Female majority in Parliament proof that affirmative action works

The ladies have done it again. Not satisfied with their number one global position of being the majority force in Parliament, Rwandan ladies have further tipped the scale in their favour.The fact that their 56 per cent representation in the previous Lower House has just leaped to 64 per cent is not a matter of fate, but a result of deliberate efforts to encourage women to co-occupy the driving seat of the country’s destiny that for decades was the preserve of men.Hence, an affirmative action was designed that resolved to reserve 30 per cent of all positions, whether appointments or elective seats, to women. That policy has emboldened women to walk out from the male shadow and make their presence felt.The architects of the policy might have been surprised by the speedy outcome, that in so short a while, female representation has overshot the historical margin. Even without their special interest seats, women pipped their male counterparts in the openly-contested seats.This is a sign that when policies are implemented to the core, they have immediate effect, and in the case of the just-concluded elections, the ladies have arrived.Now some sections of the male population are starting to query whether women should retain a 30 per cent favour in Parliament when they actually out-gunned men in the free-for-all electoral process.However, the question here should not be about favour, but helping a section of the population lagging behind to join the show. It is succeeding.

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Female majority in Parliament proof that affirmative action works