Gender and Development: Rwandan Women and Post-Genocide Development
By Sarah Doyle
The issue of gender is extremely important to the study of international development today. In the past the issues of gender and development were considered separately, but as we developed from ‗women in development‘ (WID) to ‗gender and development‘ (GAD), the two have been considered as interconnected pieces to the puzzle of development and social,
economic, and political change. As the Northern hemisphere has become less vocal in the international gender debate, the South has stepped up and has changed the gender and development approach to one based on the acquisition of rights. This
change to a ‗rights-based‘ approach has allowed for significant mobilization and change in transnational movements, the State, and productive work.
Though they still are not equal to men, Rwandan women have improved their position in all public sectors of society, which is more of an exception than the rule when discussing the suc-cess of women‘s transnational movements, pres-ence in government, and progress in productive work. Though Rwandan women are still often expected to maintain their gendered roles in the private sphere, the home, they have been afforded the opportunity to challenge gender roles and responsibilities in the public sphere, notably in government and business.
Rwandan Women and post-genocide development
Following the Genocide, Rwanda had a population that was seventy percent female, which challenged the traditional patriarchal organization of society. There were not enough men to fill what were traditionally ‗male‘ roles in society, where women were primarily housewives growing food for their family and raising the children. The women did not just recognize that they might have to assume a new role in society, but they demanded it.
The Constitution stipulates that women must fill thirty-percent of all parliament seats. What is interesting though is that in
the first election Rwandan society responded and elected a parliament that was fifty-six-percent female. In 2010, one third of President Paul Kagame‘s cabinet was also female. Additionally, women have started mobilizing in other sectors outside gov-ernment, taking on more economic responsibility and filling jobs and roles that were left vacant by men. Today, thirty-percent of households are female-headed, which is surprising considering the patriarchal tendencies of Rwandan culture.
Rwandan Women and the gender and development debate
In Rwanda they used this rights-based approach to organize along with other women‘s groups and international organizations in the region to help them recover from the genocide. The Federation of African Women‘s Peace Networks (FERFAP), based in Kigali, played a very important role in helping women organize post-genocide. The organization is a coalition of peace movements and networks from sixteen countries with its main goal ―to contribute to the coordination, rationalization, and development of activi-ties that support women‘s full and effective par-ticipation in conflict prevention, management resolution in Africa‖ (Dirasse 2000). The women of all the other regional peace movements helped the Rwandan women organize and mobilize based on their own experiences.
A decade after the genocide, they partici-pated in the Great Lakes Regional Women‘s Meeting, which produced the Kigali Declaration. The Declaration was a departure from women‘s regional movements; it not only outlined the Great Lakes feminist agenda, but also took a gender-neutral political stand on arms prolifera-tion, demobilization, and democracy – three major issues for Rwanda and other countries in the region. This represented a departure from a sim-ple rights-based approach to the formation of a political identity of women working for the bet-terment of all. FERFAP was successful because it appealed to gender as universal, while still addressing the shared values and goals through differences. The Kigali Declaration does a similar thing, addressing the shared values of the region, but also departs from the feminist social move-ments and shows that women have the capacity to act as political representatives independent of their personal identities.
Women and the State
Though the Constitution only requires thirty percent of seats to be filled by women, the public has voluntarily elected a fifty-six percent female Parliament providing women with a greater presence than men, making Rwanda the only country in the world with a female majority in parliament. Despite some instances when the female legislators have voiced feelings of not be-ing treated as equals by their male colleagues, they have been able to adopt legislation against the patriarchal standards of society. Rwanda is moving towards a society in which ―male domina-tion is rejected and sex-gender differences are believed to be small, [which changes] gender ideology toward equal or equivalent treatment‖(Dirasse 2000).
Female parliament members have successfully lobbied for and adopted legislation to abol-ish many patriarchal laws that still exist in most African countries. They have made it so women can inherit land and recover land that belonged to their family before the war. Parliament members, along with local women‘s organizations, also successfully lobbied for legislation to destroy a statue of a woman holding a child on her hip and a jug of water on her head. In its place they commissioned a statue of a strong woman standing alone holding the hand of a young boy (this is the statue in the center of the roundabout at
the convention center on the way to the Peace Corps office). This is a strong representation of the shift-ing opinion of women as reproductive workers to strong, powerful women who can stand alone and nurture their children at the same time. The fact that women can work in and through government to push their agenda is certainly an exception; Okonjo argues that
women‘s progress depends on indirect approaches through social movements because of their inability to permeate the barriers of government. Rwandan women haveone the opposite; they have achieved parliamentary repre-sentation, while
government and social move-ments work together to formulate legislation.
