Rwanda has the highest representation of women in politics in the world.
[Journalist]: It’s Africa’s gender equality success story.
[Journalist]: The envy of women across Africa. And that’s largely hailed a major triumph for gender parity.
[Journalist]: The highest number of female elected members of Parliament.
Rwanda.
[Host] And that’s largely hailed a major triumph for gender parity.
But some Rwandan women and experts alike say that despite the country’s immense progress,
there’s still a long way to go.
We spoke to a gender expert who, following months of investigating and interviewing women in Rwanda,
indicated that political representation and societal expectations of women don’t always perfectly align.
We’re diving below the surface of what the Global Competitiveness Report has reportedly deemed the 'best place in Africa to be a woman,'
to look at how the country achieved this unprecedented level of gender representation in politics,
and the societal barriers that still exist for Rwandan women today.
In 2008, Rwanda became the first country in the world to have more than half of its government run by women.
But in order to understand that achievement, we need to first discuss the country’s history.
In 1994 a brutal genocide took the lives of an estimated 800,000 Rwandan men, women, and children over the course of 100 days.
The country had also been recently removed from a violent civil war, and had a long history of tensions
between the majority Hutu and minority Tutsi populations based on ethnic classifications by German and Belgian colonizers.
The genocide left Rwanda in shambles.
More than a million mostly-Hutu civilians and soldiers fled to neighboring Zaire, now the DRC,
to avoid repercussions after the the mostly-Tutsi party, the Rwandan Patriotic Front, or RPF, took military control of the country.
By some counts, the brutal murders and arrests of men during and following the genocide, left the country’s population changed.
[Chisiza]: The genocide had led to more women being in the country, therefore they had to take on roles which are typically reserved for men.
[Host]: At that time, the Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children estimated the population was 70% women.
Paul Kagame, who had led the RPF’s military since 1990, rotated through a couple top government roles, before eventually becoming president in 2000.
Kagame, and other RPF leaders, recognized that women’s leadership was going to be important. if not inevitable, to rebuilding the country.
Throughout his tenure, Kagame, who has said that women's empowerment is 'critical to sustainable socio-economic development,'
has passed anti-sex discrimination legislation, outlined plans to improve women and girls’ access to education and health care,
and enacted laws aimed at eradicating gender-based violence, which is still very prevalent in the country.
It began in the late ‘90s with the RPF’s establishment of a Ministry dedicated to women and gender, to help integrate women into political life.
In 2003, Kagame even adopted a constitution that set aside 30% of parliamentary seats and all other 'decision-making organs' for women.
And Rwanda not only met, but exceeded that goal, with 39 out of 80 seats going to women, just under an even 50/50 split.
Since then, representation of women in Rwanda’s parliament continued to rise, peaking at 64% in 2013 and hovering around 61% today.
And in 2017 the first Rwandan female independent candidate, Diane Shima Rwigara, ran for president.
Some say the difficulties she faced during her run was an example of the uphill battle women still face in Rwanda.
[Rwigara]: I am speaking on behalf of everybody who has been a victim [of this regime] and who is not able to get their voice heard.
After announcing her candidacy, what she says were falsified nude photos of her started circulating online.
She told News Deeply that things in Rwanda aren’t always as peachy for women as the world may think.
She argued, 'I don’t believe in the lie being sold to the world that Rwandan women have a voice – we don’t.'
Eventually she was disqualified from the 2017 election over accusations that she forged signatures to qualify her for candidacy, which she denies.
A month later, she was arrested and eventually charged with 'incitement against the government.'
She was jailed for over a year before being released on bail, and could reportedly face another 20.
But for other women that did end up in positions of power in Rwanda, the transition to a female-inclusive government in the post-genocide era
didn’t mean that their role in society fundamentally changed.
[Chisiza]: [Women] believe that they are only working because of the results of the genocide, and they have to contribute to their economy,
however they still believe the man is the head of the household and they should not strive too much for these high profile jobs.
[Host]: Indeed, several researchers have looked into if and how Rwanda’s gender representation in politics translates to everyday life.
[Chisiza]: People think that because Rwanda has the highest number of female parliamentarians in the world, that this translates to all aspects in society,
and that women are free to do anything and supported fully by their government and President Kagame, but from my experience, this has not been the case.
It’s still a very closed space between civil society and government, or decision-makers and policymakers.
[Host]: One researcher who asked women in Rwandan politics about women’s movements found that most still felt the need to meet their husband’s expectations
and play the traditional role of 'wife and mother' at home.
[Sekamana]: It was like a must that a man has to be the one to lead, and women either had to be an assistant or had to be given other roles
instead of heading a club or heading a class.
Most of the men would be like, yes, you are capable of doing some things, but then you have to remember your place at home.
[Host]: Mireille knows this all too well. She faced these societal pressures firsthand when she attended a co-ed high school
and again when she helped to bring a debate team to her women’s college.
Despite her team’s achievements, she says they were initially met with laughter at tournaments.
[Sekamana]: IWe were not referred to as a team, but as 'ladies from a certain school.'
We still have a lot to do when it comes to our homes, we still have a lot to teach our brothers, we still have a lot to teach our fathers.
Government programs currently in place to help Rwandan women advance in politics still have room for improvement.
Experts say they’re largely accessible to the elite, well-educated, and often English-speaking, whereas other women may never even hear about the efforts.
According to Chisiza, one solution is education.
She believes women’s empowerment should begin from early childhood and continue through college.
But both women agree, there’s no question that Rwanda has achieved an impressive feat with its level of gender representation in politics,
but that there’s always more to be done to help translate that empowerment to daily society.