ork in the System of National Accounts (SNA), Virola and De Perio (see [1]), presented
during the 7th National Convention on Statistics (NCS) in 1998 a satellite account on the
contribution of women to the economy for the period 1990-1997. This was updated in
1999 to include estimates for 1998 (see [2]) and in the 2007 NCS with estimates for
2000-2006 (see [3]).
The 1998 and 1999 papers used parameters on hours of unpaid work from the 1988
and 1992 studies of Illo et. al. (see [4], [5], and [6]) for Bicol and Mindanao while the
2007 paper used hours of unpaid work from the 2000 pilot Time Use Survey (TUS)
conducted by the National Statistics Office (NSO) among sample households in Quezon
City and Batangas.
Results of these studies show that for the period 1990-1998, Gross Domestic Product
(GDP) would have increased by about 37 percent if unpaid work is counted and that
women’s contribution would increase from about 35-40 percent of conventional GDP2
to
about 50 percent when unpaid work is taken into account. On the other hand, for the
period 2000-2006, accounting for unpaid work, GDP would have increased by 66-94
percent!
Obviously, the estimates are significantly affected by the parameters on hours of
unpaid work. The big disparity between the 1990-1998 and the 2000-2006 estimates in
the addition to GDP when unpaid work is counted is caused by the fact that the 2000
TUS showed large increases in the hours of unpaid work when compared to the results of
the Illo studies in 1988/1992. For instance, unpaid work per day of employed men
increased from 1.2 hours/day to 5.1 hours/day; while that for the unemployed/not in the
labor force, increased from 1.9 hours/day to 5.2 hours/day. On the other hand, the
parameter increased from 4.3 hours/day to 6.6 hours/day among employed women, and
from 6.6 hours/day to 8.0 hours/day for women who are unemployed/not in the labor
force. These parameters from the Quezon City/Batangas TUS pilot seem to be too high
and need to be assessed.
In the 1998 study, Virola and De Perio recommended that periodic time-use surveys
should be conducted by the Philippine Statistical System (PSS) and that resources be
made available to institutionalize these surveys. In addition, NSCB Resolution No. 12,
Series of 2005, instructed the NSO and the Philippine Commission on Women (PCW,
then National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women) to jointly take the lead in
conducting a National TUS, in collaboration with the NSCB and the National Economic
and Development Authority (NEDA). Unfortunately however, no follow-up TUS activity
has been made since the 2000 pilot TUS.
In response to renewed calls to value women’s unpaid work and in line with the
country’s commitment on the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs),
particularly on MDG 3, it is necessary to reinvigorate efforts and to muster the political will
to invest resources so that more accurate statistics in this area can be generated by the
PSS.

This paper is NSCB’s contribution to the continuing agenda towards a more accurate
valuation of women’s contribution in nation-building. In the absence of more updated and
more credible parameters on unpaid housework from a national TUS, this paper will
undertake computational exercises using different hours of unpaid work to come up with
estimates of “women GDP/GNP”. In addition, it will present indicators on employment
and education that can enhance the assessment of the role of women in the economy. It
is also hoped that this paper can contribute towards sustaining the interest of gender
advocates in promoting the agenda on the measurement of the contribution of women to
the economy.