Women and Productive Work
Because so many men were killed during the genocide, women have been forced to take over a large number of ‗male‘ jobs that they were previously excluded from. Thanks to training provided by UNICEF and other international NGOs who recognized the importance of women in the post-genocide Rwanda, women have received the business and financial training necessary to manage businesses that the men were pre-viously responsible for. ―People never used to think that women were able business women or able business managers. We have proved that women can be and perhaps can even do it better than men,‖ said Janet Nkibana, the co-founder of Gahaya Links, a basket weaving cooperative that exports up to 50,000 baskets annually.
Women are now balancing their reproduc-tive and productive roles in society. The change of the statue in Kigali represents this perfectly. Women are no longer solely reproductive beings; they still hold the hand of and guide their children, but they also stand alone and function in a more independent role as productive members of society. As in most developing countries, women were responsible for growing the food their family ate, while today women are working in industries that allow them to have the buying power of men and to provide health care, food, and educa-tion to their children.
Conclusion
The success of women in Rwanda certainly provides interesting insight into the politics and study of gender and
development. Though Rwanda has gone against the general trend in its strong support for women in all sectors, one has to question why this happened. It is difficult to say one way or another what exactly has led to the successes in Rwanda, but I would argue that having an abnormally large population of women certainly helped, especially considering that a large portion of the male population was killed in the war and women were left to fill their shoes. But with so many women in government, in the workplace, and mobilizing society, one has to wonder what the future holds for men and whether they will become the discriminated sex in the future.
There is great concern that because of the attention given to gender balance, educating girls, and an increased presence of women in gov-ernment and leadership positions, there will be a reversed gender problem in the future. Unfortunately, due to the emphasis by the government and NGOs to educate girls and provide them with greater opportunities when families used to send their sons to school and keep the girls home, the opposite is now happening. Girls are going to school and families are choosing to keep their sons at home because they cannot afford for them to attend secondary school and the school fees that come with it. It will be important to really emphasize gender balance and giving equal opportunities to boys and girls and men and women because if one gender receives too much support, while the other is left to maintain the status quo,
progress might appear to have been achieved, while in a reality it has just been a reversal of gendered circumstances.
Sources:
Beneria, Lourdes and Marta Roldan. 1987. The Crossroads of Class and Gender: Homework, Subcontracting, and Household Dynamics in Mexico City. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (Chapter 3: ―Subcontracting links and the dynamics of women‘s employment‖)
Momsen, Janel Henshall. Gender and Development. Oxon: Routledge, 2004
Okonjo, Kamene. 1994. ―Reversing the Marginalization of the Invisible and Silent Majority: Women in Politics in Ni-geria.‖
Women and Politics Worldwide. New Haven.
Swider, Sarah. ―Working Women of the World Unite? La-bor Organizing and Transnational
Gender Solidarity among Domestic Workers in Hong Kong,‖ in Ferree, Myra Marx and Aili Mari Tripp.
Global Feminism: Transnational Women’s Activism, Organizing, and Human Rights. New York, New York University Press, 2006, pp. 110-140.
Tripp, Aili Mari. ―The Evolution of Transnational Femi-nisms: Consensus, Conflict, and New Dynamics,‖ in Ferree, Myra Marx and Aili Mari Tripp.
Global Feminism: Transna-tional Women’s Activism, Organizing, and Human Rights. New York, New York University Press, 2006, pp. 51-75.
Rwanda Sources:
Women‘s International League for Peace and Freedom. http://www.peacewomen.org/WPS/Rwanda.html
Dirasse, Laketch. ―The Gender Dimension of Making Peace in Africa.‖ The Acronym Institute. Issue No. 48, July 2000.
http://www.acronym.org.uk/dd/dd48/48gender.htm
McCrummen, Stephanie. ―Women Run the Show in a Re-covering Rwanda.‖
Washington Post. October 27, 2008. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/26/AR2008102602197.html?sid=ST2008051504314
Vopini, Lauren. ―Development: Peace Baskets Bring Hope to Rwandan Women.‖
Inter Press Service News Agency. August 31, 2008. http://ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=43740
economic, and political change. As the Northern hemisphere has become less vocal in the international gender debate, the South has stepped up and has changed the gender and development approach to one based on the acquisition of rights. This
change to a ‗rights-based‘ approach has allowed for significant mobilization and change in transnational movements, the State, and productive work.
