Situation with Gender Inequality in Yemen: Analytical Essay

In the annually published reports of World Economic Forum about gender gap, Yemen has been ranked in the last for years. This shows that there has been a great gender inequality in Yemen. Females are in a disadvantaged in terms of access to education, familial relations, employment opportunities, access to healthcare, and political participation. The reasons of being last in gender gap reports can be linked with the ongoing conflict in Yemen as well as its negative outcomes such as extreme poverty, and the dominating role of religious principles like Sharia Law.

1. Introduction

Providing and sustaining gender equality in each aspect of social life has been a great concern in the global scale. Several non-governmental organizations (NGOs) at national and international levels have been trying to ensure this aim. Phillips (2015) discusses that women NGOs play a significant role in providing gender equality (p. 1122). In addition to NGOs, some international organizations have put emphasis on gender equality as well. For example, United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, which is also known as UN Women, Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), and Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) were established based on the particular aim for providing and sustaining gender equality. Another international organization called World Economic Forum (WEF) has also been working on gender inequality issues. Even though its main aim is not same with the organizations mentioned previously, WEF publishes some reports that involve the gender aspect in addition to other aspects. In fact, World Economic Forum has been publishing Global Gender Gap Index annually for years, in which almost every country is included. The ranking criteria in the index are economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment. Interestingly, Yemen has been ranked last in the reports in each report since 2006 as far as is known. (World Economic Forum, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019). Global Gender Gap report basically shows that there is a great gender inequality in Yemen based on the particular criteria (World Economic Forum, 2019). Additionally, Phillips (2015) makes a comparison of the countries that have high rates gender equality with the ones that have lower. In that sense, Norway, Finland, and Sweden have the 80 percent of gender equality whereas Yemen has the lowest gender equality rate with 46 % gender gap (Phillips, 2015, p. 1125). In the article, it is found that there is a strong relationship between the poverty and the level of gender inequality (Phillips, 2015, p. 1128). The last rankings of Yemen regarding gender gap is related to the extreme poverty which has increased with the ongoing conflict in Yemen. Another study makes an addition to this calculation by putting emphasis on the link between Islamic interpretations and gender inequality (Hopkins & Patel, 2006, p. 423). For example, if child marriage was an issue that was forbidden by Islam, it might not have been that common in Yemen as it will be explained in the following sections. This would have led to less gender inequality and poverty by any means. Therefore, they discuss the way this link leads to increasing poverty (Hopkins & Patel, 2006, p. 424). On the one hand, the conflict has worsened the environment which was already unfavorable, especially for women. On the other hand, providing gender equality is a part of the solution for overcoming the conflict. Therefore, it can be associated with an endless path for both processes of gender equality and conflict. That means, the more gender equality is not provided, the more conflict will occur; and, the more conflict occurs, the more gender inequality comes into existence.

A report published by Oxfam (2016) proves that women in Yemen have been exposed to discrimination and marginalization not only in practice but also under the law due to attributed gender constructs and norms. As a result, women’s political participation and representation, financial and educational opportunities, and access to healthcare have been restricted both by the law and the traditional standpoint. Moreover, traditional gender roles have led to the unequal distribution of rights among females and males. For instance, rights regarding divorce, inheritance, child custody, etc. are distributed in favor of males (Oxfam, 2016). These unequal conditions in Yemen affected Yemeni females in terms of high rates of child marriage, poor political representation, extreme poverty, and unemployment (Anderson, 2017, p. 2).

Under the light of this information, the purpose of this review article is to discuss and enlighten gender inequality issues in Yemen with regards to the current literature. Also, this article aims at addressing different aspects of Yemeni women’s social life in terms of their access to educational opportunities, decision-making process both in familial relations and in marriage, their involvement in the labor market, access to health services, and political participation in a domain with full of war and conflicts.

2. Political, Economic, and Demographic Background of Yemen

At the end of the World War I, Yemen had divided into two parts; South Yemen and North Yemen (Al Jazeera, 2014). In 1990, these two countries had united as one, The Republic of Yemen (BBC, 2019). The state was at peace during the earlier years of the unification. However, The Republic of Yemen faced a number of civil wars starting from 1995, the period that the negotiations for peace had stopped between the parties of former South Yemen and North Yemen (Al Jazeera, 2014). The conflict has been continuing in a fluctuant way in Yemen since then. Even, it is asserted that conflicts and crises have increased in the Arab Spring period (Al Jazeera, 2014). Besides, Yemen is one of the poorest countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region (Yuki, Mizuno, Ogawa & Mihoko, 2013, p. 51).

