MANILA, Philippines - Women in Asia-Pacific are still hitting a glass ceiling when it comes to leadership positions in government and private sector, according to MasterCard's worldwide index of women's advancement.

But the Philippines is one of the frontrunners in the region when it comes to women's participation in the workforce and regular employment.

The index measured the socioeconomic standing of women in Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa, based on employment, education and leadership.

Among the 14 Asia Pacific countries surveyed, New Zealand ranked first with a score of 77.8, followed by Australia with 76.

The Philippines ranked third with a score of 70.5, followed by Singapore (67.5) and Taiwan (64.7).

On the other hand, India (38.0), Japan (48.1) and Korea (49.7) had the lowest index scores, showing much needs to be done to improve gender parity.

The scores are indexed to 100, indicating how close or how far women in each market are to achieving socio-economic parity with men. A score under 100 indicates gender inequality in favor of men.

"There is still a lot to be done in our region to enhance the role of women across all aspects of society; there are still too few women leaders in government and business, and not enough women-owned and run businesses. There are standout markets which have repeatedly improved in terms of advancing opportunities and access for women, but more needs to be done," Georgette Tan, group head, Communications, Asia/Pacific, Middle East & Africa, said in a statement.

More women in the workforce

New Zealand women lead the Asia Pacific region when it comes to workforce participation and regular employment. There are over 90 women for every 100 men in the regular workforce in New Zealand.

In the Philippines, women's workforce participation (63) and regular employment (93.4) were also one of the region's highest.

Across the region, the index showed there are still few women leaders in business and government. Except for New Zealand, all 14 countries had fewer than 50 women business/government leaders for every 100 male business/government leaders.  

Only Australia (49.7) and the Philippines (45.6) came close to gender parity.

Countries with low scores for this category include
India (15.9) Japan (14.8), Korea (17.5) and Thailand (18.6).

When it comes to improving women's socioeconomic standing, women in Asia-Pacific see affirmative action and more seats in parliament as policies to advance women's role in society. The results were from MasterCard's survey on Consumer Purchasing Priorities – Education.