Rwandan Women’s Power

Dr Gerise Herndon and Professor Shirley Kaye Randell

Kigali Institute of Education

Centre for Gender, Culture andDevelopment

Occasional Research Paper 3, June 2010

Centre for Gender, Culture and DevelopmentThe Centre for Gender, Culture and Development (CGCD) wasestablished by the Kigali Institute of Education in Rwanda in June2009.

The vision of CGCD is to become a centre of gender, culture anddevelopment studies that is an internationally known centre ofexcellence producing professionally qualified academicians, publicservants, civil society and private sector leaders, in a high-quality research environment that engages in policy development,short term trainings, certificate programs, community outreach andmulticultural exchange.

CGCD’s mission is to promote gender equality and women’sempowerment, cultural exchange and development in Rwanda and theGreat Lakes Region(GLR).

CGCD will offer a Master of Social Science (Gender andDevelopment) degree and a Certificate in Continuing ProfessionalDevelopment (GD) from 2011. The Bachelors of Social Science (GD)will be offered from 2012. The objectives of CGCD are:

To develop practice and curriculum on gender, culture anddevelopment (GCD) issues that support Rwanda’s position as aworld leader in participation in governance

To align policy and practice To ensure that every teacher who graduates from KIE has

undertaken an introduction to gender studies course To train high-calibre academicians, public servants, civil

society and private sector leaders to meet local and GreatLakes Region needs

To employ a human rights based approach to development To provide professional higher education in GCD studies to

support the development of Rwanda and GLR To develop the potential of CGCD staff to provide a

stimulating intellectual environment, carry out research, datacollection and consultancies to meet Rwanda and GLR needs for

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research-informed GCD policy, practice and internationalscholarship

To secure long-term viability, and increase visibility andinfluence of CGCD

To contribute to the community within which CGCD is locatedand to increase the community’s awareness of GCD issues

To increase the social integration of vulnerable groups inRwandan society.

A key feature of CGCD is to improve research into issues related togender in Rwanda and the Great Lakes Region. This series ofoccasional papers is a contribution to making this research morewidely available.

Please address comments and/or queries for information to: ProfessorShirley Randell, Director of the CGCD, shirley.randell@kie.ac.rw

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Contents

Acronyms

4Abstract

5Introduction

5Sexual Violence

6Women’s Post-Conflict Self-Assessment

8Men’s Post-Conflict Self- Assessment

11Women’s Collectives: Creating and Transforming Institutions

13Women as a Good Economic Investment

15Counter Arguments

16Conclusion

21References

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About the Authors

24Acknowledgements

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Acronyms

ABASA We are all the sameAVEGA Association of Widows of GenocideCEDAW Convention on the Elimination of all forms

of Discrimination Against WomenGCD Gender, Culture and DevelopmentCGCD Centre for Gender, Culture and DevelopmentGBV Gender-Based ViolenceGLR Great Lakes RegionHIV Human Immunodeficiency VirusIGSC Interdisciplinary Genocide Studies CentreINEZA Doing good when it is needed, a good deed in needKIE Kigali Institute of EducationMA Master of ArtMP Member of ParliamentNGO Non-Governmental Organisation

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NPA Norwegian People’s AidPara. ParagraphPhD Doctor of PhilosophyQuoted QuotedRISD Rwanda Initiative for Sustainable

DevelopmentRMRC Rwandan Men’s Resource CentreRPF Rwandan Patriotic FrontUK United KingdomUSA United States of AmericaWCDI We Can Do It

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Rwandan Women’s Power

This paper provides an overview of the issue of women in power inRwanda by analyzing thinking and writing about gender andpolitics in the nation. Rwandan women have given their nation anew status as a world leader in gender equality, having achieveda 56 percent majority in Parliament. Women have reached thislevel of political power for a number of reasons, including thepolitical will of President Paul Kagame and his government, andrecent instances of effective women’s leadership. Womendemonstrated leadership in fighting the genocidal government.Women and men both realized that the genocidal regime was male-dominated and influenced by racist colonial ideology. During thegenocide, women suffered gender-based violence and rightsviolations rooted in their being female, and this experienceinfluenced their understanding of discrimination. Women became anumerical majority in 1994 and many women made a consciousdecision to look to pre-colonial traditions of leadership as analternative.

Traditionally, women had power in both the family and thepolitical structure, especially in their esteemed roles asmothers. Highlighting women’s historical roles as behind-the-scenes advisors was an effective strategy for womenparliamentarians to advocate gender equality in the present day.Not only have women in Parliament taken leadership in promotinglaws that protect women, but also civil society organizationshave participated in rebuilding and unifying the country. Giventhat a politics of division was part of the failure of theprevious government, Rwandan women leaders are committed tosocial transformation in full partnership with men, using agender-mainstreaming approach. Women have demonstrated not onlypolitical will but also economic success, though poverty remainsa challenge, as does gender-based violence, ignorance of legalrights and lack of equal access to formal education. As in mostof the world, women’s visibility in national government has notimmediately translated into empowerment in the home, inagriculture, in the office or in social life; patriarchalideology still determines the household division of labor and theallocation of resources. However, Rwandan women’s achievementsshould not be diminished. Training, and secondary and tertiary

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education are key to providing girls and women in Rwanda with thetools to analyze and dismantle remaining obstacles to genderequality in the professional, social and private spheres,building on their political achievement. This third CGCD researchreport is a critical literature review, exploring theseviewpoints to aggregate information and existing writing on theissue.

