¹This article is based on the first section of the Third Report on the Advancement of Women in ASEAN. The report is a collective undertaking that brought together several national and regional state actors, governmental, non-governmental, and academic institutions, and women and men across six countries of the ASEAN. Regional coordination was shared by the ASEAN Secretariat and the Women and Gender Institute of Miriam College in the Philippines. Six country researchers who were closely linked to non-governmental women's organizations, research institutions, academe, or government agencies took part in the study.

Abstract

Based on a survey of different forms of inequalities in South East Asia, Josefa S. Francisco looks at how gender inequality not only erodes human security, but also deepens festering structural conflicts, vulnerabilities, and exclusions in society. She argues that there are systemic barriers to a more equitable distribution of opportunities in education, income, health, and wider life chances in society, which are reinforced by stark inequalities in access to and benefits from resources, capacities, and potentials.