RWANDA: FROM GENOCIDE TO BEING THE WORLD'S NR. 1

y father was the first person to be killed, followed by my brothers. So my ''Mmother, my sisters and I kept hiding without knowing whether we were going to survive or not. I also remember hearing the people who took my father talking about how happy they were to have killed him. It was one of the worst times in my life.

I wished they had killed me too. [...] I can’t find words to describe how I felt." - Consolee Nishimwe, gender activist

With greatest respect to the survivors of the Rwandan genocide in 1994, this article shall look at the impetus behind the country's enormous transformation to the world's top performer regarding women in parliament. According to UN Women, women constitute 61.3% of parliament and 38.5% of senate. Focussing on parliament, the country has by far the highest percentage of women - 7.9% apart from the second rank Cuba and 5.7% apart form the Plurinational State of Bolivia with 55.6% of women in the chamber of senators. When asking for the reasons of such comparatively high percentage, the path leads to Rwanda's past.

WOMEN AND THE GENOCIDE:

The pre-colonial Rwandan society displayed patriarchal structures in social, political or economic spheres of life with women being prohibited to ownership and inheritance of land. Whereas before the colonial rule ‘limited avenues of power for women’ existed, these faded with the beginn of colonisation. Without downplaying the incredible suffering, three drivers of social change can be detected.

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Firstly, during the time of intense violence and conflict gender roles underwent change and adapted to the circumstances. The genocide tore families apart and as the society in the genocide's immediate aftermath was made up to 70% by women and girls, it was predominantly left to their device to restore their own strength and the strength of their country. With the greatest respect to the unimaginable crime, some women had to suffer from, including rape, sexual assault, and torture, their doing effected lastingly Rwandans' gender relations. Secondly, Rwanda's women's movement shaped Rwanda significantly between 1994 and 2003. Under the umbrella of PROFEMMES, women strategically lobbied at grassroots-level to empower women of all societal layers

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whereby gradually obtaining their legitimacy within politics. According to Burnet, the movement was ‘among the most active sector[s] of civil society’. Thirdly, the Rwandan Patriotic Front pushed gender equality forward, especially under Paul Kagame's presidency. For a lengthy period, the leadership of the Rwandan Patriotic Front was in exile in Uganda. Different scholars argue that Uganda's quota system and more generally, women's appreciation in politics significantly affected the parties' stance. A combination out of these factors eventually culminated into the introduction of a 30% reserved seat quota on a national level, laws against gender-based violence, women's councils, the ratification of the 1999 Inheritance law, a new constitution in 2003, and the creation of today's Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion.

Nevertheless, questions concerning implications rise. Was the very core of Rwanda's culture and society able to be transformed from the outside in? How does Rwanda perform regarding gender equality today?

A 2018 study by Guariso, Ingelaere, and Verpoorten took a closer look at the implications of the quota introduction. It concludes that therewith "the number of female political representatives significantly increased [...], with their presence in parliament and ministries consistently exceeding 30 percent." They further argue that "while women disproportionally end up in ministries of relatively lower prestige, the gap with men has been closing over time, as more women have joined the executive branches of power" . Devlin and Elgie point out that women’s issues, i.a. issues of equality, education, childcare, violence against women, and the integration of gender equality into employment and pay are raised more easily and frequently. Women's presence continuously contributing to the normalisation of these issues as political concerns. Generally speaking, descriptive representation is often advocated for its integration of diverging perspectives and identities into the policy-making process. In contrast to studies of quotas in western countries, authors emphasis deputies' determination of national and international feminism advocacy.

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Comparing Rwanda's women empowerment and gender equality strategy in an international context, the Global Gender Gap Index 2020 of the World Economic Forum ranked the country 9th place overall and in the sub-indexes political empowerment 4th place. Over the last two decades, various sources of inequality - or women's issues - display improvements for instance the access to water, sanitation, and electricity. Although access to health and education is determined by wealth, the overall accessibility has been improving. Noteworthy, the enrolment gender gap regarding primary and secondary education has narrowed with occasionally the enrolment rate of girls overtaking the of boys.

Nevertheless, the Global Gender Gap Index 2020 also recognises deficits exemplary mirrored in the health and survival sub-index where Rwanda places 90th and in 79th in economic participation and opportunity. The overall access or graduation rates of higher education declined. Further had disparities in the economic sphere been detected: the rural labour market is highly gendered as well as the distribution of land

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and financial assets. Looking closer into this, a UN University working paper focusing on business performance gender gaps revealed a productivity gap of "22% and 25% for annual turnover and net revenue per worker, respectively." Rwandan female business owners are less likely to invest or seek formal credits. Beyond, they invest fewer working hours into their businesses compared to men. The authors assume that women still face capital and credit constraints and that family responsibilities limit their availability, indicating the prevalence of stereotypes.

Furthermore, women's perceived political representation had barely changed despite the increase in descriptive representation. Petra Debusscher and An Ansoms argue that such lack might indicate the persistence of power relations along ethnic lines overshadowing gender lines.

It follows that policy outputs had been little affected. Findings agree with studies around the world that despite the high presence of female politicians and mechanisms that seemingly have mainstreamed levels of policy-making efforts rarely translated into policy outputs. In the case of Rwanda, legal adjustments such as the inheritance law or the reformulation of the constitution were passed prior to the increase in female political representation.

When directing attention into the future, other factors might limit Rwanda's potential to decrease gender inequality. These might include the political disregard of 'subsistence agriculture and care work'. Women disproportionally work in these areas however its political neglect might indicate that "policy makers prefer to leave certain ‘existing gender and power relations’ intact, thus ignoring ‘one of the big causes of gender inequality'" Adding, some religious communities are reluctant to agree with women pursing careers in politics. Mirrored in the assessment of the Global Gender Gap Index 2020, Rwanda lacks grassroots consultation as mirrored in the low placing in the Global Gender Gap Index 2020. Equally important, Rwanda is under autocratic rule. Scholars rise concern abut the increasing authoritarian nature of the state with a

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small executive with little or potentially no accountability towards citizens. Scholars predict that these structures might endanger the empowerment of women in the future.

For aforementioned reasons the question rises whether a true transformation has been realised, one targeting and rewriting deeply rooted societal norms and practices embedding gender? Keeping this in mind it is now to you to form your opinion on the path to gender equality and about Rwanda - its history, its development, and its future.

Author's note: Certainly, there are structural deficits which unfortunately continued up until today in Rwanda but the country has rightly an internationally respected position. In the end, Rwanda has a story to tell that we should listen to. How its future will look like lies in the hands of its people as well as the international community. Rwandans continuously proved willing to tackle issues of inequality and overcome the given limitations to equality. Rwanda makes us aware of the how far other countries have to go to reach a higher degree of equality but especially gender equality. The impetus which largely enabled it however should make us think.

FIN.