sustainable Livelihood Programme in order to bring them into the formal
economy, including providing capacity-building to women in that sector and promoting
greater innovation and productivity. In addition, new entrepreneurs were given training in
basic business ethics as a way of encouraging them to enrol their businesses in the social
security scheme and register with the authorities.
24.
A series of laws had recently been enacted for the benefit of women in salaried
employment, and their provisions had been incorporated into the labour law compliance
system applied by the Government. As part of the system, enterprises were requested, inter
alia, to set up a Committee on Decorum and Investigation concerning sexual harassment in
the workplace, compensate women victims of violence, promote breastfeeding and conduct
public awareness-raising concerning violence against women. Of the 44,000 labour law
compliance visits that had been carried out by the Department of Labour and Employment
in 2015, 86.8 per cent were found to be in compliance with the gender-based provisions in
the law.
25.
In keeping with the Constitution, the more than 2,000 public employment service
offices in the country strictly adhered to a policy of non-discrimination in recruitment. In
addition, gender equality awareness-raising programmes for employers taught human
resources officers to focus solely on the competitive skills and competencies of candidates,
not on their age or gender. The Wage Rationalization Act of 1989 had instituted a State
policy to ensure a decent standard of living for all persons by means of a regionally
adjusted minimum wage. The wage-setting process prescribed under the policy did not
allow for discrimination on the basis of gender, age or skills. Based on the 2014 Labour
Force Survey conducted by the Philippine Statistics Authority, the average basic pay of
women was higher than that of men. Any wage disparities between men and women that
existed in wages above the minimum wage were due to the supply of, or demand for, skills
in the labour market and not to occupational stereotyping.
GE.16-11725
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