90150 April 2014 – Number 123 X1` The Status of Yemeni Women: From Aspiration to Opportunity Nandini Krishnan1 Introduction: Yemen is on a path of transformation, one that can open opportunities for more inclusive societies and economies, or for greater risk and regression. This transition period will be especially vital for Yemeni women. For years, Yemen has ranked last or near last in global indices of gender gaps and female empowerment. Some gender gaps have narrowed in recent years, yet considerable challenges remain, and it is likely that crises faced by Yemen in recent years reversed some of these hard-earned gains. As Yemen moves forward, it should strongly prioritize gender equality as an important goal in its own right but also because doing so will be vital to lay the foundations of a Yemeni School Girls – World Bank Photo Collection more inclusive country and society. The report's analytic approach is unique in The objectives of a new report on the status of threading together three bodies of evidence and gender equality in Yemen are two-fold: first, to take analysis to shed new light on significant trends and stock of the status of gender outcomes in Yemen and causes underpinning Yemen’s large gender understand the forces that are driving the strong disparities. The report presents: i) a fresh look at gender inequalities; and second, drawing on these available survey data on human development and insights and outcomes of the study, to highlight socio-economic indicators; ii) a brief history and in- promising areas for policy action in this crucial depth analysis of the most critical legal barriers to transition period. The report explores how women's and girl's full participation in Yemeni individual aspirations and opportunities in the areas society; and iii) insights from a rich qualitative of education, family formation, and labor force dataset collected in January 2011. The findings participation are constrained by the severe gender highlight the powerful roles of social norms and gaps in Yemeni society.2 legal rights and entitlements in placing women and girls at a disadvantage and constraining not only faster progress on gender equality but also on 1 economic development. The author works in the Economic Policy, Poverty, and Gender unit of the Middle East and North Africa region (MNSED) of the World Bank. This Quick Note was cleared by Bernard Funck, Main findings: Yemen has made important Sector Manager, MNSED. The Quick Note is based on Nandini progress in closing key gender gaps: female literacy Krishnan, et al, 2014. “The Status of Yemeni Women: From rates and life expectancy have grown over twice as Aspiration to Opportunity”, the World Bank. 2 The report draws on the conceptual framework of the and the regional report on gender equality, Opening Doors: World Development 2012: Gender Equality and Development, Gender Equality in the Middle East and North Africa. fast as in MENA over the last decade. Yet many -Women’s limited autonomy in family formation challenges remain: significant differences between decisions and redress for family conflict: The boys and girls in school enrolment and educational unification of the North and the South in 1990 attainment, significant unmet reproductive and entailed the merging of two disparate legal systems, child health needs, no legal minimum age of with the conservative principles of the North marriage for girls, legal restrictions on women’s dominating over time. The current Yemeni legal mobility and decision-making, limited agency and framework, and in particular the Personal Status voice for women within and outside the home, Law, significantly restricts choice, mobility and barriers to female participation in the labor force and decision-making for women. in political life and few opportunities for paid work and entrepreneurial activity. These stark gender A notable example is the lack of a clearly defined gaps are influenced by and set within the context of legal minimum marriage age, which would prohibit conservative and strict gender norms. child marriages and lower rates of early school dropout, risky childbearing and domestic violence. Enrollment and gender gaps in education: Data The majority of Yemeni women are married by age from 2005, the most recent national household 17 or younger, sometimes as young as 8 in rural survey available, indicates a net enrolment rate of areas. The Rights and Freedoms working Group, 63% for boys and just 40% for girls of school-going one of the 9 working groups in the National age (6-13 years old). Enrolment is limited due to Dialogue Conference, has now passed by majority weak enforcement of universal education laws, lack vote a draft constitutional article setting minimum of girls’ schools and female teachers - an acute age of marriage at 18 years. Under the Personal problem in rural and remote areas. The family’s lack Status Law, women require a male guardian’s (a of resources is another key reason for ending father, grandfather or brother) permission to marry. education, in the survey and qualitative material. Women also have limited control over decisions on Despite similar aspirations, girls face far greater when and how many children to have. challenges than boys. Gender disparities in education in Yemen are not only driven by poverty, According to men's and women's focus groups, but also the urban-rural divide with its differences domestic violence in occurs