By Moneer Al-Omari
In its 2007 report, the Geneva-based World Economic Forum ranked Yemen
the last (128) as to the Global Gender Gap and estimated the gap in
overall rankings to be 45 percent.
The report measures the volume of the gap between women and men in four
areas: economic participation and opportunity, political empowerment,
educational attainment and health and survival.
With exception to United Arab Emirates and Kuwait, the performance of
Arab countries remains low and needs more activation. "Most Arab world
countries not only continue to perform far below the global level, but
also do not show much improvement over the last year or have
deteriorated," said the report.
Women and economy
The report indicated that women's participation in labor force is 31
percent; however, observers believe the report is inauthentic and does
not reflect the reality because Yemeni woman has achieved a lot and now
several women are assuming leading posts in the public sectors.
Yemeni women play a recognized role in the Yemeni economy and
development though they are not officially registered, especially in
rural areas. Women work in agriculture, herding and other similar jobs.
As to wage inequality, most Yemeni ladies especially those working in
the private sectors admit this fact and maintain their jobs are limited
to secretarial and light office-works."There is no fixed strategy for salaries in most private sector
companies and the whole things depend on the general managers' mode,"
said private sector employee Um Mohammed.
Education
When coming to the literacy rates, we find the difference to be 0.43 (30
percent for women and 70 percent for men). This has something to do with
the higher rate of illiteracy among Yemenis which some experts put at 70
percent, particularly in the countryside.
The report has shown a small difference as for the gap between
enrollment of men and women in primary education. According to Ministry
of Education's statistics, the number of women and men enrolling in both
primary and secondary schools come closer and sometimes women represent
a higher percentage than men.
Again, the case in the Ministry of Higher Education shows no big
difference and in some departments the higher enrollment favors women as
in the specializations of arts and humanities.
However, there is still a wide gap as for the number of male
and female students sent abroad for high study and men are favored in
this respect. Experts believe customs and culture is an important factor
in this regard as some families prevent their first-ranking female
students from going abroad or joining the universities.
Health
The percentage between female and male 49 to 51 respectively and there
might be a difference from one province to another and from rural areas
to cities.
Women's average age for marriage is 19 and later in cities; while it
earlier in the rural areas where some girls are married at 14. Further,
the mortality rate among women remains the higher in the area and many
factors including the absence of proper womanhood health services
especially in the countryside.
Life expectancy favors women and the average is 51, while it is 48 for
men. Further, there is a small percentage as for births attended by
skilled staff due to the shortage of health services across the nation.
However, there has been a good advancement concerning the pregnant
women's awareness and the knowledge of contraceptive methods and more
ladies visit hospitals and centers to follow up their cases.
Political participation
According to political empowerment index, Yemen came one place before
Saudi Arabia, but this is not the case as voiced by many experts who
assure that Yemen is leading in this respect and comes before many
countries in the area especially when the matter relates to elections
and similar rights.
The number of ladies assuming high ranking posts – in both private and
public sectors – remains low and, still, several Yemeni women hold that
most achievements are personal ones.
Now, two ladies are assuming ministerial posts, one in the parliament,
one ambassador, and several others are serving as deputy ministers and
general managers.
However, voices are heard everywhere calling for granting 15 percent of
seats in parliamentarian and local elections for women and a special
administration was formed within the Supreme Commission for Elections
and Referendum to follow up and support the candidacy of ladies.
Early in 1971, Yemeni women were granted the right to vote – a right
declined for a considerable period of time in some countries. Later,
women were also allowed to stand as candidates in the different
elections conducted in the country, whether for Parliament, Shoura
council, or others.
Still, many leading women assure that women are let down by their fellow
women who prefer to elect men as proven the previously conducted
parliamentarian or local elections. In some election centers, most
female candidate failed elections though women registered there were
more than the number of men.
Source: http://www.yemenpost.net/8/Reports/2.htm
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