Jan 20, 2017

Yemen ranks last out of 144 countries on the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Index. Yemen is also one of the world’s poorest countries and the region’s poorest country, with its proportion of impoverished citizens almost doubling during the ongoing conflict to reach 61% of the population in 2016 compared to 34% in 2014, according to mid-2016 World Bank estimates.

The implications of the conflict on the daily lives of all Yemenis have been tragic. When broken down based on gender and age, the tragedy becomes even more grievous. Women and children are always considered the first casualties of wars, and Yemen is no exception.

According to UNICEF, more than 1,300 children have died as a direct result of the war since its outbreak in March 2015. Many school-aged children cannot go to school due to the displacement or destruction of their schools. Girls face a higher-than-ever risk of being married off before turning 18, as families seek to lessen their burdens by marrying off their young girls, while boys as young as 10 years old face recruitment by both warring parties: the Houthi-Ali Abdullah Saleh alliance and the pro-Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi militias.

Like everyone in Yemen, women in the country have been severely affected by the war. And as a subgroup of the population, they are vulnerable to gender-based violence. In September 2016, an OXFAM report indicated that women and girls in Yemen have been subjected to violence, abuse and exploitation — including sexual — by the different armed groups since the outbreak of the conflict, particularly at checkpoints.

The implications of the war for men are immense, from death at the battlefront to unemployment and the psychological stress of failing to provide for their families. More women are entering the labor market, especially in rural areas where most of the men are day laborers, and becoming the breadwinners of their families. This, of course, enables women in rural areas to assume greater power in the decision-making in their households and also forces the men to participate more in household tasks such as cooking, cleaning and taking care of children.