Introductionn discussions of gender equality and representation ofwomen in government, researchers typically cite threecountries: Canada, Finland and Sweden. Sweden,

however, can no longer boast the highest global femalerepresentation in Parliament. On the 18 September 2008,Rwanda, a country associated by most Western nations withthe 1994 genocide against the Tutsis, overtook them all byelecting a Parliament comprised of 56 percent women. Manypeople remain unaware that Rwanda has advanced significantlyin terms of gender and power, specifically in terms of thenumber of women in elected political positions. Aninvestigation of how women came to hold these visiblepositions of power may reveal what other countries can learnfrom women’s power in Rwanda, especially in light ofRwanda’s history, women’s experience of sexual victimizationduring the genocide, and the role of women’s grassrootsorganizing.

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In order to achieve equitable representation, it takesmore than “adding women and stirring” (Kilgour, 2007, p.751). Great violence, such as experienced in Rwanda, has thepotential to show the need for radical change. In addition,the realization that the Belgian colonizers largely inventedthe artificial differences between Tutsi and Hutu that werebehind the genocide caused some women’s organizations andgovernment officials to search their collective memories ofRwandan tradition prior to Belgian imperialism. In seeking

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solutions to the trauma resulting from the genocide, womenrealized that they had an honored place in pre-colonialhistory and there was huge potential for them to takepeaceful leadership roles in contrast to the male violenceof the genocidal regime (Uwineza & Pearson, 2009). Thegrassroots efforts of women’s organizations have beenessential in Rwanda’s transformation of leadership.

Sexual ViolenceRangira Bea Gallimore, originally from Rwanda and currentlya professor at the University of Missouri has worked foryears with the women of ABASA (We are all the same), anassociation of 60 women who were raped during the genocide.ABASA includes both Tutsis and Hutu women who were violatedwhile married to Tutsi men. Women as targets of thegenocide experienced the war in their bodies: the reality ofrape and sexual assault as weapons of war and war crimes.Prof. Gallimore (2008) cites the testimony of the oldestwoman in the collective, who changes the formula oftraditional storytelling when expressing the horror ofwomen’s experience of the genocide:

[M]y daughter. Let me tell you a tale, let me wake you up witha tale, even one who comes from fairyland will find a grown uptale attached to the pillar of the hut… Let me now tell you astory, the tale of a country where cows were slaughtered anddivided up and placed on inert corpses. Let me tell you howvirgins were raped with pickaxes, how pregnant women had theirstomachs cut open, how their breasts were cut off, and howelderly women were sexually tortured - ahaa my daughter, theKabakobawa1 that you have heard about—ahaa! (the “ahaa!”indicates a taboo or the idea that words cannot describesomething so horrible).

1 A particular location on a hill where girls would receive sexual education.

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Because of the near impossibility of even naming theheretofore unimaginable violence, we may never know theextent of the atrocities visited on women as part of thegenocide.

At Nyamata, where Tutsis took refuge in a church, a groupunder the auspices of the Interdisciplinary Genocide StudiesCenter (IGSC) heard the testimony of a boy who had survivedthe massacre of the militia by pretending to be dead (AVEGA,July 15, 2009). He told of the Interahamwe torturingrefugees they found in the church. He witnessed the militiaasking a pregnant Hutu woman, “Why are you here?” She said,“Because my husband is Tutsi.” They responded, “No, we meanwhat you have inside you?” and they cut open her stomach,ripped out the fetus and drove a spear up her vagina. Tutsiwomen’s perceived threat stemmed partly from the mythologythat they “reproduced the alien other” (Baines, 2003, p.487). One survivor recounts being ordered “to show them whatI used to do to my husband” (Human Rights Watch, 1996, p.55). Of course, many raped women did not survive.

Rape survivors’ testimonies show how either beingidentified as or associated with Tutsis served as ajustification for rape and torture: “They said they wereraping me to see if Tutsi women were like Hutu women” (HumanRights Watch, 1996, p. 42). Thus, the desire to exploreperceived radical sexual otherness appears to haveinfluenced the Interahamwe’s violence, “they were saying: ‘wewant to see how Tutsikazi (Kinyarwanda word for Tutsi woman)look inside’” (Human Rights Watch, 1996, p. 47). Theimagined difference, however, was indeed mythical: “Eightyoung men did bad things. I couldn’t breathe...After rapingme, they told me: ‘We thought Tutsi women were different butwe found they are just the same’” (Human Rights Watch, 1996,p. 51). Colonial ideology had promoted the notion of Tutsiwomen as more aesthetically pleasing because of imagined

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similarities to European features. This perceived divisionbetween imagined ethnic groups is part of the larger wholeof genocide ideology, but women suffered rape as a hatecrime in particularly brutal ways that men generally didnot.

