Gendergelijkheid en empowerment vs. traditionalisme in post-genocide Rwanda: sluiten deze twee elkaar uit? Een uitgebreide literatuurstudie en analyse

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GENDER EQUALITY AND EMPOWERMENT VS

TRADITIONALISM IN POST-GENOCIDE

RWANDA: NOT AS MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE AS

THEY MAY SOUND?

AN EXTENSIVE LITERATURE REVIEW AND ANALYSIS

Aantal woorden: 24 296

Sara Salarkiya

Studentennummer: 01707189

Promotor: Prof. dr. Carine Plancke

Masterproef voorgelegd voor het behalen van de graad master in de African Studies

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PREAMBLE CORONA-CRISIS

It has been quite a year, and it is only June. As a mixed family from an Iranian background, the year had already started off rather strangely for us, with a looming world war between Iran and the U.S. When in March corona-virus hit our country, I had absolutely no doubt that it was not going to affect me, or anyone I knew and loved. My parents are in very good health, my sister and I are in our twenties, and so are all of our friends. My grandmother is rather young for a ‘grandmother’ and is in even better shape than some of my peers. When we went into lockdown mid-March, it only took ten days for us to realize that we had greatly overestimated our health. When my sister and brother-in-law became sick, it was very clear that some of us, if not all of us, would follow as we had been quarantined together. We all fell sick, with my mother and I showing high fevers. I suffered from a high fever for over a week. Luckily, no-one had to be taken to the hospital, but we all did display different symptoms and suffered from diverse aches. Me, personally, I have suffered tremendously from severe headaches, which, my doctor told me afterwards, was especially common in young people infected with Covid-19. These headaches prevented me greatly from working at my dissertation like I did during my previous master’s degree. I could not tolerate looking at a screen for more than two hours, which hampered the writing process in a considerable way. We also lost a family member to corona, which was especially hard on my mother.

I also work half-time as an interreligious networker in Antwerp, but as Covid-19 hit our home I had to hit pause on that as well. I restarted working from home at the end of April. I am very outdoorsy under normal circumstances, so being on my computer for both my daytime job and my dissertation hit me hard, mentally. When in mid-May, I finally felt like I had recovered and had restarted training for the Antwerp 10 Miles, it took me only two weeks to contract a knee injury, because my body had not yet recovered enough and clearly was not prepared for heavy training.

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However, I am thankful for all the opportunities and support I have received, and I recognize that my dissertation has not turned out to be what I, or my supervisor Professor Plancke, aspired it to be. The corona-crisis cannot be an excuse for that, and although it has played a big role in the writing process, I severely underestimated the amount of literature available on this topic, and I had difficulties making my way through it and selecting the most important things. Especially because I have no prior bachelor’s degree in African Studies (Afrikanistiek) so I had to figure a lot of stuff out that slowed my process down. I do want to explicitly thank Ghent University for the opportunity, for the deadline extension, and for the chance to write this preamble and explain the situation. Thank you.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

After having done two master’s degrees, I know quite a few students who complain about the supervision and coaching, or rather the lack thereof, they whether or not receive. I can honestly say with my hand on my heart that I have got nothing to complain about. Professor Plancke has not only always believed in my abilities, she has actively coached me into writing this thesis, although it has not turned out what both of us would have wanted –or had aspired– it to be. She has supported me, corrected some of my chapters, provided me with feedback and additional literature. I can in all honesty write that this thesis had never even happened without her help, and I would have probably given up by now. So thank you, Professor Plancke.

Next up are my parents and my younger sister, whom have supported me from the very beginning. When I told them I wanted to do an additional master’s degree in African Studies, they asked no questions and were onboard with whatever I wanted to achieve. I can only applaud them for being so understanding and patient with me and my academic aspirations. When I started this master’s degree in September 2018, I came home crying for a month, thinking I could never do this because I had absolutely no prior knowledge, or at least no active knowledge, about the African continent and everyone else in my class did. I thought I had overestimated myself. My parents and my sister, however, never doubted the fact that I was able to do this and came up with another motivational speech every night. The same goes for my grandmother, who is my biggest fan and she is my best friend in the world.

