WHILE addressing the summer summit of the Women in Parliament (WIP) Global Forum held in Kigali in July this year, President Paul Kagame said that women’s 64 per cent representation in Rwanda’s Lower House should not be seen as an end in itself with regard to gender equality and women empowerment in the country.

This, he said, had been a natural result of conscious efforts to remove the obstacles that prevented Rwandans, including women, from using their talents and abilities to full potential. 

Promotion of gender equality, which is the third of the eight Millennium Development Goals, spans across various aspects that affect women’s lives from access to education, to accessing finance to participation in decision making processes, amongst other aspects.

Reports and rankings by renowned organisations such as Gender Equity Index (GEI), a social watch network and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), indicate that the country has registered progress under the various gender equality indicators and a closer scrutiny at the indicators over recent years shows that the progress has had a trickledown effect.

Access to finance

A reliable indicator on the status of gender equality in the country is the accessibility of finances for women willing to get into entrepreneurship.

Innocent Bulindi, the Chief Executive of Business Development Fund, a company affiliated to the Development Bank of Rwanda that supports small and medium enterprises access loans and also provides advisory services, says that there has been a notable improvement of the percentage of women applying for and getting loans .

"We have seen quite a number of loan applications from women grow significantly over the last few years. There has been a lot of improvement as more women are aware of the platforms and group facilities and they are taking more of group finances and loans,” Bulindi says.

Roselyn Mukantabana, a 53-year-old mother of four who runs a retail and wholesale outlet in Kisementi can testify to the transformation in women’s access to finance. She says in the past women had a hard time accessing capital.

"Women have increasingly been liberated from dependency and poverty not by handouts but by being given opportunities to access finances and capital in form of loans,” Mukantabana says.

The business woman says previously, due to lack of tangible collateral or security,  while accessing loans, few financial institutions would be willing to finance women’s enterprises, but with the various initiatives (private and public) put up recently to act as credit guarantees, the tide has turned.

Education

Statistics from the Ministry Of Education show that there is almost an equal gender participation in education — a development that was rare in the past with odds stacked against girls.

In 2012, the Ministry Of Education recorded 97.5 per cent enrollment for girls at primary level and another big percentage at secondary level.

Going by a United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) report published in the same year, Rwanda has the highest enrollment rates in primary education in Africa. The country has also registered success in observing gender parity; with girls’ net enrolment rate of 98 per cent compared with 95 percent for boys.

Employment opportunities

Accessing opportunities in quality education has made way for an almost gender balanced workforce with women being as qualified as men. Patrick Nkuranga runs an ICT firm which has options for both sexes during the hiring process.

"Women are not only filling up job positions, they are also increasingly taking positions in board rooms. Previously women in such positions would be viewed as somewhat special but now it is a common sight,” Nkuranga says.

He adds that previously a majority of women or girls got as far as levels such as personal assistants, secretaries and receptionists while the men did the ‘real jobs’ but that long ceased to be the case; they now brush shoulders with men.

Inheritance

Equality in inheritance is currently a work in progress.  In pursuit of equality in this aspect, a bill is currently being debated by Rwandan lawmakers, aiming at seeing to it that heirs of both sexes have no limitation to inheriting property from family and guardians.

"Draft law regarding matrimonial regimes, family donations and successions was introduced due to many problems that were caused by the difficulty in implementing the existing law regarding matrimonial regimes, family donations and successions, ” the bill’s explanatory note reads.

Further in recognition of past ‘injustices’ the bill proposes immediate implementation once it is signed into law. In order to solve the issue of females who were unable to inherit the property of their deceased parents when a law allowing them to be heirs was not yet in force, it was recommended that this law becomes immediately applicable. This means that all cases pending before courts shall be adjudicated in accordance with this law, the bill proposes.

The ball in the women’s court

However even as the various players have conducted and run initiatives to level the platforms of the sexes, there is probably a need in mindsets of some women who are not experiencing the tide’s turn.

During the recent intake into the University of Rwanda, the number of women/girls applying for places was worrying. Women made only 30 per cent of the total applicants leading the institution’s management to embark on a research through the centre of gender studies. The institution’s deputy vice chancellor described the situation as ‘alarming’.

In a previous interview with The New Times, Dr Marie Christine Gasingirwa, the Director General of Science, Technology and Research in the Ministry of Education, diagnosed part of the ailment as mindsets and culture lag of female students which led them to go for short and simpler courses.

  "There are mindsets and cultural lag that holdsback girls; they tend to go for short courses or other simpler courses. Those who dare to join campus perform better than boys do, the constitution however gives them an equal opportunity,” Dr Gasingirwa said.

How milestones have been covered

The national women’s council Executive Secretary, Christine Tuyisenge says that Rwanda as a country has a gender equality approach, where they regularly conduct situation analysis to identify gender gaps and propose affirmative action to fill them.

Oda Gasinzigwa, the Minister of Gender and Family Promotions, says that while seeking solutions to  gender equality challenges, the government employs broad approaches that are more inclusive to the whole society rather than what only affects women. That way, she says, gains are more sustainable.

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I SAY : 

While trying to get equal opportunities for both men and women, at some point, I am afraid that we could find ourselves in a position where women are being favoured even when they are not qualified for positions.  We should work to eliminate gender discrimination but at the same time not compromise on aspects concerning employment. Employ on the basis of merit not gender. Christine Teta, Activist

There has been a lot of progress made in recent years in terms of the number of women in parliament and in corporate positions, lets ensure that it will also be reflected in the lives of ordinary women who have long been  victims of unfair cultural beliefs and practices or have been victims of inequality. Phillip Ngamije, Business man

When you talk about women empowerment or bringing to an end gender based violence, you cannot be effective when you do not include men; you require having an approach that mobiles support from the entire community. To achieve the desired outcome in gender equality, we need to bring on board both sexes. Shamsi Kazimbaya,  Gender activist 

According to the human development report by UNDP, Rwanda performance in gender equality indicators is much better than Japan. I commend the government’s efforts in promoting gender equality. Women have been and are still key players in several sectors in the economy like agriculture. Takahiro Moriya, Diplomat

It is not a game of numbers, you could have large numbers in parliament or decision making positions but how much does that affect the society? It will be better if it impacts positively on ordinary women and citizens.  Caution should however be exercised in positive discrimination. When you just prioritise a girl without considering skills, it becomes destructive.  Cynthia Umurungi: Committee member National Youth Council