Household decision-making in the Philippines

By Artchil B. Fernandez

March is women’s month and yesterday (March 8) is designated as International Women’s Day.  In celebration of the life, story, and condition of the other half of humanity, I am sharing the results of my study done as course requirement in quantitative research course (Socio 281).  The study is on household decision- making in the country.

Two major contending views have emerged in the last decades on household decision-making.

One view asserts that the traditional conjugal roles and consequently traditional household decision-making is changing.  This is the view advanced by Young and Willmott (1973) who claimed that with the advent of symmetrical families, household decision-making in effect has become or is becoming egalitarian.  They noted that there is a swing towards a joint type of conjugal roles where the husbands and the wives share household responsibilities and decision-making.

The opposing view put forward by radical feminists (Oakley 1974) argues that there is no substantial change in the conjugal roles of husband and wife and as a result the traditional household decision-making within the family remains.  Household decision-making is still dominated by men.

In the light of the debates on gender roles and household decision-making, it is important to investigate the Philippine situation.  Filipino families are no different from other families in the world.  They are affected by changes in the social environment, with more and more Filipino women entering the workforce and many more leaving to work abroad.

The questions the research sought to answer were: What is the current the household decision-making among married Filipinos? – traditional or is it already symmetrical?  Are Filipino families now symmetrical where the husband and the wife share household decision or have they remained segregated?  Specifically, how do married Filipino women or Filipinas with partner decide in the household?  Are they deciding alone, jointly with husband or partner or other people in the household decide?

The data used in the research were taken from the 2017 National Demographic Health Survey (NDHS) involving 31,791 households.  Since the study only considered Filipino women who are married or had partners, not all cases in the NDHS 2017 were included.  After excluding the singles and women with no partners, the population of the study is 15,445.  The data were processed using Stata v.14.

Variables considered by the study are selected socio-economic profile of Filipino women who are married or with partners.  This includes their age, educational attainment, type of residence and employment status.  These data are treated as independent variables.

The dependent variable is the household decision-making.  Household decision-making is derived from three areas where woman decides alone, jointly with husband or partner, and others make the decision.  The areas are:  woman’s health care, large household purchases and visits to family and relatives.  Woman deciding alone indicates her empowerment in household decision-making.  If decision is done jointly with husband or partners, the woman has some degree of participation in the decision-making.  If others or someone else made the decision, the respondent has no participation in the decision-making in the household.

The study found that married Filipino woman or Filipina with partner is likely to be 34.5 years old, living in rural areas with at least secondary education and working.  In household decision-making on her health care, large household purchases and visits to family and relatives, she is likely to decide jointly with her husband or partner.  Only one in ten married Filipino women or Filipinas with partner decides alone on her health care, large household purchases and visits to family and relatives.

Age and employment status are found to be significantly related to woman deciding alone on woman’s health care, large household purchases and visit to family and relatives.  Age and employment status are also predictive of woman deciding alone in the three areas of household decision-making.

The study reveals that household decision-making in the Philippines is largely egalitarian or symmetrical with husband and wives jointly deciding on major household purchases – over two-thirds (69.08 percent) and visit family and relatives – nearly three-fourths (72.16 percent).  Even in the woman’s health nearly half (47.38 percent) of the women said it is jointly decided with their husbands or partners.

If woman deciding alone in the three areas of household decision-making is considered an indicator of women empowerment, it is still a long way to go for Filipino wives with less than a tenth (8.70 percent) of the women deciding alone on woman’s health care, large household purchases, and visit to family and relatives.  Region with the highest proportion of women deciding alone is Region VII followed by Region VI.  Region with the lowest proportion of women deciding alone in the three areas is ARMM.

Age and employment status are not only related to the woman deciding alone in the three areas of household decision-making, regression analysis reveals they are also predictor of women making all the decision these areas.  This indicates that a working wife or partner is an empowered woman.  Employment gives her economic clout hence a say in household decision-making.  Women can only have better and good job if they better or high education.  Highly educated women tend to get high paying-jobs and positions.

This is the state of household decision-making in the Philippines.  Cheers to the achievements of Filipino women!