And last but not least, I would like to thank my incredible friends, and especially Aurelie, Janneke and Fien, for their unwavering encouragement, and their constant questions about the progress of my dissertation, even when I felt completely drowned in the literature, and had not written a

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word in a week. Even though I am pretty sure they had absolutely no clue what my thesis was actually about, they supported me through and through and I could not be any more thankful for them in my life. So, thank you, Professor Plancke, my parents and sister, my grandmother and my friends: I owe this to you.

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ABSTRACT

This dissertation focuses on the interconnectedness between gender, gender equality, gender empowerment and “traditional” practices in post-genocide Rwanda (1994-now). It will consider and discuss a certain amount of practices and themes in post-genocidal Rwanda that are often referred to as “traditional” as opposed to “modern” practices. It is generally believed that gender empowerment and gender equality go hand in hand with modernity rather than tradition. This dissertation will hopefully make clear that the distinction between modernity and tradition is not as binary as we might think and that a great deal of hybridization and reinterpretation takes place. Traditions are not as timeless and static as they are often perceived. Moreover, this extensive literature review will explain that modern measures are not always the only road to gender equality and empowerment. It will hopefully formulate a more comprehensive view of gender, sexuality, gender roles and traditionalism in contemporary Rwanda, that takes into account multiple views on gender equality while keeping in mind the specificity of the Rwandan situation.

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INTRODUCTION

Rwanda –or, officially the Republic of Rwanda– is a landlocked country on the continent of Africa, more specifically located in Central East-Africa. Its capital is Kigali and it is located approximately 2,000 kilometers from the Atlantic Ocean and 1,200 kilometers from the Indian Ocean (Izabiliza, 2003). It is populated by roughly 12,301,939 Rwandans (World Bank, 2018). From its most recent data, the World Bank (2018) declares that about 6,256,897 of these Rwandans are female. Which means that women make up a little over 50% of the Rwandan population. In 2003, this used to be 52.3% of the population (Izabiliza, 2003). Rwanda used to be a German colony until the end of the First World War, when it was “handed over” to Belgium, so it became a Belgian mandate until its independence in 1962. Precolonial Rwanda was a land where three populations lived together. They had acquired, over time, the same language, and their culture and religion overlapped greatly (Taylor, 1999). The Rwandan population thus existed of three groups: a Hutu majority, a Tutsi minority and the Twa people, who made up about 1% or less of the population. When European colonialism arrived to the country, first Germany and thereafter Belgium, distinctions between the three groups were made. Colonizers gave Rwandans identity cards which noted their ethnicity. Belgium ruled over Rwanda through indirect rule; which meant that they recruited Rwandan people on the ground to implement their rule. The Belgian government strongly favored the minority Tutsi people to occupy such positions (Burnet, 2009). After its independence (1962), Rwanda became a Hutu-led Republic, and violence against Tutsi became more prevalent (Sharlach, 1999).

Rwanda is most known for its horrifying genocide in 1994. Between April 6 and July 4 1994 (which lasted about 100 days), roughly 800,000 Rwandans lost their lives in a genocide planned and carried out by state authorities. Approximately three-quarters of the Tutsi population in the country died, alongside thousands of Hutu who opposed the killings, making it the swiftest genocide in history (Burnet, 2012). A lot of Tutsi fled the country to neighboring countries like Uganda, the DRC and Burundi. The genocide itself started

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when Hutu president Habyarimana’s plane was shot down on April 6, 1994. Accounts of the genocide are both complicated and contested, and scholars cite many diverse reasons, and there probably is not just one cause to be identified; there are many reasons that have caused the genocide, e.g. Western colonialism and favoritism, ancient ethnic hostility and present-day geopolitics (Burnett, 2005). The genocide came to an end when the RPF seized power in July, 1994.