Though they still are not equal to men, Rwandan women have improved their position in all public sectors of society, which is more of an exception than the rule when discussing the suc-cess of women‘s transnational movements, pres-ence in government, and progress in productive work. Though Rwandan women are still often expected to maintain their gendered roles in the private sphere, the home, they have been afforded the opportunity to challenge gender roles and responsibilities in the public sphere, notably in government and business.
Rwandan Women and post-genocide development
Following the Genocide, Rwanda had a population that was seventy percent female, which challenged the traditional patriarchal organization of society. There were not enough men to fill what were traditionally ‗male‘ roles in society, where women were primarily housewives growing food for their family and raising the children. The women did not just recognize that they might have to assume a new role in society, but they demanded it.
The Constitution stipulates that women must fill thirty-percent of all parliament seats. What is interesting though is that in
the first election Rwandan society responded and elected a parliament that was fifty-six-percent female. In 2010, one third of President Paul Kagame‘s cabinet was also female. Additionally, women have started mobilizing in other sectors outside gov-ernment, taking on more economic responsibility and filling jobs and roles that were left vacant by men. Today, thirty-percent of households are female-headed, which is surprising considering the patriarchal tendencies of Rwandan culture.
Rwandan Women and the gender and development debate
In Rwanda they used this rights-based approach to organize along with other women‘s groups and international organizations in the region to help them recover from the genocide. The Federation of African Women‘s Peace Networks (FERFAP), based in Kigali, played a very important role in helping women organize post-genocide. The organization is a coalition of peace movements and networks from sixteen countries with its main goal ―to contribute to the coordination, rationalization, and development of activi-ties that support women‘s full and effective par-ticipation in conflict prevention, management resolution in Africa‖ (Dirasse 2000). The women of all the other regional peace movements helped the Rwandan women organize and mobilize based on their own experiences.
A decade after the genocide, they partici-pated in the Great Lakes Regional Women‘s Meeting, which produced the Kigali Declaration. The Declaration was a departure from women‘s regional movements; it not only outlined the Great Lakes feminist agenda, but also took a gender-neutral political stand on arms prolifera-tion, demobilization, and democracy – three major issues for Rwanda and other countries in the region. This represented a departure from a sim-ple rights-based approach to the formation of a political identity of women working for the bet-terment of all. FERFAP was successful because it appealed to gender as universal, while still addressing the shared values and goals through differences. The Kigali Declaration does a similar thing, addressing the shared values of the region, but also departs from the feminist social move-ments and shows that women have the capacity to act as political representatives independent of their personal identities.
Women and the State
Though the Constitution only requires thirty percent of seats to be filled by women, the public has voluntarily elected a fifty-six percent female Parliament providing women with a greater presence than men, making Rwanda the only country in the world with a female majority in parliament. Despite some instances when the female legislators have voiced feelings of not be-ing treated as equals by their male colleagues, they have been able to adopt legislation against the patriarchal standards of society. Rwanda is moving towards a society in which ―male domina-tion is rejected and sex-gender differences are believed to be small, [which changes] gender ideology toward equal or equivalent treatment‖(Dirasse 2000).
Female parliament members have successfully lobbied for and adopted legislation to abol-ish many patriarchal laws that still exist in most African countries. They have made it so women can inherit land and recover land that belonged to their family before the war. Parliament members, along with local women‘s organizations, also successfully lobbied for legislation to destroy a statue of a woman holding a child on her hip and a jug of water on her head. In its place they commissioned a statue of a strong woman standing alone holding the hand of a young boy (this is the statue in the center of the roundabout at
the convention center on the way to the Peace Corps office). This is a strong representation of the shift-ing opinion of women as reproductive workers to strong, powerful women who can stand alone and nurture their children at the same time. The fact that women can work in and through government to push their agenda is certainly an exception; Okonjo argues that
women‘s progress depends on indirect approaches through social movements because of their inability to permeate the barriers of government. Rwandan women haveone the opposite; they have achieved parliamentary repre-sentation, while
government and social move-ments work together to formulate legislation.
