Ayala Corp. of the Zobel clan, Ramon Ang-led San Miguel Corp. (SMC) and the Sy family’s BDO Unibank Inc. have been named by Forbes as among the best companies in the world for women to work for.
Ayala, SMC and BDO were included in Forbes’ list of the World’s Top Companies for Women in 2025.
Ayala, the country’s oldest conglomerate, is the highest ranked among the three Filipino companies that made the list this year, at No. 53 among 400 companies.
The conglomerate has investments in sectors such as real estate, banking, telecommunications and renewable energy. It likewise has a growing presence in health care, mobility and logistics as well as investments in industrial technologies, education and other ventures.
Another diversified conglomerate, SMC, came in at No. 83 on the World’s Top Companies for Women list.
SMC, which was the highest-ranked Filipino firm on the Forbes 2025 World’s Best Employers list, operates in segments including beverages, food, packaging, energy, fuel, oil and infrastructure.
‘First, Forbes named us one of the World’s Best Employers. Now, I am happy to share they have also recognized San Miguel as one of the World’s Top Companies for Women, one of only three Filipino companies to make the list this year and coming in at number 83 out of 400 in the world,’ Ang, chairman and CEO of SMC, said in a statement posted on his official social media page.
‘We don’t have a complicated formula. We just treat each other like family. We work hard, we help others and we do it together. I believe that when you get that right, everything else follows. This recognition is for our entire team, especially the incredible women who lead, create and inspire at every level of this company,’ he said.
BDO, the country’s largest lender, was ranked at No. 135. BDO is part of the SM Group of the Sy family.
As of end-2024, the bank’s consolidated network stood at 1,791 and 5,800 ATMs nationwide.
Forbes teamed up with market research firm Statista to survey approximately 120,000 women working for multinational corporations in more than 36 countries to come up with the World’s Top Companies for Women 2025 ranking.
To qualify for consideration in the list, Forbes said that a corporation was required to have a significant international presence with, for instance, operations in at least two of the six continental regions of the world: Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, North America and Oceania.
It said that respondents were asked how likely they would be to recommend their employer to friends or family as well as to rate the organization on general workplace practices, such as salary and working conditions.
They were also asked to rate the corporation on gender-specific issues, including pay equity, management’s responses to concerns about discrimination, whether men and women have equal opportunities for advancement within the company, and parental leave.
Overall, Microsoft topped the list, followed by Roche Holding, National Bank of Canada, Hewlett-Packard Enterprise and IKEA. Completing the top 10 are L’Oréal, Deloitte, Nike, Netflix and Apple.