This master’s dissertation does not, however, concentrate on the genocide, its causes, its ethno-gendered aspect, or its atrocities. This extensive literature review rather focuses on the period after the genocide, which means 1994 up until now. Apart from the focus on contemporary Rwanda, this research would also like to connect certain aspects prevalent in contemporary Rwanda, which is often seen as a “stable and peaceful” African state and is regarded as one of the most effectively governed states in Africa (Abbott & Malunda, 2016), to precolonial (and thus pre-genocidal) traditions and practices. Scholarship often positions “tradition” as opposed to “modernity” but the reality is often much more complex than that. This research would like to point out that traditions are ever-changing and dynamic, and contrary to what some scholars believe, they are not timeless. The main focus of the traditions discussed in this dissertation will have a gendered aspect. It will look at certain traditions and how gender, gender empowerment and gender equality cross-cuts through these practices. For Rwanda prides itself, and is praised by the international community, for championing gender equality and gender empowerment, but are these “modern” themes and is gender equality brought forth by and achieved only through modern measures, or are traditional practices able to reach and foster gender equality as well? This examination would like to point out that some “modern” measures do not necessarily mean an increase in gender equality or gender empowerment, at least not any more so than so-called “traditional” practices.

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It is crucial to state and acknowledge that even when researchers within the field of African Studies like I am one try to validate the specificity of an African experience, this is being done within the frameworks of European-derived categories, just like Oyèwùmí (1997) points out. I therefore find it essential to recognize the fact that by writing about gender in any society or setting, I write gender into that society. For this reason, I would like to follow Oyèwùmí’s (1997) statement that it cannot be overstated that in African studies, a careful evaluation of theories and concepts used is incorporated (which can be found in the theoretical framework). As she (1997) argues for a cultural, context-dependent interpretation of reality, it is imperative that this context includes the social identity of the researcher, the spatial and temporal location of the research and the debates that surround the themes in academic literature. I hope I have done the latter, but as for my social identity: I acknowledge that, as a white woman with a university degree obtained in Europe, albeit from a migrational background, my research domain is tricky and it is easy to fall into traps like Eurocentrism, Westernization, and making generalizations about the African continent. I would like to stress that I have paid attention to avoid falling into one of two ways to view African states and cultures: (1) studying African cultures in a way that uses seemingly ‘objective’ categories and theories, which are, in fact, bound to Western culture and (2) what Oyèwùmí (1997) calls the “mishmash theory of Africa”; the unbridled homogenization of African cultures. I have incorporated literature that focuses on other African cultures and countries, but only to make comparisons, not to homogenize Rwanda with other African countries; which is impossible and problematic.

This dissertation will consist of, apart from the preamble, the statement of acknowledgement, the abstract above and this introduction to the theme, an introductory explanation why this research focuses on Rwanda. After that, a methodology in which the manner of research will be outlined. Following is a theoretical framework that will firstly state the research question and thereafter will give a brief explanation for what is meant by ‘post-genocide’, ‘gender’ and its derivatives, ‘traditionalism’ and its

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‘reinterpretation’ or ‘hybridization’. These terms lie at the foundation of this dissertation and consequently need clarification. What follows is then a preliminary analysis of gender (in)equality in Rwanda, wherein different aspects of life are discussed aiming at painting an overall picture of the current state of affairs when it comes to gender equality in the daily life of Rwandan women. Then there will be a discussion on traditionalism, traditional practices, other themes like modernity. It is imperative nevertheless to keep in mind that the practices considered in this dissertation are not the only ones that continue to exist and change. The topics considered and discussed are limited due to word count and selection based on personal interest, but the listed practices and themes are in reality not at all limited to this. Traditionalism and its hybridization are much broader than this dissertation and are worthy of further research. After the discussion there will be a conclusion that precedes the last part of this dissertation, one can find the reference list with the works cited.

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WHY RWANDA?

Apart from a personal interest taken in gender empowerment and the country of Rwanda, Rwanda has an interesting scene when it comes to gender equality in the post-genocidal period. Rwanda is located in Central East Africa and is populated by over 12 million Rwandans. It is currently governed by President Paul Kagame, who has been in power since 1994. Since the Rwandan Patriotic Front (hereafter referred to as RPF) seized power in 1994, a multitude of steps have been taken to increase the representation and participation of women in both politics and public life. A Ministry of Gender was installed, quotas were instituted and gender equality became a spearhead in Rwandan policy (Burnet, 2008). Rwanda’s administration has strived for fundamental change in the country concerning gender equality (Berry, 2015).

