Violence Against Women and Gender Equality in the Philippines: Are they Related?

Abstract

The Philippine Commission on Women furthered campaign in promoting gender equality in the Philippines which has been a socio-cultural issue over the past years. The strict implementation of the law may have caused Filipino women to speak up and report abuses against them. The study determined the model for the trends, a sample forecast for the next 10 years, and relatedness of the reported crime of violence against women and the Gender Gap Index (GGI) in the Philippines. It retrieved data from the reports of the Philippines Statistics Authority and of the World Economic Forum from 2006 to 2017 through data mining. This study employed descriptive methods via time trend analyses using Minitab R and Symbolic Regression using Eureqa Pro R . Using time trend analysis, the reported cases of violence against women fits the Quadratic Trend Model (MAD=1968) while the quality of gender equality in the Philippines fits the Linear Trend Model (MAD=0.00306). Both reports are forecasted to be increasing for the next 10 years. The symbolic regression analysis provided a forecasted relatedness of the reported cases of violence against women (R=0.9958, R2=0.9911, MAE=0.00067) to GGI. The reported cases of violence against women have a 73% positive association of increasing GGI. Such disclosure supports the necessity of pragmatically real social action from governmental and non-governmental organizations which prevent the occurrence of the crime of violence against women in the future and increase gender equality to promote social welfare as part of the sustainable development goals.