The women's national football team of the Philippines was formalized in the 1980s. The Philippines has participated in the Women's Asian Cup, first participating in 1981 when the tournament was still known as the AFC Women's Championship. The Philippines hosted the tournament in 1999 in Iloilo and Bacolod. They had a hiatus from the continental tournament after taking part in the 2003 with a qualification process being introduced in the 2006 edition. They returned to the AFC Women's Asian Cup in 2018 after qualifying in 2017. In that iteration of the tournament, they progress to the knockout stages for the first time in their Asian Cup participation history.