Due to the ceaseless conflicts, Yemen had already confronted some humanitarian challenges such as high rates in population growth, imbalances in urban and rural settlements, high rates of female illiteracy, extreme poverty for many years (UNICEF, 2017, p. 5). Expectedly, all these challenges reflected on gender relations. Carapico (1996) mentioned that gender is the second main reason of inequality in Yemen whereas the first one stems from status inequalities among different groups (p. 83). Yemeni women suffered from social and institutional obstacles due to culture, patriarchal structure, and fundamentalist form of Islam (Moghadam, 2018, p. 672). The research report that was published by Oxfam in 2016 states that religious, cultural, social, and political traditions have a significant role in determining the power and gender relations in Yemen (p. 3). Furthermore, Meneley (2000) suggests that there is a great impact of religion over moral values and traditions in Yemen. For instance, veiling of females is regarded as an honorable action in that sense (Meneley, 2000, p. 65). On the other hand, Carapico (2001) argues that veiled women cannot be explained only through traditions under the impact of Islam. Yet, there are other impacts like politics and economy (p. 183). Therefore, it is essential to evaluate the gender relations in Yemen based on these impacts. Additionally, Yemeni women have been inferior to men historically (Oxfam, 2016, p. 3). As mentioned earlier, the ongoing conflict has put Yemeni women even in a worse position than ever before. In fact, it would be useful to mention some impacts of the conflict on gender. The impacts can be listed as sexual and gender-based violence, child marriage, female-headed households, and pregnancy. (Rohwerder, 2017, p. 2 – 3). Similarly, poverty had become a driving factor for the increase in child marriage, which will be explained in detail later on the following pages. Therefore, as Rohwerder (2017) asserts Yemeni women and girls have been experiencing social discrimination and marginalization for a long time even before the conflicts. This situation can be explained by the dominance of the Sharia Law in Yemen (UNICEF, 2017, p. 11). It is stated that Sharia Law has been regarded as the main source of legislation (Badran, 1998, p. 504). It has a say in each area of social life such as political participation, marriage, divorce, and property rights. In that sense, Sharia Law perpetuates a stance against gender equality and creates gender-based discriminatory social rights (Badran, 1998, p. 498). Yet, the fact that the Sharia Law has got together with the conflicts resulted in the great gender inequalities against Yemeni females. In addition to the Sharia Law, religious resources such as Koranic texts, religious knowledge, religious traditions, and rituals have also an influence on the decisions regarding the subjects of marriage, pregnancy, and education of females (Bartelink & Buitelaar, 2006, p. 352). It is an illustration of the impact of religious aspects on gender roles and relations.

On the other hand, with respect to the current studies about gender inequality in Yemen, there had been some progress regarding gender equality in collaboration with United Nations, some international non-governmental organizations, and the Yemeni Government. The National Dialogue Conference (NDC) took the lead for the participation of females in 2013–2014 period, and the parties created a discussion and negotiation environment for the conditions of females that should be improved (Anderson, 2017, p. 2) During the discussions, gender issues such as the minimum age of marriage, paid maternity leave and gender-based violence were at the top the agenda (Anderson, 2017, p. 3). However, the conflict caused the negotiated improvements that address gender equality not to be implemented to daily life in Yemen (Rohwerder, 2017, p. 2).

Lastly, a very recent report reveals that Yemen is a country with low human development. It is the 177th country out of 189 countries in human development index (UNDP, 2019). By taking into consideration all these facts, I believe it is very significant to review the gender inequality issues in Yemen.

3. Education

Eliminating gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005 is one of the Millennium Development Goals as well as one of the Education for All goals (Subrahmanian, 2005, p. 395 – 396). However, females are still in a disadvantaged position for achieving education in several parts of the world. For instance, in Yemen, basic education is free and compulsory for all children who are between 6 and 15 years old, but many girls are not going to schools (Yuki et al., 2013, p. 51). Before the conflict, 43% of females and 21% of males had never attended school in Yemen (Oxfam, 2016, p. 35). Yet, recent studies show that today only 35% of female population are literate whereas the percentage is 73% among males (World Economic Forum, 2019, p. 24). United Nations reported that 1.8 million children or one-third of the school-age population in Yemen have been out of school since March 2015 (as cited in Oxfam, 2016, p. 35). It is expected that the majority in the out-of-school rates comprise of girls. In the research of UNICEF (2017), one of the key informants stated that economic pressure and social norms in Yemen make the families send their sons to school rather than daughters (p. 8). Findings of Oxfam (2016) show that girls cannot go to school because of the safety concerns and the need for girls to work at home (p. 36). Furthermore, between 800,000 to 1.3 million girls are not able to access to education due to the destruction of school buildings and the dangers of conflict (Rohwerder, 2017, p. 9). El-Kogali and Suliman (2001) identify that there is a variation among individuals based on gender as well as living standards and rural-urban settlements (p. 9). By this way, they reveal the link between poverty, gender, and education. It is found that the school attendance of females is lower than males in Yemen; yet, the gap has a negative correlation with the living standards. As living standards increase, the gender gap decreases. At that rate, the most disadvantaged group is girls who live under lower living standards (El-Kogali & Suliman, 2001, p. 10). Besides, they mention that children in urban regions have higher probability of attending education in Yemen (El-Kogali & Suliman, 2001, p. 11). Eventually, girls in rural areas with lower living standards have the highest risk of not attending schools in this intersectionality of gender, living standards, and rural-urban settlement differentiation.