Women and Productive Work
Because so many men were killed during the genocide, women have been forced to take over a large number of ‗male‘ jobs that they were previously excluded from. Thanks to training provided by UNICEF and other international NGOs who recognized the importance of women in the post-genocide Rwanda, women have received the business and financial training necessary to manage businesses that the men were pre-viously responsible for. ―People never used to think that women were able business women or able business managers. We have proved that women can be and perhaps can even do it better than men,‖ said Janet Nkibana, the co-founder of Gahaya Links, a basket weaving cooperative that exports up to 50,000 baskets annually.
Women are now balancing their reproduc-tive and productive roles in society. The change of the statue in Kigali represents this perfectly. Women are no longer solely reproductive beings; they still hold the hand of and guide their children, but they also stand alone and function in a more independent role as productive members of society. As in most developing countries, women were responsible for growing the food their family ate, while today women are working in industries that allow them to have the buying power of men and to provide health care, food, and educa-tion to their children.
Conclusion
The success of women in Rwanda certainly provides interesting insight into the politics and study of gender and
development. Though Rwanda has gone against the general trend in its strong support for women in all sectors, one has to question why this happened. It is difficult to say one way or another what exactly has led to the successes in Rwanda, but I would argue that having an abnormally large population of women certainly helped, especially considering that a large portion of the male population was killed in the war and women were left to fill their shoes. But with so many women in government, in the workplace, and mobilizing society, one has to wonder what the future holds for men and whether they will become the discriminated sex in the future.
There is great concern that because of the attention given to gender balance, educating girls, and an increased presence of women in gov-ernment and leadership positions, there will be a reversed gender problem in the future. Unfortunately, due to the emphasis by the government and NGOs to educate girls and provide them with greater opportunities when families used to send their sons to school and keep the girls home, the opposite is now happening. Girls are going to school and families are choosing to keep their sons at home because they cannot afford for them to attend secondary school and the school fees that come with it. It will be important to really emphasize gender balance and giving equal opportunities to boys and girls and men and women because if one gender receives too much support, while the other is left to maintain the status quo,
progress might appear to have been achieved, while in a reality it has just been a reversal of gendered circumstances.
Sources:
Beneria, Lourdes and Marta Roldan. 1987. The Crossroads of Class and Gender: Homework, Subcontracting, and Household Dynamics in Mexico City. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (Chapter 3: ―Subcontracting links and the dynamics of women‘s employment‖)
Momsen, Janel Henshall. Gender and Development. Oxon: Routledge, 2004
Okonjo, Kamene. 1994. ―Reversing the Marginalization of the Invisible and Silent Majority: Women in Politics in Ni-geria.‖
Women and Politics Worldwide. New Haven.
Swider, Sarah. ―Working Women of the World Unite? La-bor Organizing and Transnational
Gender Solidarity among Domestic Workers in Hong Kong,‖ in Ferree, Myra Marx and Aili Mari Tripp.
Global Feminism: Transnational Women’s Activism, Organizing, and Human Rights. New York, New York University Press, 2006, pp. 110-140.
Tripp, Aili Mari. ―The Evolution of Transnational Femi-nisms: Consensus, Conflict, and New Dynamics,‖ in Ferree, Myra Marx and Aili Mari Tripp.
Global Feminism: Transna-tional Women’s Activism, Organizing, and Human Rights. New York, New York University Press, 2006, pp. 51-75.
Rwanda Sources:
Women‘s International League for Peace and Freedom. http://www.peacewomen.org/WPS/Rwanda.html
Dirasse, Laketch. ―The Gender Dimension of Making Peace in Africa.‖ The Acronym Institute. Issue No. 48, July 2000.
http://www.acronym.org.uk/dd/dd48/48gender.htm
McCrummen, Stephanie. ―Women Run the Show in a Re-covering Rwanda.‖
Washington Post. October 27, 2008. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/26/AR2008102602197.html?sid=ST2008051504314
Vopini, Lauren. ―Development: Peace Baskets Bring Hope to Rwandan Women.‖
Inter Press Service News Agency. August 31, 2008. http://ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=43740