ASEAN SOGIE Caucus (ASC) proudly stood in solidarity at the 2nd Southeast Asian Women’s Summit and the 8th National Women’s Summit, held on 2–3 March 2026 at Miriam College in Quezon City, Philippines, under the theme “ASEAN Leadership and Regional Cooperation: Where are the Women?”. Over two days, feminist leaders, grassroots organizers, ACWC representatives, local government officials, and the academia, youth advocates, and regional networks from across Southeast Asia gathered to confront a question that has long shaped regional governance: where are the women in ASEAN leadership and decision-making spaces?

Yet the summit did not simply dwell on the absence. Instead, participants explored how the region itself must change so that women, in all their diversity, are not only present but actively shaping policy, peace processes, and economic systems. Through plenary dialogues, thematic panels, and regional exchanges, the gathering became a space to reflect on both the structural barriers women face and the feminist strategies emerging across Southeast Asia to address them. In doing so, the summit pointed toward a shared ambition: building a regional feminist agenda capable of transforming ASEAN institutions and governance frameworks.

Reimagining Women’s Leadership in ASEAN

Discussions throughout the summit emphasized that the question of women’s representation in ASEAN leadership is deeply structural. While regional frameworks often reference gender equality, women remain underrepresented in diplomatic leadership, political decision-making, and regional governance institutions. Participants reflected on how patriarchal political cultures, unequal access to resources, and entrenched institutional norms continue to limit women’s participation. These structural barriers persist even in contexts where formal gender commitments already exist. As several speakers noted, meaningful progress requires more than symbolic representation. Transforming ASEAN governance demands systemic change, including gender-responsive policymaking, stronger institutional accountability, and deeper engagement with civil society movements across the region.

Importantly, leadership was framed not only in terms of political office but also through the lens of social movements, grassroots organizing, and feminist advocacy that continue to shape political discourse across Southeast Asia. At the same time, the summit also confronted the systemic barriers that continue to shape the region. Participants identified several persistent challenges that hinder progress toward gender equality. These include transparency and participation gaps within ASEAN governance structures, the lack of gender-disaggregated data necessary for evidence-based policymaking, and economic systems that continue to render women’s labor invisible.

Even where gender equality policies exist, their implementation often remains symbolic or incomplete. Participants noted that patriarchal norms remain deeply embedded in political and economic systems, reinforcing inequalities across multiple sectors. Addressing these challenges requires sustained advocacy, stronger accountability mechanisms, and deeper collaboration between civil society actors and regional institutions.

Within these conversations, the importance of an intersectional approach became increasingly clear. The lived realities experienced by diverse communities across Southeast Asia, from Indigenous women defending land rights, migrant workers navigating cross-border labor systems, and women with disabilities, to stateless communities and those affected by conflict or climate displacement, demonstrate that gender inequality cannot be addressed through a single lens.

Instead, feminist policy frameworks must acknowledge how gender intersects with ethnicity, class, migration status, disability, and sexuality. Recognizing these layered realities is essential for building policies that truly reflect the diversity and complexity of Southeast Asia.

Economic Justice, Care Work, and Queer Community Praxis in Southeast Asia

Another central thread running throughout the summit was the relationship between economic justice and the politics of care. Participants repeatedly emphasized that discussions about gender equality cannot be separated from the economic structures that shape people’s daily lives. Across Southeast Asia, women and marginalized communities continue to shoulder the burden of unpaid care work: caregiving, domestic labor, emotional support, and community care, that sustains societies yet remains largely invisible within economic policy frameworks.

Feminist economists at the summit pointed out that the care economy has long been neglected in regional development models. Much of this labor, often carried out by women within households and communities, is rarely recognized in national accounts or policy priorities. Yet it forms the very foundation upon which economies function. Without caregiving, domestic labor, and community support networks, formal economic systems would simply collapse.

These conversations about care work gained resonance during the parallel session organized by ASEAN SOGIE Caucus, titled “Queer and Care: Care Work and Care Economy Praxis of Queer Communities in Southeast Asia” The session explored how queer communities across the region practice care in ways that challenge conventional understandings of the economy.