All in all, the challenge of eliminating low enrollment rates of females in basic education in Yemen is one of the most difficult issues since gender disparity in the net enrollment rates keeps at very high levels in the world (Yuki et al., 2013, p. 51). United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) has published a response plan report in 2019. The report involves the number of Yemeni individuals in need by different criteria; and, education is the last one in the list with the number of 4.7 million people in need (UNOCHA, 2019, p. 8). When the current conflicts and the current population is taken into consideration (30.5 million), the number of people in need of education might be negligible. In other words, education for girls may not seem like a priority for families in a social context with conflicts and wars. As previously mentioned, girls are needed at home to do housework and so on. Nevertheless, I think education is one of the biggest barriers that prevents the access to support and services such as healthcare or financial aid, especially for females who are already in a disadvantaged standing in the society. I believe the obstacles would be reduced when the access to services is ensured in an easier way; and, the main step for ensuring it is increasing the number of individuals who receive education. Besides, when individuals become more educated, the awareness regarding gender equality would increase. By this way, the problems about both low rates of educational enrollments in general and gender disparity in education could be overcome step by step. Therefore, unless urgent provisions are not made against the out-of-school problem, the gender parity and gender equality would not be ensured in schools.

4. Familial Relations

Through the marriage practice, gender becomes the primary feature of the woman identity since it is a way of actualization of engaging in reproductive sexual act (Vom Bruck, 1997, p. 206). In Yemen, more than half of the females get married by the age of 15 (Duret, Abdulmalik & Jones, 2010, p. 9). Therefore, the first problematic topic related to gender and familial relations in Yemen is child marriage. A number of reports show that the rates of child marriage have increased in parallel with the increasing conflict in Yemen. In 2016, 44.5 % of females have reported as they are married at the age of 15. Moreover, 72,5 % of them are married at 18 (UNICEF, 2017, p. 9). The motivation behind this rapid increase is related to the fact that families see dowry payments, which is a widespread tradition in Yemen, as a way of dealing with the difficulties that the conflict has created (Al Naami & Moodley, 2017, p. 5). However, while families focus on the significance of dowry payments due to their financial difficulties, they are not aware of the negative outcomes that child marriage might bring to their children (UNICEF, 2017). As a result, child marriage has been increasing in Yemen due to the financial concerns and lack of awareness.

Secondly, Yemeni women do not have any say in family planning which results in unplanned pregnancies and several maternal and infant health risks. Here again, high rates of illiteracy and lack of awareness about healthcare comes into existence as a barrier in front of family planning (Oxfam, 2016, p. 17). On the other hand, Gressmann (2016) reported that community leaders in Yemen have been encouraging women for reproduction in order to help the country recover faster when the war ends (p. 11). I think the intervention of community leaders to reproduction and family planning issues opens a path for gender inequality since the decisions related to the female body is made by some other actors different than the females themselves. In fact, if we remember the way females are socially excluded from public life, we can say that the majority of the community leaders involves males which makes the circumstances even more unpleasant in terms of social pressure and gender inequality.

Also, previous investigations show that there had been an increase in polygamy rates after the conflict has rapidly evolved (Rohwerder, 2017, p. 11). The study of Gressmann (2016) shows the fact that the number of males marrying more than one female has risen is explained as a protection method against harassment and economic obstacles (p. 18, as cited in Rohwerder, 2017, p. 11). On the contrary, there is not any information available about whether females have the same possibility of marrying more than one male or not. By just making an assumption, it can be said that females do not have the same right as males when the polygamy issue shows up since they are not considered as equal to males historically.

Next, gender-based violence, which comprehends forced marriages, early marriages, polygyny, and so on, has been a serious problem in Yemen for many years. Unfortunately, it has increased even after the conflict in 2015 (Oxfam, 2016). In addition, it is estimated that females have been facing high rates of (by 90 %) sexual harassment in streets. The fact that there are not any particular legal sanctions in addition to the low confidence of the police and social acceptance of the behavior contributed to the increase in rates (Oxfam, 2016, p. 22). Findings in the research of Rohwerder (2017) demonstrates that around 2.6 million females in Yemen are at risk of gender-based violence (p. 6). Also, other studies show that there had been an increase around 63 % in the reported cases regarding the gender-based violence since 2015 (Sikurajapathy & Al-Fotih, 2017).

Lastly, I would like to mention the decision-making dynamics in households. It is indicated that some Yemeni females have the possibility of being involved in decision-making at household level. Elderly females, employed females, females who live in urban regions, and females with higher educational levels are more likely to have a say in decision-making processes (Oxfam, 2016, p. 26). Thus, we can make a distinctive comparison by taking into consideration the intersectionality in that sense. Females have a disadvantaged position in familial relations when compared to the male members of the household. However, what puts them even in a poorer condition is related to their age, occupation, type of region that they live in, and educational level. Additively, the involvement level of females to decision-making depends upon the subject matters. For instance, Yemeni females have a more say in decisions about the welfare and education of their children whereas they take less part in the decisions related to financial issues (Oxfam, 2016, p. 29).