Abstract Access to clean cooking energy remains central to sustainable energy transitions and gender equity in the Global South. Despite Rwanda’s progress in electrification, reliance on biomass fuels persists, with women–especially those heading households–bearing disproportionate health and time burdens. This study examines the determinants of household cooking energy choices and quantifies gender differentials in clean-fuel adoption using nationally representative data from the EICV7 survey (2023–2024). A Multivariate Probit (MVP) model is first employed to capture the interdependence of multiple fuel choices, followed by an Exogenous Switching Treatment Effect Regression (ESTER) model to estimate treatment and heterogeneity effects between male- and female-headed households (MHHs and FHHs). Results reveal that education, income, and urban residence significantly increase clean-fuel adoption, while larger household size and low education sustain biomass dependence. MHHs exhibit a 14.4-percentage higher likelihood of adopting clean fuels than FHHs, reflecting both endowment and return inequalities. Rural–urban disaggregation shows deeper structural disadvantages for FHHs in rural areas, driven by limited credit access and lower institutional responsiveness. These findings highlight persistent gender gaps in energy transition outcomes, emphasizing the need for dual-track interventions: enhancing women’s access to resources and improving the institutional returns to those resources through targeted financing, gender-responsive energy programs, and decentralized clean-energy initiatives.
Ngango et al. (Sun,) studied this question.