Similarly, some of these Hutu women of ABASA had beentold by the rapists during the genocide to do what they usedto do with their Tutsi men. It was assumed that these Hutuwomen had somehow learned the sexual practices of Tutsis andassumed that these practices were distinctive. Thisillustrates their existing fantasy, because sexual educationfor Tutsi and Hutu women was the same - the bodies of Tutsiwomen became a battleground, a space where men took theirrevenge and marked their victory, an “expansion of ethnicterritory by the male conqueror” (Handrahan, 2004, p. 437).These accounts merely hint at a tiny fraction of the horrorexperienced by women during the 1994 genocide. Even if, inthe traditional wars of ancient Rwanda and other EastAfrican countries, women from the conquered side were takenfor forced marriages or servants as a sign of victory, theywere not killed or subject to the extraordinary and shockingacts carried out during the genocide.

Women’s Post-Conflict Self-AssessmentWomen were more often targeted for sexual assault than malesurvivors, yet because women were kept alive to be sexualslaves for the militia, more of them survived the genocidethan the men. There was a demographic imbalance followingthe genocide; the population in 1995 was estimated to be 60-70 percent female with 90,000 men in prison (Paxton &Hughes, 2007). Prior to the genocide women had been able toparticipate in political and economic life provided thattheir maternal role was not threatened (Baines, 2003). Giventhe demographic imbalance after the genocide, women and even

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girls stepped up to take on roles as heads of household,community leaders and financial providers, addressing theneeds of devastated families and communities. ElizabethPowley (2005) argues that the genocide forced women to thinkof themselves differently, and in many cases to developskills they would not otherwise have acquired.

Suzanne Ruboneka2 (personal communication, July, 2009),former Executive Secretary of Pro-Femmes/Twese Hamwe, anumbrella organization for women’s non-governmentorganizations, attributes more agency to Rwandan women. Shecites their desire to work together to organize andinfluence the government. Women saw their commonalities,such as the collective where women make ‘Peace’ baskets, nowsold at Macy’s Department Store in the USA. Why peace?Because the women who had been abandoned by everyone foundeach other: survivors and wives, mothers, daughters andsisters of victims came together with wives of perpetrators,who were also victims in a sense. Many of them had no oneleft in their families, so they worked together. Formerly,they may have been identified as either Hutu or Tutsi, butnow they insist that they are all Rwandans, have allsuffered from the genocide, and must abandon artificialdifferences to continue to survive and thrive.

Josh Ruxin (2008, para. 8) argues that Rwandan culturehas changed in a single generation, “moving away from thepatriarchal model common elsewhere in Africa to a new, muchmore equal system. That much of what has happened is aresult of genocide can’t be denied, but then neither can theemerging result of that action be denied.” Parliamentarians,on the other hand, tend to argue that the roots of women’spower are pre-colonial, and that politics, rather thanculture, manifests social transformation. We should also beaware that Réseau des Femmes and two other women’s

2 Personal interviews with Rwandan women inform much of this report.

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organizations came together in 1986 to form Pro-Femmes, wellbefore the 1994 genocide3, so even grassroots politicalorganization has pre-1994 sources.

Looking in from other cultures, many respond withadmiration for Rwandan women’s resiliency and strength. Arethey resilient? Or simply choosing survival? Genocide was,according to Esther Mujawayo (2004), “L’insupportable. Maisinsupportable pour qui? Pour moi? Mais non, moi je n’ai pas le choix de me poserune telle question. Pas le choix de trouver cela insupportable puisque je dois lesupporter, pour mes filles, qui, elles, doivent vivre”…Nous avons été condamné àvivre.” 4 Perhaps, as Chantal Kalisa (personal communication,July 15, 2009) scholar of aesthetic responses to thegenocide, has suggested, what those from other socialformations see as amazing strength is merely a sense thatthey are doing what is necessary if they are to live. Theother choices would be death or insanity.

As Mujawayo (2004) indicates above, responsibilities tochildren, whether biological or adopted, may have given somesurvivors the will to live. Rwandan women’s elevated imageas mother has enormous cultural importance and hascontributed to their political success. Women are powerfulsymbols of healing and rebirth, especially birth (note the5.5 fertility rate in 2007/85). The status of mothers andimportance of motherhood are referenced at all sociallevels. One survivor at INEZA6 a sewing cooperative of womenwho have publicly declared their HIV-positive status as a3 Women across Africa who attended the 1985 United Nations International Women’sConference at the end the UN Decade for Women were radicalised into action whenthey returned to their countries.4 All English translations of the French quotations in the text are by Herndon,unless otherwise attributed. “Unbearable. But unbearable for whom? For me? No, Ididn’t even have the choice to ask myself such a question. I had no choice tofind it unbearable because I have to bear it for my daughters who must live...Wewere condemned to live.”5 Using the data from the Demographic and Health Surveys, Rwanda has seen anoverall decline in fertility from a total fertility rate of 8.5 in 1983 to 5.5in 2007/8 (Hartwig, R. & Randell S., CGCD Occasional Research Paper 2, KIE, 2010,p.7).

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result of the genocide, testified to the honor associatedwith being a mother. Another survivor spoke with anguishabout having lost her status as a mother when her childrenwere killed during the genocide, but regaining it when shetook in her niece.

A vital study of women’s political power pre- and post-genocide shows how indigenous tradition provided a specialstatus for mothers:

[S]ocial taboos and traditions arose to reinforce respect formotherhood and to protect women and children from danger orabuse. The word umubyeyi – ‘mother’, also has connotations of‘creator’ and ‘life giver.’ A woman’s family and in-laws wouldpamper and exempt her from certain chores during pregnancy andimmediately after delivery of a child. On some occasions,chiefs would punish men who did not conform to theseexpectations. In poor communities, neighbors guaranteed asteady supply of milk to a woman who delivered a baby (Uwineza& Pearson, 2009, p. 11).

