EDITORIAL: Empowering women key to reducing gender gap

Rwanda’s gender parity policies have again been recognised on the world stage. The latest Gender Gap Index, published by the World Economic Forum, not only put Rwanda in top position in reducing the gender gap among its population, it also ranked 6th worldwide – behind only Nordic countries. The report shows that despite many countries having more women in school, that did not guarantee equal opportunity in employment. Men earn more than women for the same work done; but not in Rwanda. Apart from the fact that the country leads in having more women in parliament, it also shows that it led in the categories of Labour Force Participation, Wage Equality, and Enrolment in Primary Education. These are the results of the government’s conscious effort to lower the gender gap by discarding traditional beliefs that discriminated against women. The best way to achieve that was by economic and political empowerment and ensuring a level playing field. Despite the good showing in the report, some areas where the country performed poorly have to be addressed. It shows that there were few women in professional and technical fields. But that should not be ground for despair as more and more women are encouraged to take to the hitherto male dominated fields. The many women enrolled in Technical and Vocational Education Training centres is testimony that the gap will be no more in the near future. Still, it will take time to break entrenched traditional beliefs that some work was the reserve of men and that the “weaker sex” should be relegated to perform lighter chores.

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EDITORIAL: Empowering women key to reducing gender gap