While mainstream economic debates often focus on formal employment and productivity, queer communities have long relied on informal networks of care, mutual aid, and chosen family structures to sustain their livelihoods and wellbeing. Opening the discussion, we reflected on the intellectual roots of feminist political economy, recalling how socialist feminist movements in the 1970s challenged the invisibility of domestic labor. Campaigns such as the Wages for Housework movement argued that unpaid household work was essential to social reproduction and deserved recognition within economic systems. These debates laid the groundwork for contemporary discussions about the care economy and its political implications.

Building on this foundation, the panel invited participants to reconsider how care operates within queer communities across Southeast Asia. Queer and gender-nonconforming individuals often face economic precarity due to discrimination in employment, exclusion from families, and limited access to social protection. As a result, many rely on alternative forms of economic survival and community support.

Anang Palomar (Philippines), Matcha Phorn-in (Thailand), Sokcheat Seng (Cambodia), and Megan Steven (Malaysia) together, the speakers illustrated how queer communities across Southeast Asia have developed informal care economies rooted in solidarity, chosen family structures, and mutual support. These practices include community shelters for elderly LGBTQIA+ individuals, informal support networks for transgender communities, and grassroots initiatives that provide emotional, financial, and social care.

Without addressing economic precarity, the panel emphasized, equality remains incomplete. The session concluded by inviting participants to reflect on what an inclusive feminist economy might look like. Attendees were encouraged to share their own experiences of care work and to imagine future economic systems that recognize the value of caregiving, mutual aid, and community solidarity.

These reflections underscored a powerful message that resonated across the summit: economic justice cannot be separated from the politics of care and care itself must be understood as a collective social responsibility rather than an invisible burden placed on marginalized communities. By foregrounding queer experiences within discussions of the care economy, the ASC session expanded the broader feminist conversation taking place throughout the summit. It reminded participants that building a feminist ASEAN agenda requires recognizing the diverse ways communities across the region already practice solidarity, resilience, and collective care.

Key Recommendations for an ASEAN Feminist Action Agenda

During the closing session, it presented a set of key recommendations emerging from the summit discussions, outlining priorities for advancing a feminist agenda within ASEAN. These recommendations reflect the collective insights of participants across the two-day gathering and emphasize the need for structural transformation in regional governance and cooperation. These are the recommendations:

1. Strengthening governance and accountability within ASEAN institutions. This includes ensuring greater transparency in decision-making processes, meaningful participation of civil society, and stronger mechanisms to hold institutions accountable to gender equality commitments.

2. The summit called for stronger efforts to advance economic and climate justice across Southeast Asia. The economic policies must recognize the gendered impacts of development, climate change, and labor precarity. This includes valuing care work, supporting women workers in informal sectors, and ensuring that climate responses are grounded in gender-responsive and community-centered approaches.

3. The need to enhance human security and strengthen the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda in the region. To emphasize that peace and security frameworks must move beyond traditional state-centered approaches to address the everyday insecurities faced by communities, particularly women and marginalized groups affected by conflict, displacement, and environmental crises.

4. The importance of promoting digital and intergenerational inclusion. As digital technologies increasingly shape social, political, and economic life, feminist movements must ensure that digital spaces are accessible, safe, and empowering for women and marginalized communities. At the same time, intergenerational dialogue was recognized as essential for sustaining feminist movements, ensuring that knowledge, strategies, and leadership are shared across generations.

5. The importance of strengthening regional solidarity and advancing human rights across ASEAN. Feminist movements across Southeast Asia continue to face shrinking civic spaces, political repression, and structural inequalities. Building stronger regional networks and cross-border collaborations remains essential for advancing gender justice and protecting human rights in the region.

Together, these recommendations form the foundation of what participants described as an ASEAN Feminist Action Agenda, calling for a regional future grounded in accountability, justice, inclusion, and solidarity.