The special position of mothers in pre-colonial Rwandansociety meant that their power to create, carry and bear newlife deserved a particular kind of respect.

Rwandan women’s honored place in history is exemplifiedby the role of the queen mothers who advised their husbandsand sons. According to Senator Aloisea Inyumba, Rwanda’sfirst Minister for Gender and Social Affairs and adistinguished parliamentarian,7 even in non-royal familieswomen in Rwanda had power:

6 ’Doing good when it is needed’ or ’A good deed in need’ (Trans. FrankMugisha).7 Senator Inyumba was one of the three women among the eight Commissionersleading the Rwandan Patriotic Front when it was still a rebel group fighting thecountry's genocidal government. She was the Commissioner for Finance andresponsible for raising funds and other support from the Diaspora.

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Rwandan history and tradition provide pre-colonial examples ofwomen’s power. We had traditional family structures longbefore we came under colonial leadership. Men could not makemajor decisions in the home; for example a man would not giveaway land or cows without consulting his wife. The familytradition is on the basis of dialogue with women. (Inyumba,2009)

While some researchers question women parliamentarians,asking, “Where did you get this idea about gender from? Isit from Sweden?” Inyumba notes that ideas about gender camefrom within Rwanda, not from outside: “The leadership ofRwanda has always been aware of the importance ofidentifying women as true actors in the transformation ofour country Rwanda. Therein women’s roles as key advisors indecision-making inform their ascension into currentgovernment posts.”

Government ministries and agencies, such as the Ministryof Gender and Family Promotion, the Ministry of Finance andEconomic Affairs (with its gender budgeting office), theNational Women’s Council, the Gender Monitoring Office, theRwanda National Police (with its gender desk) and theRwandan Women’s Parliamentary Forum show the clearcommitment on the part of the Rwandan government to genderequality. Women parliamentarians have initiated what mightbe considered a feminist process of sensitizing their malecolleagues by inviting them to listen to voters and makingthem aware of gender-based violence before crafting thegender-based violence (GBV) law. According to Pearson andPowley’s Demonstrating Legislative Leadership, “women have improveddialogue between the grassroots and national levels,enhanced collaboration between civil society and thegovernment demonstrated legislative leadership and advocatedfor human rights” (2008, p. 6). The attempt to unify thehigher levels of government with civil society may be linked

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to the post-genocide drive to erase all divisions amongRwandans.

National unity, the important concept that “We are allRwandans,” is tied to gender unity. Senator Inyumbareinforced:

[A]fter five years, there was a general agreement in thecountry that no one will be discriminated against because oftheir identity…the guiding program for Rwanda…was unity andreconciliation...We are keeping men and women workingtogether. We are not going to advocate for a certain women’sagenda, but rather use a mainstreaming approach (personalcommunication, July, 2009).

Each advocate for gender sensitivity stresses the importanceof working in partnership with men. Indeed, the fact thatPro-Femmes include the Rwandan Men’s Resource Center underits rubric is a testament to women’s recognition of thenecessity of men’s collaboration and input towards achievinggender equality.

Men’s Post-Conflict PerceptionsOne male interpretation of the rise of women to politicalpower is a perception that the family structure has beenaffected by the genocide and women needed special attention.This is partly because of the honored status of mothers asorganizers of the family. Another interpretation is thatmen’s governance has been fraught with violence, so perhapswomen can govern in a different manner. The (male) formerjustice minister and current minister of the NationalCommission for the Fight against Genocide, Hon. Jean de DieuMucyo, explained in an interview (personal communication,July, 2009), “Men managed badly. We are trying to see ifwomen succeed where men failed. Some say genocide is thefruit of the power of men.”

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Parliamentarian Hon. Berthe Mukamusoni remarked thatwomen’s strength during the genocide made an impression onmen. She said, “Men and women both took part in the fightagainst the genocide, even at the front. When the men sawhow tough the women were, healing the sick and cooking thefood, as well as their presence at the front, they saw whatwomen were capable of and the value of collaborating withthem” (Women for Women International 2004 in Paxton & Hughes2007, p. 175). Stereotypes about women’s weakness oremotional vulnerability were belied by the Rwanda PatrioticFront (RPF) when 37.5 percent of their leadership during thestruggle was female.

Women’s new political role is evidence of Rwanda’s socialtransformation. Hon. Jean de Dieu Mucyo, in response to aquestion about whether Rwanda had undergone socialtransformation (2009), used women as an example:

[Y]ou see the position that women were in before and that theyare in now and you can see real social change. The resistanceto change was strongest, or the change took longest, out inthe country. Men believed that having women in charge was abad idea, that female-headed households weaken the family andthe society, but now they are beginning to see that women canlead (personal communication, July, 2009).

Out of great violence can emerge positive change. Rwandahas banished archaic patriarchal laws that are stillenforced in many African societies, such as those thatprevent women from inheriting land. The legislature haspassed a GBV law aimed at ending domestic violence and childabuse.

