The adage; educate a woman and you educate the world, cannot ring truer in Rwanda.In the past, the Rwandan woman was a trusted confident of her partner and a vital cog in the family wheel.There is a Kinyarwanda saying, Umugore n’umutima w’urugo, loosely translated as ‘a woman is the heartbeat or centre piece of a family’.Today women have taken over even much more responsibilities, be it political, social or commercial. The politics part is an old story that has been retold countless times, largely due to their majority in parliament, the highest percentage in the world.Now a new study has revealed that they have taken over the manufacturing industry. According to this year’s Gender Statistics Report, there aren’t only more women in the manufacturing industry; they have eclipsed their male counterparts by far.Whereas only 355 men run their own manufacturing businesses, the women are tenfold the number, at 3,652. This is very revealing and it puts men, who for decades have pulled the industrial strings, in a very awkward position, and for good reason.The government policy of gender parity has unleashed a hitherto silent strength in our mothers and sisters. They have used the level playing field to their advantage, and that of their families, and have truly manifested to the world that positive gender policies work.