Abbott and Malunda (2016) even speak of a “national gender machinery” that was installed in Rwanda. This machinery is constituted of the Ministry of Family Promotion, the Gender Monitoring Office and the National Women’s Council. All of these components have their own function: the Ministry is charged with the promotion of gender equity and the coordination of the implementation of the national gender policy. It also ensures an effective gender mainstreaming policy and the empowerment of Rwandan women. The Gender Monitoring Office oversees the monitoring and the evaluation of the implementation of gender policy and reports on progress made. The National Women’s Council safeguards the representation of the interests of women at all levels of Rwandan society. Gender policy is consequently implemented top-down in Rwanda. Aside from the 1994 genocide, Rwanda is also known for being the first country to reach the objective of having 50 per cent of female parliamentarians (Abbott & Malunda, 2016). According to several sources, among whom the UN Women, Rwanda became the top country for women in politics in the world. After the 2013 parliamentary elections, 64 per cent of parliamentary seats were occupied by women (UN Women, 2018). All of this information will certainly be discussed more in depth further on in this analysis.

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From an outside perspective, these all seem to be great measures and signals to enlarge the gender equality. The actions taken in regard to gender equality in Rwanda also pitchforks the country into being a “donor darling” (Ansoms & Rostagno, 2012) for the international community, which applauds the measures taken since the 1994 genocide. Gender equality and empowerment contribute to the ‘New Rwanda’ envisioned by the Rwandan government. The institutionalization of gender equality is a great step towards real gender empowerment, however, a number of scholars seem to think that an institutionalized, top-down gender policy does not have the desired results of gender equality and gender empowerment (Abbott, 2016; Ansoms & Rostagno, 2012; Burnet, 2008; Berry, 2015; Debusscher & Ansoms, 2013; Hogg, 2009). That is why in this literature review, gender (in)equality and gender empowerment in Rwanda will be studied and analyzed. Next to this analysis of gender empowerment and gender equality, the notions of gender and its derivatives will be critically questioned as well. Apart from the institutionalized steps towards gender equality and the notions of gender, this research will be looking at some Rwandan practices that are commonly conceptualized as ‘traditional’ in Western literature and how they, intentionally or not, also influence gender equality and gender empowerment, in a rather bottom-up way instead of a top-down way.

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METHODOLOGY

This thesis will be an analysis of an extensive amount of literature reviewed and the analysis will be about the relation between gender (in)equality and traditionalism in the post-genocidal period in Rwanda. The literature reviewed focused on a wide range of topics such as: gender relations, gender empowerment, gender equality and inequality, Western and African traditionalism and the hybridization and reinterpretation of it. These are examples of what some of the literature focused on, but the list is by no means limited to those themes. A great deal of the sources focused on either post-genocidal Rwanda, but some sources about the larger timeframe and the greater African region were also consulted in terms of the general theoretical framework in which this thesis takes place. The search for the works used and cited in this analysis passed essentially through Google Scholar and Web of Science. Apart from the academic literature found online, some sources were recommended to me by supervisor. Some of them were books as well, those were either read in full or certain parts of it were studied for this analysis. All of this literature and the works used and cited in this analysis can be found in the bibliography section at the end of this thesis.

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THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK: RESEARCH QUESTION & TERMS USED

As this research focuses on specific themes, such as gender empowerment and traditionalism, as it aims to answer a rather precise research question, it may be relevant to lay out some core concepts needed to grasp the overall answer to the following research question:

“Within the context of post-genocide Rwanda, can practices that are labeled in Western scholarship as “traditional” have an outcome that is conceived as “modern” in the form of an increase in gender equality and/or gender empowerment?”

Post-genocide Rwanda

This research not only takes place in the post-genocidal period, it also mainly focuses on that period in time in Rwanda. This does not at all mean that no comparisons will be made to either pre-genocidal Rwanda or that it does disregard the precolonial and colonial era in Rwanda. On the contrary, this research will try to connect the past and the present, while attempting to identify correlations, analogies and examples from the different eras. However, the central research question that is to be answered does focus on the present, post-genocidal era.