A member of the Liberal party and the chair ofparliament’s Human Rights Committee, offers reasons whyparticular women’s experiences may make them better equippedto occupy positions of power in Rwanda, “More than men,

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women are the victims of the war. They have differentpriorities to those of men. They have more concern aboutissues related to violence in general, and gender-basedviolence in particular. Women have faced discrimination sothey want to put a stop to discrimination. All of this willcontribute to preventing another genocide” (Hon. EvaristKalish MP, in McGreal, 2008, para. 16).

This frequently expressed opinion is not necessarilyessentialist but is based on women’s experiences ofdiscrimination and having been singled out for particularsexual violence based on the myth of the Tutsikazi. Theirexperiences as women influenced their understanding ofdiscrimination, but when they have experienced fighting assoldiers, hiding, fleeing pogroms, rape as a war crime,sexual slavery, the killing of their children - all aspectsof the genocide, they experienced these phenomena as female,whether they were menstruating, pregnant, giving birth,breast feeding babies, nursing children, going throughmenopause or caring for the sick and elderly. Theirexperience has inevitably influenced their lives as women,and that experience has shaped their future experience asleaders.

Women’s Collectives Creating and TransformingInstitutionsLocal women’s organizations like Pro-Femmes and AVEGA(Association of Widows of Genocide), contributed to thepolitical process and the writing of a gender-sensitiveRwandan Constitution (Inyumba, 2009). Women’s participationin civil society has drawn them into politics. Women areselected as ‘integrity judges’ to administer justice inlocal Gacaca courts, which have proved to be far moreefficient and inexpensive than the International CriminalTribunal. Women are perceived as less corrupt and more

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likely to be seen as having integrity, according to thetestimonies of AVEGA members (AVEGA, July 15, 2009). What ismore, Denis Bikesha, head of the Gacaca Commission,commented “In my experience women are among the best judges”(personal communication, July, 2009). Similarly, MuhireBitorwa, (whose wife, a teacher, is helping pay his waythrough a Kigali University) contends: "In my view, womenare more reasonable, more merciful and less corrupt thanmen" (in McCrummen, 2008, para. 27). These men are carefulto qualify their assertions as personal opinions, but suchviews may be well-informed. The opinions contrast women’srationality, mercy and integrity with the kind of ‘justice’enacted by the male-dominated genocidal regime, which wasknown for corruption before it was known for cruelty.

Of course, the most dramatic success of Rwandan women istheir rise to elected political positions, and their currentstatus as being part of the most gender-equal governing bodyon the globe. We can see the jump in numbers between 1997and 2008. In 1997, women went from 4 percent to 17 percentrepresentation in Parliament. Post-conflict transformationsincluded a constitutional change in 2003 requiring 30percent of Parliamentary seats be held by women. In thatyear, women jumped from 26 percent to 49 percent, and in2008 to 56 percent. Rwanda remains the only country in theworld to achieve a female majority in Parliament. Rwandanparliamentarians are surprised to learn that women comprisea mere 17 percent of the USA Congress. In addition to the 30percent quota for women in Parliament in Rwanda, thetransitional government established the Ministry for Genderand Women in Development as well as gender posts in allother government and ministerial bodies in 2003. Thesebodies are charged with ensuring ‘gender sensitivity’ in allpolicies. It was the women parliamentarians who made certainthat laws against gender-based violence were passed. What is

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more, women parliamentarians were instrumental in advocatingand lobbying for the Inheritance and Marital Property LawRwanda in 1999, giving women property rights, including theright to inherit land from their parents (Voices of WomenEntrepreneurs in Rwanda, 2008)8.

One parliamentarian spoke of her sense that she needed torun for office:

[M]ais le Rwanda avait besoin d’un cadre administrative et politique, aussi simplesoit-il, pour redemarrer un semblant de vie, soigner les malades, envisager lareprise des ecoles, imaginer rendre justice, etc. Il fallait imaginer de nouvelles lois etun travail au parlement a fini par me sembler tout a fait necessaire” (RoseMukankomeje 2009, p. 361)9.

Preparation of candidates by Pro-Femmes under a NorwayGovernment-funded program ‘We Can Do It’ includes teachingwomen how to respond to questions, how to dress and how torespect ‘time’ (i.e. the word “time” was spoken in Englishduring the interview). Returning refugees have also takentheir place among office-holders. As Ruxin (2008) pointsout, “Rwanda has become a nation that at the representativelevel is based more on equality of the sexes than any other,in Africa or elsewhere.”

Women as Good Economic InvestmentObviously, enormous challenges remain to empowering

women. There is extreme poverty in the countryside. Evenwhen women make money at markets through sellingagricultural products, those who work in grassroots

8 Constant vigilance is necessary. For example, the passing of the recent Labourlaw reduced the maternity leave allowance for working women, and this iscurrently being addressed.9 “But Rwanda needed an administrative and political framework, as simple as itwas, to start up a semblance of life, to care for the sick, to envisionrestarting schools, to imagine rendering justice. We had to imagine new laws andworking in parliament ended up seeming completely necessary to me”.

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organizations report that many husbands take control of themoney and thus women’s autonomy. However, journalist AnthonyFaiola celebrates Rwanda as an ‘example of how empoweringwomen can fundamentally transform post-conflict economiesand fight the cycle of poverty’ (2008, p. A4). A positiveillustration comes from the southern province where thewomen-only cooperative of ABASA has been highly successfulin its work with raising cattle and keeping bees.