when women disobey in access and normative practices. Rural Yemeni norms surrounding household roles and proper children, poor or non-poor, are far more likely to behaviors for women in the public and private have never attended school than urban counterparts. domains, and also when the family is under In addition to lack of schools for girls and of female economic stress. Survey findings indicate that 37% teachers, limited interest by families in continuing of Yemenis agree that violence against women is the education of daughters, concerns for the safety, justified if they are disobedient. Norms defining honor and reputation of adolescent girls, combine domestic violence as a private matter and a source of with the tradition of early marriage to counteract shame for women lead to systematic underreporting education’s positive value as expressed by and little formal institutional support for redress. participants in the qualitative study. The figure of the male guardian implies a significant gender imbalance in who can initiate the process of Reproductive and child healthcare : Yemen has family separation, retain legal resources, and obtain made progress on important child and maternal child custody. health measures, yet child mortality rates and access to antenatal services remain worrying. Maternal Some laws directly inhibit women’s ability to access mortality rates and fertility rates are the highest in economic opportunities. For example, under the MENA. In 2010, only one in three Yemeni women 1992 Personal Status Law, women have a general gave birth while attended by a medical professional, duty to obey their husbands. Married women a problem particularly severe for women with no require a male guardian’s permission for a passport. education, and women in rural areas. In rural areas, Since 1998, married women need their husband’s only 20% of women receive antenatal care, permission to work outside the home. disproportionately increasing mortality risks. April 2014 · Number 123 2 Constraints to economic participation: Yemeni A window of opportunity to improve wellbeing women and men in urban and rural locations face and inclusion: The country's large gender unemployment and lack of opportunities. Women, disparities in education and work, and women's face additional barriers that severely limit their labor limited autonomy over crucial family formation force participation despite the financial needs of decisions, reflect deeply held norms, discriminatory their families. More than 90% of working age laws, and years of accumulated disadvantages. Yemeni women do not participate in the labor force Norms and awareness can be very slow to change, (i.e. neither employed nor looking for work) but it is not an option to wait. Policy action across compared to 20% of men. Worryingly, more than diverse fronts will be needed to reduce and remove 90% of Yemeni women who work, and almost all severe and interlocking constraints on women's rural Yemeni women who work, do so without pay. aspirations, capacities and opportunities for Strict gender norms limiting women’s role and inclusion. Interventions are also needed to provide identity to domestic work, religious traditions, promising outlets for men and boys to participate mobility restrictions and the practice of seclusion, and thrive as well. The findings from this report time constraints, limited education, and concerns for point to the following areas for action: women's honor and safety mean that women's economic activities are often in the private sphere of Expand access to quality education and health care, homes. Working without pay—for instance, farm especially in rural areas: While the physical work and home-based sewing and handicraft availability of girls’ schools and classrooms remains activities—is part of women's typical household a critical constraint to girls’ educational attainment, responsibilities, particularly in rural communities. especially in rural and remote areas, complementary, gender-sensitive, and gender- Women in urban areas participate in the workforce targeted interventions are also needed. Local norms at almost three times the rural rate –working for must be taken into account for effective pay, mostly in the public sector- but they also have interventions and there is scope for civil society to higher unemployment rates (affecting nearly one in raise awareness about the importance of education eight urban women). Urban areas provide more for girls. outlets for women who wish to engage in paid work beyond their homes, but many of the norms that In addition to expanding access to educational discourage rural women from economic facilities, education can be brought closer to home participation—or that limit participation to jobs that through the provision of safe, reliable and affordable are extensions of domestic roles—are also reported. transportation. Schools need to be staffed by a cadre Urban men also struggle with unemployment, but at of qualified female teachers, perhaps drawing on less than half the rate of urban women. local women. For out-of-school girls and adult women, well designed literacy and remedial classes Entrepreneurship and Women: Entrepreneurship with appropriate curricula can expand basic can provide outlets for women, including working reading, writing and arithmetic skills, while from home, and may therefore be more compatible allowing some girls to continue their education. with