As Rwanda joins the rest of the continent to celebrate African Women’s Day on July 31, it is accredited for its efforts towards gender equality and women empowerment. The country is ranked the first country in Sub-Saharan Africa, and sixth globally in bridging the gender gap, according to the Global Gender Gap Index 2022, by the World Economic Forum.
This year, the African Women’s Day is held under the theme "20 Years of Maputo Protocol: Policies, Partners and People.”
The Protocol provides for extensive rights for women, including the right to take part in the political processes, to social and political equality with men, improved autonomy in their reproductive health decisions, and an end to harmful traditional practices such as female genital mutilation, among others.
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Here are Rwanda’s eight landmark achievements in gender equality and women empowerment in Rwanda.
Land rights
To ensure women’s equal rights to land as men, Rwanda enacted legislation that addressed inequality on property access.
This includes the law of November 1999 on matrimonial regimes, liberalities and succession provided for equal inheritance rights between women and men, girls and boys. Before this, only men and boys were legally entitled to inheritance.
The law was later repealed and replaced by the law of July 2016 governing matrimonial regimes, donations, and succession, to provide better protection and equal rights to women as it is the case with men.
It provides for, among others, equal rights to succession to the surviving spouse (before, the law only allowed the surviving female spouse to administer the family property for children).
As per the law, the surviving spouse – either a female or a male – shall ensure the administration of the entire property, while assuming the duties of raising the children and assistance to the needy parents of the deceased.
Land is one of the key properties in Rwanda as it is used for various purposes, including production of the much needed food for human consumption, construction of houses, and bank loan collateral.
The law of June 2013 governing land in Rwanda, granted women equal rights as men on land access, ownership and utilization.
Meanwhile, this law was repealed and replaced by the law of 2021 governing land. In addition to already existing legal protection offered to women, the 2021 law stipulates that the transfer of land rights jointly held by spouses is approved by both of them, even if one of them is not registered on the land title.
Improvements in maternal health
According to the sixth Rwanda Demographic and Health Survey 2019-20, published by the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda in September 2021, maternal mortality ratio declined significantly (by more than five times) within two decades, to 203 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2019/20 down from 1,071 in 2000.
During that period, 99 per cent of pregnant women got at least one visit by a health care provider during pregnancy and 93 per cent of deliveries were performed at a health facility, according to the Rwanda Biomedical Centre.
Such a performance suggests that Rwanda is making progress towards achieving the target of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3.1 to reduce the global maternal mortality ratio to less than 70 per 100,000 live births by 2030.
Legally granted abortion rights
The law determining offences and penalties in general, which was enacted in 2018, provides for circumstances under which a woman can have access to safe abortion and they are not punished for such an act.
Article 125 of the same law provides that there is no criminal liability if abortion was performed due to reasons including that the pregnant person is a child; the person having abortion had become pregnant as a result of rape; became pregnant after being subjected to a forced marriage; or as a result of incest up to the second degree.
Other reasons include that the pregnancy puts at risk the health of the pregnant person or of the fetus.
Before this law, the President had been offering clemency to thousands of abortion convicts, with the latest pardon being in March 2023.
Tackling GBV
The law of 2008 on the prevention and punishment of Gender-Based Violence (GBV) punishes marital rape and addresses GBV in all its forms.
Conjugal rape refers to coercing a spouse into sexual relations without that spouse’s consent, by way of force, intimidation, among others.
As per the law, both spouses have equal rights as to sexual intercourse, reproductive health and family planning. It is forbidden to have sex with one’s spouse without their consent.
In addition, the law provides for the rights of a pregnant woman or of a woman who delivers, stipulating that it is forbidden to fire a woman just because she is pregnant or on maternity leave. Also, pregnancy and delivery shall not constitute cause for depriving a student of her right to education.
Progress in girls’ education
The government of Rwanda attached importance to the education of girls by implementing what it calls affirmative actions in their favour to address the situation where girls’ education was not given enough attention in the past.
As a result, improvements were registered in terms of girls’ schooling.
According to the 2021/22 Education Statistical Yearbook School year ended in July 2022, published by the Ministry of Education in May 2023, the number of pupils stood at more than 2.7 million in 2021/22.
It showed that the number of males was slightly higher than that of females at this level of education – with more than 1.38 million male students or 50.5 per cent of the total, compared to more than 1.35 million female students, or 49.5 per cent.
For secondary education, the publication showed that the total number of students enrolled in general and professional upper secondary enrolment was 189,660 in 2021/22. Female students accounted for 58.2 per cent, which is higher than their male counterparts with 41.8 per cent.
It observed that the government interventions aiming at ensuring female students are progressing through the education system and complete secondary education are starting to bear fruits.
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Meanwhile, regarding university education, the publication reported an increase in enrolments from 88,448 in 2020/21 to 95,863 in 2020/21. Public institution enrolments rose by 15 per cent to 42,753, while private increased by 3.6 per cent to 53,110.
Male enrolment represented 56.1 per cent overall, with public institutions having a higher number of males (64.0 per cent) while female enrolment exceeded male enrolment in private institutions with 50.3 per cent.
Access to finance
Finances are a key factor in implementing income-generating activities and meeting one’s needs.
According to Finscope Rwanda Consumer Survey Report 2020 produced by the Access to Finance Rwanda, the gender gap continued to narrow down in 2020, with 92 per cent of adult women being financially included, overall, (versus 93 per cent of adult males). In 2016, 87 per cent of women were financially included (versus 91 per cent of males).
It showed that there are still differences in the type of access that women and men have, pointing out that men are more likely to use formal financial services, creating a 7 per cent gender gap in access and uptake of formal financial services/products – as 81.3 per cent of men were formally included, compared to 73.6 per cent of women.
Encouragingly, the survey indicated, more women (34 per cent), were using banking services in 2020, up from 24 per cent in 2016, and the use or uptake of banking products aided in reducing the proportion of financially excluded women.
Women’s representation in key decision-making positions
Rwanda's Constitution provides that at least 30 per cent of positions in decision-making organs should be occupied by women. As a result of this and other policies, women have reached or exceeded the quota in many instances. 42 percent of the cabinet and 61 per cent of parliamentary seats are women.