Where Women Rule: Rwanda's Parliament

On September 16, 2008 a big event happened in Africa. For the first time in history, a country elected a female-dominated government. Where did this happen? In a small country in the middle of Africa: Rwanda.

Women now hold 44 out of the country's 80 parliamentary seats, which sets a second record for Rwanda for having the most women in parliament. Rwanda's outgoing parliament was 48.8 percent women, the highest rate at the time, but the new parliament is 55 percent. This may be due in part to a new constitution adopted in 2003 which ensures women at least 30 percent of seats in parliament and other governmental institutions. But because the constitution only guarantees 24 parliamentary seats for women, many women won seats without help of the quota system -- a huge step toward legitimizing women's place in politics where some doubted female MP's qualifications and claimed women only held those positions because of the quota, not because they deserved them.

Rwanda, which has traditionally been a male-dominated culture, has gone through tremendous growth after the 1994 genocide in terms of gender issues. According to Speciosa Mukandutiye, the president of the Forum of Rwandan Women Parliamentarians, "Gender equality is not deep rooted in our culture. Traditionally, women were supposed to be housewives. Their role was to take care of their husbands and produce children. It was a shame to appear in public and make your comments...Our current policy is that that has to change: women have to contribute to national income. That is among the priorities of our forum: to make women come out and show their talents and leave behind this behavior of depending on others and to build their spirit of self-reliance."

Women became more prominent in Rwanda after the genocide which left several thousand women widowed and created a population that was 70 percent female. "Women immediately assumed roles as heads of household, community leaders and financial providers, meting the needs of devastated families and communities," according to a 2003 case study on women in Rwanda. Furthermore, Rwanda's ruling party, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) has been committed to gender equality as many of its members were once exiled and are therefore sensitive to issues of discrimination. The party was also a former rebel group, a situation which forced them to understand the power of women on its side.

Besides finding news articles I explored the blogosphere and found several blog posts commenting on this extraordinary occurrence. One blog, called The Poor Mouth by Jams O'Donnell comments on the amount of female representation in government in Rwanda compared to the rest of the world. I found it extremely interesting to see where many of the leading democracies and developed countries stood in comparison. (Many were far behind Rwanda.) The second blog that caught my attention was the more controversial feministing.com, with a post written by Samhita. The purpose of the second blog is to discuss and create awareness for women's issues around the world. The particular post naturally holds a very pro-feminine outlook on the event in Rwanda and discusses how and why it occurred, and what it might mean for the future. My comments on these blogs may be found through the provided links and are also copied below for convenience.



The Poor Mouth: Women Outnumber Men in Rwandan Parliament
Comment:

Thank you for your post about women in Rwandan parliament. I am happy to see that people around the world are interested in the situation in Africa and the improvements being made. So often we hear sad stories about the continent and it is refreshing that there is finally attention focused on the good in Africa, and in this case, the increasing empowerment of women in Rwanda.

As you mentioned that the election of 44 female MPs is “an important landmark” and partly due to the quota system, do you feel that the quota system is a legitimate force? In other words, I’ve heard some argument that because 24 seats in Parliament have to be reserved for women, many of the women are not as qualified as their male counterparts who won their seats in the direct election. I am interested to see how people around the world react to this news; whether they disregard it as women who didn’t technically “deserve” the seat, or whether they praise this new development.

I appreciate that you listed the amount of female representation in politics by nation, as it shows how immense of an accomplishment Rwanda has made compared to other nations and how far the world in general has yet to come. Many consider gender equality a “Western” idea implemented in developed countries, though you have shown this idea to be false. It is shocking that a newly-developing country, such as Rwanda, can be so much further ahead in integrating women in politics than developed democracies such as Ireland or the United States. I would like to note again that 55% of Rwanda’s Parliament is female compared to 19.5% of MPs in Britain, about 16% of Senators or Congressmen in the US, and only about 13 of the TDs in Ireland. By comparing the amount of women in politics around the world, you have created a different angle to these reports and have included the whole world in this pursuit of gender equality.

Thanks again for your information. I have included a link to my blog which focuses on women’s issues in Africa. Cheers!



Feministing: Rwandan Women Voted in as Majority in Parliament
Comment:

Your post about women in Rwanda’s Parliament made a lot of great points. I agree in part with the statement, “It is correct that this [women dominating Rwandan politics] should be so,” because while I believe it is correct women should have power in the government, I do not think it is 100% right that Rwanda should have the highest percentage of women in parliament in the world. You explain why Rwanda should have the highest percentage making a case that Rwanda needs a “woman’s touch” in these times of reconciliation and reconstruction, but since men had a huge part in the 1994 genocide (as both perpetrators and victims) it is good for them to be involved in the healing of the country as well. By no means am I diminishing the importance of women in politics, I think that is essential, though I do believe political power should be equal between men and women.

