Another way of gauging the civic participation of women is by looking at different activities that women can partake in to express their opinions on political and social issues.

The SWMENA survey shows that very few Yemeni women take part in any activities to express their views on social and political issues. Indeed, when presented with a list of activities that citizens could use to make their opinions heard about issues in their community or at the national level, the share of women who report taking part in any activity is almost negligible and the sweeping majority of women are not even willing to engage in these activities in the future. This data reflects the well-known social limitations on women’s movement in Yemen and their subsequent constrained ability to interact with others in the public sphere.

According to survey findings, less than 2% of Yemeni women have ever signed a petition, taken part in a protest, or called in a radio or TV show or wrote to a newspaper or magazine to express their views on a social or political issue. What is more noteworthy is that at least four in five Yemeni women do not expect or plan to engage is such activities in the future.

Women’s participation in different activities to express their views is not only low in absolute terms but it is also low relative to their male counterparts. Men are fifteen times more likely (29%) than women (2%) to have taken part in a protest, march or demonstration. Nineteen percent of men have contacted or visited a public official at any level of government over the past year or longer ago to express their views on a social or political issue versus only 1% of women. Similarly, 14% of men say that they signed a petition to express their views on a certain political or social issue compared with only 2% of women (Figure 7).

When aggregating activities regardless of the type of activity, the difference in engagement between men and women becomes even more pronounced. Figure 8 shows that 23% of Yemeni men have taken part in one activity to express their views over the past year or longer ago and 19% have taken part in two activities or more. This leaves 58% of men who have not taken part in any activities to express their views. Meanwhile, the percent of women who have not taken part in any activity stands at a much higher 95%, as only 5% of women have taken part in one or more activities to express their views over the past year or more.

When examining women’s participation in activities by age groups, the data shows that only women who are 18-24 tend to noticeably engage in some activities to express their views on social and political views. In this younger age group, 8% of women have taken part in one activity in the past year or longer ago and 3% have taken part in two activities or more to express their views. This still leaves nearly 89% of women 18-24 who have not taken part in any activities to express their views. For all older age groups, fewer than 5% of women have ever taken part in activities to express their views while the overwhelming majority has not taken part in any activity to express their views on social and political issues (Figure 9).

When looking at women’s participation in activities by educational groups, we find that the level of engagement increases with educational attainment. For women with a primary education or less, the level of engagement is almost nonexistent. For women with a primary education, 8% have engaged in one or more activities to express their views. The level of engagement increases systematically as educational attainment increases and reaches its peak for women with a university education or higher, where 18% of women have taken part in one activity to express their views and another 9% have taken part in two activities or more to express their views. Still, 73% of women with a university education or higher have never taken part in any activity to express their views on social and political issues (Figure 10).

Many more women in urban areas (including suburbs) have taken part in activities (17%) to express their views than women living in small towns or large villages (8%) or women in small villages (1%). The level of civic activism is five times higher for women who work for pay (21% have taken part in activities) than for women who do not work (4%) (Figure 11).