This is a list of women senators of the Philippines. It is a guide to identify the women in the Philippines who have served as senators in the Senate of the Philippines, as distinct from the existing whole list of Philippine senators.
Since 1947, there have been 24 Filipino women senators in Philippine history. In the ongoing 20th Congress, there are 5 incumbent female senators.
The first female senator elected in the Philippines was Geronima Pecson, who reaped the third largest number of votes during the Philippine senatorial elections of 1947. During her senatorial term, Pecson headed the Senate Committee on Education, the Senate Committee on Health and Public Welfare, and the Joint Congressional Committee on Education.
Eva Estrada-Kalaw was the first woman to be re-elected as senator.
Tecla San Andres Ziga was the first woman in the Philippines to top the bar examinations for law degree graduates. She was elected as a senator in 1963.
Leticia Ramos-Shahani became the first Filipino woman to become president pro tempore of the Senate in 1993.
Santanina Rasul is the first Filipina Muslim senator.
Miriam Defensor Santiago was the first Filipino and first Asian from a developing country to be elected as a judge of the International Criminal Court (ICC) on December 12, 2011. She later resigned the post due to suspected ME/CFS, which turned out to be lung cancer.
Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was the first female senator who was elected as vice president (1998âÂÂ2001) and later installed to the presidency (2001âÂÂ2010). She became the first female speaker of the House of Representatives in 2018.
Loren Legarda is the first Filipino female senator to top the Senate race twice in 1998 and 2007. She also became the first Filipino woman to become majority floor leader of the Senate. She was also the youngest senator during the 11th Congress. She is the only female member of the Senate's history to serve in four different decades. Legarda is currently serving her fourth term as a senator, making her the longest-serving female senator in the Philippines.
Pia Cayetano is the youngest woman elected senator in Philippine history at the age of 38. She was elected in 2004, then re-elected in 2010. She returned to the Senate in 2019. Upon her reelection in 2025, she became the second woman to be elected to a fourth term as senator.
Loi Ejercito Estrada became the first first spouse (to Joseph Ejercito Estrada) to be elected in the Senate. She served from 2001 to 2007 after her husband's removal from the presidency in 2001.
Risa Hontiveros is the Philippines' first democratic socialist woman senator, representing the Akbayan party. In 2022, she became the first Filipino to serve as Deputy Minority Floor Leader of the Senate. In 2025, she became the first woman to occupy the post of Deputy Majority Floor Leader.
Women voted for their right suffrage and to run for public office in the 1937 Philippine women's suffrage plebiscite. The National Assembly was a unicameral legislature at this time. The 1940 Philippine constitutional plebiscites restored, among other things, the bicameral Congress, and the Senate was first elected in 1941.