Women in Rwandan Politics and Society

Rwanda has the highest representation of women in parliament in the world. Women are also well represented at other levels of governance and Rwanda has pursued a strong gender equity political agenda. This opened opportunities for a small number of women to enter elite positions. However, the situation of the majority of Rwandan women remains very poor and patriarchal attitudes are entrenched. This article considers factors that affect attitudes to gender equality in Rwanda and finds that among men there are important age differences in attitudes to gender equality, but this is not the case for women. However, education has an important influence on attitudes to women's roles. The article discusses three major gender issues in Rwandan society: the workloads of women, access to education, and gender-based violence. We conclude that although congruence theory would suggest a convergence between gender attitudes and political institutions, in this case the political institutions are more enlightened than the bulk of the population.