November 2025

IZA DP No. 18252: Women’s Empowerment in Times of Conflict: Evidence from Yemen

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.