prevailing conservative norms. However, only These may be combined with incentive-based about 6.5% of firms have female owners, women approaches to increase enrolment and retention. In make up only 5% of permanent full-time workers in other countries, these incentives were successfully enterprises, and firms with women top managers linked to deterring early marriage; this could be are very few. The strong gender hierarchy governing piloted in Yemen. The government, with World marital relations and control of assets makes it very Bank support is expanding a pilot conditional cash difficult for women to pursue business without their transfer program to up enrollment and retention of husband’s support. Women business owners girls in grades 4-9 and investing in female teachers. struggle to raise capital through formal and informal venues, putting up assets as collateral. More In the case of health, broad-based gender neutral promising, microfinance services are beginning programs to improve the distribution and quality of which do not require tangible collateral—women healthcare facilities, water supply, and sanitation account for nearly 90 % of their customers in Yemen. can have significant impacts on female and child mortality. Targeted interventions are needed to April 2014 · Number 123 3 bridge the gaps in maternal and child health needs, minimum marriage age law. Specific legislation on and spread awareness on the benefits of timely gender-based violence and the means to monitor preventive and curative care. Investing in children domestic violence need to be enacted. Even where will require bringing services closer to the people, existing laws are meant to protect women, there is especially in rural Yemen, through mobile service little awareness of them and implementation is delivery, or investing in skills of community weak. Thus efforts are needed for more effective midwives and local health staff. redress for women facing domestic violence, divorce, and family conflict through the formal and Expand productive economic opportunities: Given the informal legal system, by building capacity to extremely low rates of women’s participation in the demand rights at the local level and enabling local workforce, and the significant incidence of women judicial systems to respond. working without pay, it is critical to better understand unpaid work and constraints to female Establishing peace and security, and moving to address participation. This can lead to appropriate policy development emergencies: Ushering in political reform, interventions addressing these constraints. Given stabilizing security, and providing law and order are the strong social norms around women working for critical pre-conditions for any sustainable pay and working outside the home, normative improvement in outcomes for women. An inclusive change will need to be actively fostered - in schools, political transition that allows for women to freely communities, and in the workplace. participate in constitutional reforms, elections and elected bodies, as undertaken in the recently Over and above the need for boosting private-sector concluded national dialogue, is an important step. job creation, there are opportunities to expand men's There will need to be accompanied by concrete and women's equal access to productive efforts to enhance women’s participation in civic employment through reconstruction, public works and political life: a 30% parliamentary quota for and humanitarian assistance. Another key policy women has now been adopted but also needed are, area is supporting self-employment and female additional quotas, mentoring, capacity building and entrepreneurship, especially in rural areas and mobilization around key issues. At the same time, agriculture-based activities. These need expanding urgent humanitarian needs for food, supplies and access to credit and markets and investing in services need to be addressed. If well-targeted, such business skills. Similar efforts are being programs can disproportionately benefit women implemented by the Social Welfare Fund and the and children, who are most at risk. Social Fund for Development, it is important to ensure that these reach women as well as men. Contact MNA K&L: Gerard A. Byam, Director, Strategy and Operations. Bring Justice Home: As in many countries in the MENA Region, The World Bank. region, Yemen’s legal framework also imposes Preeti Ahuja, Manager, MNADE Regional Quick Notes Team: significant constraints on women’s agency, voice Omer Karasapan, and Mark Volk and mobility. The absence of a legal minimum Tel #: (202) 473 8177 marriage age poses even more fundamental The MNA Quick Notes are intended to summarize lessons learned from MNA and other Bank Knowledge and constraints to women’s human development, Learning activities. The Notes do not necessarily reflect the economic empowerment and agency within and views of the World Bank, its board or its member countries. outside the home. This is an urgent priority for reform, and one that has been taken up by the National Dialogue. In Morocco, advocacy campaigns were critical to successfully raising the minimum marriage age, and building support through a broad-based coalition of stakeholders will be important in Yemen as well. Complementary interventions such as encouraging the registration of births and marriages will also be needed to support the implementation of a April 2014 · Number 123 4