Continued barriers to women’s financial success includecustomary traditions in rural areas. Even though lawsprotect women’s land rights, ‘households headed by womenhave smaller landholdings than men. Women are also lesslikely than men to use land for their enterprisedevelopment’ (Voices of Women Entrepreneurs in Rwanda,2008). Yet, because more than one-third of households inRwanda are headed by women, women in Rwanda are more likelyto own land than in some neighboring countries. Theseneighbouring countries could learn from Rwanda’s empowermentof women and the resulting economic progress. Forty-onepercent of businesses in Rwanda are run by women (World Bankand Vital Voices, 2008, p. 7). USA Secretary of StateHillary Clinton cites Rwanda as a model of economicprogress, particularly compared to elsewhere in Africa:

[I]n a country that had been ravaged by genocidal conflict,the progress is amazing. It has one of the fastest growingeconomies in Africa, even in the midst of the globalrecession…The Rwandan people believed in themselves. And theirleaders believed in policies based on evidence and measurableresults, including a nationwide emphasis on family planning,crosscutting partnerships with donors and NGOs, and a greaterpremium on professionalism in the government and the healthsector (Clinton, 2009).

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Clinton highlighted the role of NGOs and family planning.Clearly, both in Rwanda and globally, lack of knowledge orpower in regard to controlling fertility hinders women’seconomic empowerment and educational attainment.

Gender-focused NGOs in Rwanda have made important stridesin the past 15 years, especially in contrast to what hasbeen possible in other societies in the Great Lakes Region.Anthony Faiola (2008) notes that women have proven to bemore reliable when it comes to borrowing, saving andspending wisely:

[W]omen more than men invest profits in the family, renovatehomes, improve nutrition, increase savings rates and spend onchildren's education, officials here said… ‘Rwanda's economyhas risen up from the genocide and prospered greatly on thebacks of our women, (Agnes Matilda Kalibata, Minister of Statein charge of agriculture, personal communication in Faiola,2008)…. Bringing women out of the home and fields has beenessential to our rebuilding…We are becoming a nation thatunderstands that there are huge financial benefits toequality’ (Faiola 2008, p. A4).

According to Winnie Byanyima, Director of the United NationsDevelopment Program’s gender team, "we have overwhelmingevidence from almost all the developing regions of the worldthat [investment in] women makes better economics" (Faiola,2008, p. A5). Women have proven to be careful investors andstewards—and they are also more likely to pay back loansthan male borrowers. Indeed, Faiola (2008) cites the opinionthat women have more self-restraint and more resilience thanmen whose credit record shows less success. While theexplanation may be open to debate, the fact that women arebetter investments is not.

Counter Arguments

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Gender and politics seen in operation in Rwanda is a complexissue. The following section presents some important viewson the limitations of women’s situation in Rwanda through ananalysis of interviews and different types of writing,including advocacy and investigative reports and academicanalyses.

Paxton and Hughes (2007), argue that Rwanda is anauthoritarian state and that the women who have acceded topositions of power tend to be former RPF members. Still,what President Paul Kagame and the current government’saccomplishments speak volumes about is the reconstructionand transformation possible following the trauma ofgenocide. Kagame and RPF leaders have demonstrated theimportance of good governance and political will inachieving gender equality and women’s empowerment. Those whocriticize the country from outside Rwanda may not havereflected on the complexity of a society reconstructed afterthe utter destruction of a genocide. Rwandan policiesregarding, for example, freedom of speech are informed bythe specific historical context of Belgian and Frenchcolonialism as well as decades of pogroms prior to thegenocide. Senator Inyumba (Personal communication, July,2009) argues that democracy for Rwandans is about socialtransformation: “Working for the welfare of our people isthe best democracy, not the cosmetic version of elections.”Social transformation from colonial divisions and genocideincludes revisiting indigenous Rwandan history beforeBelgian imperialism and redefining democratic ideals beyondholding elections.

Even if we concede that women today hold visiblepolitical power, not all agree with the current provisionthat 30 percent of parliamentary seats are to be reservedfor women. Privat Rutazibwa, a journalist and media analyst,contended in a 2009 lecture to IGSC that the quotas for

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women in leadership positions should end: “Toute cette politiquedes quotas risque d’infantaliser les femmes qui ont besoin de ce pourcentage.Cette politique doit être conditionnel, pas permanent” (AVEGA, 2009).10 Butthe 30 percent requirement does not mean electing women justbecause they are women. In response to the election results,Rwandan National Women’s Council President Oda Gasinzigwasaid:

[O]ur aim is not having 70 percent or 80 percentrepresentation in Parliament, as people may think... What wecare about is competent women with appropriate capacities —and those who were elected have that capacity (UNIFEM, 2008).

Women do not want charity or even affirmative action—womenparliamentarians, in fact, voted against universityadmission standards for women that were different from thosefor men.

At a recent meeting of the Norwegian People’s Aidevaluation of the We Can Do It (WCDI) training program, DinahMusindarwezo (2010) indicated that the country still needsto avoid essentialism in filling positions such asappointing women only to gender-related posts. That is,Rwanda should not assume that female candidates arefundamentally and essentially different from male candidatesor that just because a candidate is female, she has thenecessary training, expertise and gender sensitivity toperform well. The Needs Assessment report for WCDI includesthe following recommendation:

[M]en should be engaged in the WCDI so that they come on boardto support women’s participation in politics instead ofbecoming obstacles to women. It was discussed that WCDI is a

10 All these politics of quotas risk infantilizing women who ’need’ thispercentage. This policy should be conditional, not permanent.

