Founded in 1965, as part of the emergence of the women's movement in North Yemen, it merged in 1990 with South Yemen's General Union of Yemeni Women (established 1968) to form the Yemeni Women's Union.
In 1955, the World Health Organization founded an institute of nurses in Sanaa staffed by Egyptian and Lebanese women, which was allowed to receive Yemeni women students.
[1] In 1964, an Egyptian mission opened an initiative in Taiz to combat illiteracy among women, which resulted in the organisation of the women's movement in North Yemen in the form of the Yemeni Women's Association in 1965 under the chairmanship of Fatima Owlaqi.
[1] It moved to Sanaa under the leadership of Sana Hooria and Moayad Fathiya al-Jirafi in 1967.
In 1973, the house of the Yemeni Women's Association in Sanaa was stormed and destroyed by religious fanatics and was not able to open again until 1977 under Raufa Hassan.