You also mention that women are fit for this position in Rwanda, “…in part because they have not been implicated in the violence that has marked the country's murky past to the same extent as men.” However, there may be more reasons behind the Rwandan women’s ascent to power. Some will acknowledge that because the population was 70% female directly after the genocide, women were forced to take on the duties of both men and women. Women became responsible for not only their families, but their communities, livelihood, income, and so on. Women became leaders during this time as they “stepped up to the plate” to help Rwanda survive. For that reason, women were positioned to take on more power. It is also important to note that the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), which took control after the genocide and has remained in power, has been a gender sensitive party. This is perhaps due to the fact that as exiles (before the genocide), they understood discrimination, and since they were a rebel group they were aware that including women would double their numbers. So, while women may be in power partly because they were not as involved in the violence (though that is still debatable) there are other reasons behind this extraordinary case of women holding a majority of political seats.

I do agree that this is a great opportunity for women -- I hope that more of the international community will hear the news and follow suit! Thank you for your thoughts on this interesting topic. I have included a link to my blog I have just started which focuses on women’s issues in Africa.

The ABC's: Is it Helping Women in the Fight Against HIV/AIDS?

There are many battles African women are facing today, ranging from limited political rights to raising a family in poverty, but the greatest and most threatening battle facing these women may be against HIV/AIDS. The "AIDS epidemic," a term of which many are familiar with, has increasingly become a disease disproportionately affecting women, where in Zimbabwe twenty-one percent of women are living with HIV as opposed to fifteen percent of men. This trend is occurring not only in Zimbabwe, but throughout many other Sub-Saharan countries as well. (Swaziland and South Africa are among the other significant examples. In Swaziland, thirty-one percent of women are HIV-positive compared to twenty percent of men. And in South Africa, young women account for ninety percent of new HIV infections, according to the UNAIDS 2007 AIDS epidemic update.)

In effort to quell this epidemic among both men and women, and reduce new infection rates, several countries and organizations have stuck by the "ABC's," a slogan that has been long considered a cardinal rule in the fight against HIV. The ABC's stand for:

Abstain
Be faithful
Correct and consistent use of condoms

The ABC campaign has been considered a success since what is believed to be its first debut in the late 1990's in Botswana. (The picture to the right shows a billboard in Botswana promoting the ABC's.) Not long after, the slogan was used by other organizations and initiatives such as PEPFAR and UNAIDS, and has been credited with reducing HIV/AIDS in Uganda. According to the Guttmacher Report on Public Policy, when many Ugandan's began practicing A, B, and C at the same time, the infection rate declined from fifteen percent in 1991 to 5 percent in 2001. Young people in Uganda were waiting longer to have sex, more people were practicing monogamy, and condom use increased. The report also states that the ABC's are succeeding in Zambia. But how well do the ABC's really work in reducing the prevalence of HIV throughout Sub-Saharan Africa? And how well does it help protect women from the virus? As I see it, not very well.

The most significant problem with the ABC campaign is that it only skims the top of the social causes behind the spread of HIV. It is true that abstaining from sex, being monogamous, and using condoms will reduce infection rates, but what is the reality that these practices will be followed? For African women, following the ABC's may not be an option; they may be forced or expected to engage in into sexual relations at a young age, and may not have control over the faithfulness of their partner or whether condoms are used. Essentially, the ABC's do not take into account cultural or social norms and gender inequality.

In 2006, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that in Africa, forty-two percent of women between the ages of 15-24 had been married before the age of 18. The CDC also concluded that because poverty is prevalent in Africa, women are married at a young age to older men who can afford to pay her dowry. The husband, who has likely had multiple sex partners in part because of his age, may be infected with HIV and pass it on to his young wife who is expected to engage in sexual activity for pleasure and to become pregnant. Since being fertile and producing children is an important part of many African cultures, many young wives, such as those pictured below with their children, may increase their sexual activity in order to produce offspring. Consequently, the "abstinence" element of the ABC's may work for singles, but does not apply to married individuals.

The ABC program may also fail when women who are faithful to their husbands or partners cannot be certain of their husband or partner's fidelity. Both the CDC and The Duke Global Health Institute have concluded that men are continuing to have multiple sexual relationships, explaining why there are increasing reports of HIV among monogamous women. Social norms may affect this as the CDC stated that men in Africa are expected to have more partners and be more sexually experienced, and furthermore that wives, who are often dependent on their husbands, are in no position to demand his fidelity. No matter how faithful a woman is, if she has an unfaithful partner the ABC's will not protect her.

Additionally, because women in Africa are often dependent on men, (due largely to lack of education, financial security and equal rights), they do not have the ability to demand the use of condoms. Women may fear refusal, embarrassment or violence, and are expected to be passive and submissive in regards to sex. Even if a woman does feel empowered to request that a condom is used, African women often lack access to health education or products such as condoms, making it harder for them to enforce such requests. As a result, the "condom" component of the ABC's may not help women protect themselves against HIV, and consequently the ABC's fail again by missing the deeper social, cultural and gender standards in Africa.

Though the ABC strategy does some good, it will not fully succeed until it addresses gender difference and discrimination. Since women represent the majority of people infected with HIV in Africa, women need an updated campaign that gets to the root causes of the spread of HIV by focusing on protecting them. Out with the old ABC's and in with a new strategy to promote gender equality in the battle against HIV/AIDS.