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.