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women empowerment program, however it was agreed that men canbe brought on board during local actions (Musindarwezo, 2010).

Rwandan parliamentarian Henriette Umulisa (personalcommunication, February 4, 2009) noted that while, in heropinion, women have power behind the scenes in managing thehousehold, many could not have succeeded politically withoutthe support and involvement of men.

In addition to quotas, there is some question about howmuch actual power Rwandan women possessed historically.Recent research (Uwineza & Pearson, 2009) disputes thatindigenous culture meant real power for women:

[B]y insisting that Rwandan culture is rooted in values thatsupport women’s rights, women parliamentarians - and theirmale allies - explicitly and successfully used culturalarguments to build a constituency around a modern politicalreform. Rather than focusing on dramatic cultural shifts thatenabled women’s political participation and highlighted theneed for change, the women leaders argued that a continuity ofcultural tradition supported their efforts (p. 16).

That is, some of the references to pre-colonial women’spower may exemplify more rhetorical savvy than balancedhistorical research, and so demonstrate that the colonialera built on existing gender divisions based on the genderstereotypes in patriarchal societies everywhere.

Contrast women’s public power with women’s private livesand roles at home in Rwanda, and we find domestic violenceat all income and education levels, the illegal status ofabortion (though of course it occurs), women working thesecond shift, lack of family planning, poverty, lesbianinvisibility, and patriarchal ideology, especially in therural areas. Many individuals who work in NGOs, both maleand female, confirm that while women have political power,

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they do not have social power in the spheres of the home orthe workplace. The roles of wife, mother, and householdmanager matter greatly at home, but women differ in theiropinion of whether those roles confer power or bespeakservitude. Poorer women do all the cooking, the cleaning,and other household chores in addition to much of theagricultural work. Even if women earn money by farming andselling produce, many men still manage the money. Generallyupper-class women must make sure the household is in orderwhile men sit and wait to be served.

A member of the Rwanda Association of University Womencommented that in spite of her husband’s higher education,he expects to be served like royalty: “I am A to Z, I amsugar and salt, I am soap, electricity and rent-- and whatdo I get out of it? That is gender in our country”(Personal communication, 2009). This same intervieweeresponded to a question about what rural women think ofwomen in Parliament: “They don’t know what Parliament is.”Still, it is not only rural women who suffer from ignorance.Despite excellent laws against GBV, of course women of allclasses and all locations experience domestic violence justas they do in every other country. Only one women’s shelterexists in Rwanda; what is more, wives are expected to sufferin silence, to try to save their marriages rather than bringthe perception of public shame to their families. Inaddition there are challenges with implementation of the GBVlaw.

After poverty, GBV might be the most serious ofinequalities that Rwandan women face. Yet another ongoingchallenge is the extent to which women at all levels ofincome and education are unaware of their rights. As in manyAfrican countries, women do the majority of agriculturallabor, but despite international conventions such as theConvention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination

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Against Women (CEDAW), women often do not own the land theywork - or if they do, they may not be aware of theirinheritance and property rights. As with GBV, excellent lawsexist to protect women (the 1999 Inheritance and Maritallaw, reinforced by the new Constitution in 2003, and the newLand law on property in 2005). The 1999 law gives a womanthe right to inherit her husband’s land if the couple’sprenuptial agreement recorded husband and wife as co-owners.Nonetheless, many fail to take advantage of pre-nuptialagreements because they cannot afford them. Thus, in divorcecases, women have no legal evidence that property wasjointly owned in practice.11 Consequently, the idealexpressed by the legal system is rarely a practicalreality.12

Concerning the laws against GBV, admirable attempts tocommunicate women’s rights have been made by governmentagencies as well as Pro-Femmes, Rwandan Men’s ResourceCenter and other NGOs, yet only a small percentage of ruraland village women have access to this training. As theMinistry of Gender notes, “It is a good idea to enact laws,but it is better to make them known by beneficiaries.” Mostwomen cannot leave their work at home, whether with childrenor on the farm, to attend the kinds of training sessionsthat make them aware of their rights - if their chores arenot completed at the end of the day, men may batter them.Thus, they may not be fully aware of the newer laws againstGBV and women’s rights to property, especially theirimplications for divorce.

Lucie Nukurundo, formerly of Rwanda Initiative forSustainable Development, argues that NGOs have made great11 Global Grassroots:2010: http://www.globalgrassroots.org/rights.html12 Constitution of the Republic of Rwanda article 190 ”Upon their publication in theofficial Gazette, International treaties and agreement which have beenconclusively adopted in accordance with provisions of law shall be more bindingthan organic laws and ordinary laws except in the case of non compliance by oneof parties.”

