AUTHORS:
Diana Abdul Wahab, Ph.D
Deboshree Ghosh, Ph.D
NurulHuda Mohd Satar, Ph.D
EDITORIAL TEAM:
Simitha Thuraisingam
Miriam Fischer
ASEAN is one of the world’s fastest-growing regions, yet persistent gender inequality continues to limit its economic potential. Women play a vital role in powering ASEAN’s economies, but they remain systematically underrepresented in leadership, policymaking, and high-value sectors. This report demonstrates that gender inequality is not only a matter of fairness but also a profound economic inefficiency, costing the region trillions in lost GDP and undermining sustainable development.
The exclusion of women from decision-making roles has direct and measurable economic consequences. When women are absent from policymaking, critical issues such as childcare, healthcare, and equitable labour practices receive less attention, resulting in weaker policy outcomes. Similarly, the lack of women in corporate leadership reduces the likelihood of family-friendly workplace policies and perpetuates gender pay gaps, both of which limit productivity and talent retention. Current data shows that women hold only about 20 percent of parliamentary seats and 12 percent of ministerial posts in ASEAN, far below global averages, while in corporate boardrooms, women occupy just 19.9 percent of seats with very few chair positions. This imbalance translates into missed opportunities for innovation, inclusive policymaking, and long-term economic growth.
The report’s economic modelling illustrates the scale of these losses. Under a business-as-usual scenario, gender gaps in labour force participation, employment, and productivity persist, leading to mounting opportunity costs for all ASEAN economies. By contrast, a best-in-region scenario, where countries adopt the strongest gender-inclusive practices already demonstrated within ASEAN, projects significantly higher GDP growth across every nation, with cumulative gains worth hundreds of billions of dollars annually by 2029. These projections highlight that closing gender gaps is not merely aspirational but achievable, provided that deliberate interventions are made.
Structural and cultural barriers remain central to the persistence of inequality. Patriarchal norms, entrenched gender roles, and the disproportionate burden of unpaid care work on women continue to suppress female labour force participation. On average, women in ASEAN spend up to four times more time on unpaid care than men, limiting their ability to pursue paid work and career advancement. In entrepreneurship, women lead more than 60 million enterprises, yet face systemic barriers, including a financing gap as high as six billion dollars in some countries. This restricts their ability to scale businesses, adopt new technologies, and contribute more fully to regional growth.
To unlock ASEAN’s full economic potential, the report identifies a series of urgent policy imperatives. These include strengthening gender-responsive budgeting to ensure that public resources target gender gaps effectively; investing in childcare and the wider care economy to reduce the unpaid care burden; and promoting women’s leadership and entrepreneurship through quotas, mentorship, financing mechanisms, and digital skills development. Equally important are stronger legal protections in the workplace, more family-friendly policies such as flexible work arrangements and paid parental leave, as well as large-scale skills development initiatives that align women with emerging high-growth sectors such as digital and green industries.
Ultimately, the report concludes that closing gender gaps is not only a moral obligation but also an economic necessity. Inclusive governance and gender-responsive economic policies will be decisive in determining ASEAN’s ability to sustain growth, strengthen resilience, and build a more equitable future. Without deliberate reforms, the region risks leaving trillions in potential economic gains unrealised.
