Women’s Empowerment in Times of Conflict: Evidence from Yemen

Phoebe W. Ishak, Alia Aghajanian () and Yashodhan Ghorpade
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Alia Aghajanian: World Bank

No 18252, IZA Discussion Papers from IZA Network @ LISER

Abstract: This paper studies how female participation in household decision making has been affected by the ongoing civil conflict in the Republic of Yemen in areas under the control of the Internationally Recognized Government. Using a unique survey dataset that tracks households between 2014 and 2021 and a geo-coded data on conflict, we document an increase in women’s participation in decision making since the start of the conflict, particularly on decisions related to household purchases and children’s education. This is mainly driven by households living in districts with medium intensity conflict as compared to low intensity conflict. This result holds up to a series of robustness checks and is explained by changes in household composition, whereby men are more likely to leave the household in conflict affected districts, leaving women in charge of household decisions.

Keywords: conflict and fragility; decision making and poverty; Yemen; gender; female-headed households (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D10 D91 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ara
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