Philippines: Does Employment have a Gender?

In 2013, there has been an employment gap of 28.2% between male and female workforce with males being employed by said margin more than the females. Around 25,000 of employed individuals are males while only 16,000 are females. Does this signal that employment in the Philippines is more sexist than we thought?

Nope. Not the least. If you’re in a top women school and said statistic is getting you down, don’t let it. Turns out, there’s more to the numbers than just the gap.

A recent survey by Index Mundi estimates that the Philippines have a higher male population in between the ages of 15-54. That’s an almost 2% gap and that does not yet include the rate the fact that the average mean age of pregnancy in the country is around 25-29 years old. Also, females also only outnumber males around the ages of 55 and beyond since females, biologically, have longer life expectancy than males.

Given that the most preferred age range of employment is around 25-34 years old across all regions (Bureau of Labor and Employment Statistics; BLES), and not counting the number of females who stay at home to care for children, that’s a pretty good employment statistic when it comes to gender.

Actually, the statistic of employment ratio for men and women is 92.7% and 93.2% employment rate respectively.

 So, no, employment does not have a gender in the country and that’s good news for kababayans everywhere.

A Gay Gene has been found: What Now?

I studied in an all-boys school and, from observation, I can say that we had a lot of gay schoolmates. I’ve made a lot of friends from a top women school and they can say the same about their classmates. This could point to the environment being a factor in sexual orientation, but science says that sexuality is determined by genetics.

The study had a sample of 409 pairs of gay brothers, some of them twins. In the sample, a common marker was found of their genes, all after leaving out all other hereditary traits. This could signal that the sample of 818 people had a common characteristic in their gene that might point to what could possibly be a “gay gene.” Alan Sanders of the NorthShors Research Institute in Evanston, Illinois says that this could mean that sexual orientation is not a choice but a trait acquired at birth, theoretically.

But he also stresses that this isn’t all encompassing. Other factors have to be considered for the development of a trait as complex as sexuality.

And we’d have to agree: this study is still inconclusive of sexuality as being a mandate from birth and parents. Yes, there is a common gene, but and no, it does not necessarily mean that individuals do not have a say in it. Science, itself, claims that sexual preference may change over time.

A study in Southern Connecticut State University examined the 33 women who, after turning thirty, experienced attraction to their fellow women in spite of being married and have not having been attracted to the same sex until that point.

Apart from the study, there is the exclusion of cases like straight people who have engaged in homosexual activity or the mention of the lack of the gene characteristic in people who are considered straight.

The study may be helpful. However, sexuality and preference are still determined by what makes us happy. IQ, albeit not determined by genetics alone, is affected by factors like ability to focus and hormonal responses that are products of genetics but still, having low IQ parents does not necessitate that a child will be like so. Same with body types—being ectomorph, endomorph, and mesomorph—where a “fat gene” is found, the choice is still on the individual if he wants abs or not.

 In the end, we still choose what makes us happy and that, I think, is the right “preference.”

Women and Men; who’s Better behind the Wheel?

A couple of years ago, the bus industry in the Philippines became the butt of pointing fingers when it came to the increasing number of road accidents. To counter this, one suggestion was to prefer, if not totally replace, all male bus drivers with females because it has been found that female bus drivers are less likely to get into accident than their counterparts.

Does driving really have a sexual preference? And if so, who’s the better among the genders? The answers could mean new industries like top women school for driving but let’s step on the brakes on the idea for a while and see what science has to say.

Men are better Navigators

Image source: www.untvweb.com

And science says it’s true. Either on foot or on motor vehicles, men can more easily find their way than most women and this, according to science, might be because of ancestry—men have better 3D spacial perception and retention than women.

This, in theory, could be the product of the ancestral method of surviving as men, back in the days, were tasked with hunting for food and hunting means having to go out and follow prey for hours on end and make it back home. Back then, there were no malls or other establishments to point man back to home so they relied on the motion of the sun and their perception of north and south. This could mean that, today, the ability is passed on through testosterone.

Women are better at Details

Image source: www.myvirtualabode.com

And that’s probably because of the same hunter-gatherer ancestral heredity that we received—men are more adept at scrutinizing the environment in its vastness while women are more akin to looking at details probably, back then, for determining fruits and berries.

 For driving, this means that no one is the better driving. Statistically, women drive more safely than men but are spatially challenged while men can navigate roads better but see small details less like a jagged piece of rock on the road.