This women’s month, a new study from Packworks, in partnership with Fourth Wall, has found that women essentially run the local economy in the Philippines.
According to Packworks’ business intelligence tool Sari IQ, 75 percent of sari-sari stores in the country are owned by women. Of the remaining 25 percent, 20 percent are run by men while ownership of the five percent remains unknown.
Unique to the Philippines, sari-sari stores can be found on almost every block. With the widely-accepted belief that Filipinos are, at the community level, a matriarchal society, it should come as no surprise that women own the majority of these family-run sari-sari stores. Their influence as the owners of these small retail shops has been primarily underrated, at least until now.
“The high percentage of sari-sari store ownership by women shows that Filipinas virtually control much of the local economy,” said Andres Montiel, Packworks’ Head of Data.
At the grassroots economy, women are in charge. With almost 70 percent of manufactured goods transacted in sari-sari stores, Filipino women hold significant sway in the local economy. However, there’s still work to be done to boost women’s labor in other industries and upskill female laborers for personal and economic growth.
“The primary reason for women’s domination of sari-sari stores lies in the very origin and nature of sari-sari stores themselves. Families set up sari-sari stores to augment the resources of the household,” explained Fourth Wall’s Research Director, John Brylle Bae. “Thus, sari-sari stores are always intertwined with the needs of the home. In the Filipino context, the role of the nanay [mother] is to manage the home, including addressing and managing the household’s needs.”
Due to the cultural influences of Spanish colonization and Western patriarchal culture, the role of women in Philippine society has drastically changed over the centuries, noted Bae. From religious and political leaders like babaylans and priestesses, women are now expected to be nurturers and caregivers—which is in itself a hot topic to debate. On the economic front, the role of women as the head of the household shouldn’t be underestimated, especially considering how much-untapped influence they have over the grassroots economy.