WUNRN
22 June 2009
REPORT ON YEMENI WOMEN'S SITUATION
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24 July 2009
Yemen
- Report: Women's Low Participation in Culture & Media Sectors
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Amnesty International Report
Submission to
UN Universal Periodic Review of
Yemen - May 2009
Page 6 - Gender Discrimination
Direct Link:
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MOST YEMEN WOMEN WORK IN UNPAID
JOBS YEMEN WOMEN'S UNEMPLOYMENT ON RISE |
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Moneer Al-Omari 05 July 2009
Hakmah Ali,
40 and lives in Wisab Al-Safil district, knows nothing about unemployment.
She knows nothing but her family, farm and her cattle. She never went to a
school or Kuttab (informal sort of education). “My program
starts early in the morning. I get up at 5 o’clock in the morning. I feed my
two cows and ox. We have also 30 heads of sheep and goats. After that, I wake
my children up, give them breakfast and ask them to take the cattle to the
nearby areas to herd,” said Ali. “After I finish my work at home, I go to the
farm to help my husband or to bring something for the cattle to eat.” This is the
system for all women in Hakmah Ali’s neighborhood. They all spend the whole
day preparing food for their children and husbands, working in the farms and
feeding the cattle – including sheep, goats, cows, and sometimes camels. Like Ali,
thousands of Yemeni women work in unpaid jobs and these jobs include farming,
herding, collecting firewood, etc. They are denied any rights. They receive
no medical care or education. Compared to
women of rural areas who work in unpaid jobs, the unemployment rates hit high
among urban area women. There is just a small number of women who work in
public and private sectors. According
to official statistics, women’s unemployment rates reaches 39 percent in
Yemen while it is just 16 percent among men. Women’s
political participation At the
level of parliament, out of 301 members of parliament there is just one woman
in Yemen’s parliament. There are only three female members in the
Consultative (Shoura) Council out of 109 members. Similarly,
Yemen’s cabinet, which is one of the largest council of ministers worldwide,
has two female ministers against 34 male ministers. There is only one female
ambassador out of 116 ambassadors. At the
level of local councils, there are just 38 women acting as members of the
local councils against 7,594 male members. There are only eight women who act
as deputy ministers and 83 work as judges. Over the
last few years, Yemeni women circles have been trying to force the government
to allocate women a certain quota in parliament and local councils in a way
that helps reinforce women’s political participation. The last
few years have seen deterioration in women’s political participation,
especially in local and parliamentary elections despite the fact that women
make up about 47 percent of registered voters. However,
the problem is that female voters do not trust their fellow women and most of
them prefer to elect male candidates. There are also other tribal and
cultural factors which prevent women from electing the candidate of their
choice. Women in
work For those
working, most women are underpaid and they constantly subject to harassments
by male employees, especially those who work in male-dominated environments. According
to the results of the Workforce Survey 2006, the number of working women
reached 515,000. Only 5 percent of women work against monthly salaries while
95 percent of women are either unemployed or work in unpaid jobs. The Yemeni
government has introduced a new sector in the Ministry of Education concerned
with girls’ education as well as two other administrations: one in the
Ministry of Technical Education and Vocational Training & Illiteracy
Eradication and Adult Education Department affiliated with the Ministry of
Education. This helped
a slight increase in girls’ enrolment in basic education over the years 2007
– 2008. This increase hit 42 percent. As to the increase at the secondary
level, girls’ enrolment rose to 34.6 percent. Similarly,
girls’ enrolment at the university level slightly increased over the years
2004 – 2008 to 29 percent after it was 26.7 percent.
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