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strides in educating women about their rights. Nukurundoworked against GBV in the rural areas of Ruhengeri,Kabushinge and Gitarama. At the end of a training session toraise awareness, women and men are asked to sign contractsstating that they will not use violence in the family. Womenfolded up the contracts and tucked them in their pagnes sothat they could later remind their husbands, if necessary,that they have signed an agreement not to break the law.Nukurundo contends that women who do have access to anti-GBVtraining inform and protect their compatriots who are notable to attend. She and Emmanuel Kalabisa of the RwandaMen’s Resource Center argue that they have seen clearprogress in changing attitudes about violence and haveobserved behavioural changes among participants within twomonths of the training. When men and women realize that whatthey do is defined as violence, they pledge to renounceviolence and to inform their friends about what constitutesviolence. Kalabisa describes training of men and women incoffee cooperatives in Gisenyi. The workshops aimed to helpcitizens in rural areas understand and recognize violence.Rwanda has outstanding laws to protect women from domesticviolence, employment discrimination and unequal distributionof wealth and property. But there may be a disconnectbetween the excellent legislation and the reporting orenforcement of that legislation. As in many culturalcontexts, domestic violence remains a private issue thatwomen hesitate to reveal for fear of hurting or shamingthemselves and their families. Crucial also is the lack oflegal protection in terms of implementing the legislation.

Of course, many of Rwanda’s challenges to achievinggender equality could be addressed by education. While girlsand boys are present in equal numbers in primary schools andfare more or less equally well until age 12, the number ofgirls drops precipitously during adolescence. According to

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the 2009 Annual Report of the Centre for Gender, Culture and Development atKigali Institute of Education, “girls start dropping out insecondary school and comprise less than 30 percent ofstudents in Rwandan public universities” (Randell, p. 3).Girls’ and young women’s inequality in formal educationalsystems is one of many areas of research in progress by thenew CGCD at KIE. To respond to the disparity between womenin government and girls at the grassroots level, moreresearchers in gender studies need to be trained. Rwanda’sReport on Progress towards the Beijing+15 Goals notes that

[M]any people (including officials) do not understand clearlygender as a concept and planners do not have the requiredskills to mainstream gender in programmes, policies andprojects. In addition, there are not enough gender experts inthe country, since no university, so far, has a gender studiesdepartment (2009, p. 62).

So while gender balance and gender sensitivity are cleargoals of the Government of Rwanda, education in genderstudies is essential to achieving the reality. Fortunatelythe Centre at KIE will launch its Master’s degree in Gender,Culture and Development in 2011, which will graduate gendersensitive men and women at the end of 2012, who in turn caninvolve others.

ConclusionSenator Inyumba (2009) argues that promoting women in

decision making is inspired by indigenous culture and isupheld by the present leadership. Other countries can learnfrom Rwanda’s gender advancement in addition to beingimpressed by its economic progress. During a lecture to theIGSC, Inyumba recounted the following anecdote as anillustration: “Our current administration is very gender-sensitive and it is not surprising for a leader to call a

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male-dominated TV show and say that a program is not gender-sensitive and point out the need for female representation”(personal communication, July, 2009).

Some contend that women’s presence in Parliament has notbrought concrete results. Those critics neglect theimportance of the legislation promoting women’s land rightsand against gender-based violence (not to mention theinspiration that parliamentarians have given to localwomen). Gender sensitivity is modeled from the highestlevel. Grassroots trainer Nukurundo congratulates thePresident and the highest levels of government when praisingthe progress Rwanda has made. In her study on Rwandan womenin Parliament, Powley (2009) concludes: “The Rwandan caseprovides us with examples of gender-sensitive policy-makingand innovative electoral mechanisms that could be models forother parts of the world,” (p. 156) certainly the USA withits 17 percent of women in Congress.

The documentary about women post-genocide, God Sleeps inRwanda, takes its title from a Rwandan proverb: “They say mycountry is so beautiful that although God may wander theworld during the day, he returns at night to sleep inRwanda” (2005). The beauty is not found only in the hillylandscape, but indeed, in the willingness to try radicalchange and to rethink assumptions about gender.

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About the Authors

Dr Gerise Herndon is Chair of the Gender Studies Program andFulbright Program Advisor at Nebraska Wesleyan University(Lincoln, Nebraska), USA, where she teaches internationalcinema and postcolonial literatures. Professor Herndon spenther spring 2010 sabbatical consulting for CGCD at KIE. Sheearned her PhD in Comparative Literature at the Universityof Texas in 1993 with a dissertation on Caribbean womenwriters. She has authored articles on African and Caribbeancinema. Her publications include the co-edited essaycollection Emerging Perspectives on Maryse Condé, A Writer of Her Own,and a special issue of Mango Season on francophone writing,with Dr. Sarah Barbour of Wake Forest University. cgh@nebrwesleyan.edu

Professor Shirley Kaye Randell AO, PhD, FACE, FAIM, FAICD isDirector of the Centre for Gender, Culture and Developmentat the Kigali Institute of Education. Following adistinguished career in education and in commonwealth, stateand local governments in Australia, she has providedadvisory services in education, governance for empowerment,gender mainstreaming and public sector reform forgovernments in the Pacific, Asia and Africa since 1997.Professor Randell recently completed a three-year term asWorld Vice President of the International Federation ofUniversity Women and is Founder and Convener ofInternational Relations of the Rwandan Association ofUniversity Women.shirley.randell@kie.ac.rw mail@shirleyrandell.com.au

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Acknowledgement

Portions of this paper were presented at the Femmes,Conflits et Pouvoir conference in Toulouse, France, October2009. Grateful acknowledgement is given to Meera Bhardwaj,currently a Fulbright scholar in Cameroon, for her researchassistance, ideas, and support during the interviewingprocess in Rwanda.

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