An extensive collection of literature was written on the 1994 Rwandan genocide and the period hereafter. It is therefore of importance to highlight and sketch the broad outlines of the genocide, so that it delineates the context in which this research takes place, without going too much into detail on the genocide itself.

Until 1962, Rwanda was governed by a Tutsi king, a mwami under the Belgian colonial supervision. However, the pastoralist Tutsi were a minority, constituting only 15 to 20 per cent of the population. Hutu agriculturalists constituted about 80 to 85 per cent of the population while a third group called Twa constituted about one or less per cent of the population. Under the Belgian colonial regime,

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Tutsi officials were favored over Hutu. During the 1950s some educated Hutu wanted a bigger governmental role in the Rwandan state controlled by the Belgians. Their campaign became increasingly successful and was aided by the Rwandan Catholic Church and later on by the Belgian colonial regime itself. In 1962, Rwanda became independent but a violent period lasted from 1959 until 1964. Thousands of Rwandans had emigrated during that period and these people wanted to relocate to Rwanda during the 1980s, but were met with limited substantive action from the Hutu Habyarimana regime. So they decided to relocate to Rwanda by force. The RPF invaded Rwanda coming from Uganda in October 1990 (Taylor, 1999).

The Arusha Accords were signed in Tanzania in August 1993, ending this violent conflict and these accorded Rwandan citizenship to the RPF as well as the right to permanent residence in Rwanda and the right to a role in the government. The implementation of these accords, however, ended in a culmination of violence when on April, 6 1994 President Habyarimana’s plane was shot down and the genocide started. The genocide continued for another three months and was finally won by the RPF by July 1994. During the genocide, approximately one million Rwandans lost their lives (Taylor, 1999; Burnet, 2012).

However, scholars do not seem to agree on the number of casualties, ranging from 500,000 to one million. So, in this thesis ‘post-genocide’ and ‘post-genocidal’ is used to designate the period after July 1994.

Colonial Rwanda means the period in which Rwanda was governed by consecutively Germany and Belgium.

This period starts in 1885 when Germany colonized Rwanda. Rwanda remained a German colony until after the First World War, until 1919. Thereafter, Rwanda became a Belgian mandate dating from 1922 until 1962. Precolonial Rwanda thus means everything before 1885.

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Gender, gender equality and empowerment

The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary defines ‘gender’ as follows:

“The fact of being male or female, especially when considered with reference to social and cultural differences, not differences in biology: issues of class, races and gender, traditional concepts of gender, gender differences/relations/roles” (OALD, 2010)

When looking for a commonly accepted definition of gender equality and gender empowerment, scholars tend to look at the United Nations. The support for the rights of women that the UN advertises began with the Organization's founding Charter. Among the purposes of the UN declared in Article 1 of its Charter is:

“To achieve international co-operation […] in promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion.” (UN,

2020)

A year after the establishment of the UN (1946), the Economic and Social Council created its Commission

on the Status of Women, functioning as the main, global policy-making body devoted exclusively to gender

equality and the advancement of women. In 1948, the UN reaffirms that:

“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights and everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, … birth or other status.” (UN, 2020)

In 1979, the General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination

against Women (CEDAW), which is regularly depicted as the International Bill of Rights for Women. The

UN currently focuses its global development work on the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (hereafter referred to as the SDGs). Women have been accorded an essential role to play in all of the SDGs, with targets established that specifically recognize women’s equality and empowerment as both the goal, and a part of the solution. Goal 5 (“gender equality”) out of the 17 SDGs is to:

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This is objective is known as the “gender goal”, because it is devoted to achieving gender equality and female empowerment. Profound legal and legislative changes are needed to ensure women’s rights globally. While 143 countries guaranteed gender equality in their Constitutions (which is a record) by 2014, another 52 had not yet undertaken this action (UN, 2020). According to the UN (2020), strong gender discrepancies remain in both economic and political realms. However, Goal 5 remains rather vague on what gender equality means in concrete terms or tangible numbers. Therefore, it can be interesting to take another look at an organization that aims for gender equality: the European Institute for Gender Equality. On their site gender equality is defined as follows:

“Equality does not mean that women and men will become the same but that women’s and men’s rights, responsibilities and opportunities will not depend on whether they are born female or male. Gender equality implies that the interests, needs and priorities of both women and men are taken into consideration, thereby recognising the diversity of different groups of women and men. Gender equality is not a women’s issue but should concern and fully engage men as well as women. Equality between women and men is seen both as a human rights issue and as a precondition for, and indicator of, sustainable people-centred development.” (EIGE, 2020)

A Western vs an African understanding

Both the United Nations and the European Institute for Gender Equality are Western institutions, which, perhaps partly and/or unintentionally, results in Western formulations and thought processes. That is why it is thought-provoking to look at how gender and gender equality is conceptualized through an African lens, especially because this research focuses on a country in Central East Africa.

According to Oyèwùmí (1997), the woman question is a Western-derived issue. The fundamental category “woman” (which is foundational in Western gender discourses) simply did not exist in Yorubaland prior to its contact with the Western world. Western social categories are according to her therefore based in an

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ideology of biological determinism; the notion that biology provides the rationale for the organization of the social world. This cultural logic then becomes what she calls a “bio-logic”. Social categories like “woman” are based on body-type and are opposed to another category: that of “man”. She does not argue that the body is not very corporeal in Yoruba communities, but she does assert that the body –prior to contact with the West– was not the foundation for social roles, in- or exclusions and it was not the basis for social thought and identity. The role and the influence of Western scholarship is consequently of utmost importance, because most African societies came under European rule one way or another. Western assumptions were assumed as universal and even post-independence, the West continued to dominate the production of knowledge.

Oyèwùmí (1997) continues to assert that in the Yoruba-case, before colonization, the human body did not need to be constituted as gendered or was not used for social classification at all times. In the precolonial era, body-type simply was not the foundation for social hierarchy: men and women were not “ranked” according to anatomic distinction. Gender was frankly just not inherent in human and social organization. This does not mean that Yoruba-society was not hierarchically structured; it was, just like a lot of other societies. The ranking of individuals did just not depend on gender, it did take into account seniority. Social positions were not static but were dynamic and could change in relation to those with whom someone was interacting. Social identity was relational and was not at all essentialized. Her argument comes down to this: in the precolonial era, there was no such thing as a “woman” (defined in the strictly gendered terms). The concept of “woman” is a derivative of Western experience and history. A history that is rooted in philosophical discourses about the distinctions among body, mind, and soul and is founded in an idea of biological determinism (Oyèwùmí, 1997).

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The consequence is that even when African academics seek to validate the particularity of an African experience, they do so inside the European framework and within European-derived categories of knowledge. As a result, by writing about gender within a society, scholars necessarily write gender into that society (Oyèwùmí, 1997).

When later on, feminist scholars assert that gender is a social construct, there had to be a time and a space when and where it was constructed. There had to be a specific moment and therefore a time before which it was not. The fact that gender is a social construct is also a historical and cultural phenomenon. Therefore, it is somewhat logical to assume that in some societies, gender construction may have not existed at all (Oyèwùmí, 1997).

Of course would making easy generalizations about a multitude of African societies and cultures mean to fall in a common trap of unwarranted homogenization, and it is therefore important to critically assess the terms ‘gender’ and ‘woman’ and to bear in mind that these are not inherently natural concepts in whatever society. A preconceived notion of gender as universal is problematic (Oyèwùmí, 1997).

The same goes for the word ‘feminism’: though feminism in its origin and even by definition and practice may be a universalizing discourse, the concerns and the questions it poses have been informed by Western knowledge and experience. Despite the globalization of feminism, the Western nuclear family lies at the heart of it. It provides the foundation for much of feminist theory. Three essential concepts of feminism; woman, gender and sisterhood, have roots in the nuclear family from where they were born. The nuclear family is a gendered family, which constitutes a single-family household that consists of a subordinated wife, a patriarchal husband and children. The nuclear family, however, is an European and American form. It is not a universal concept. Even more, the nuclear family remains absent in many African cultures

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(Oyèwùmí, 2002). According to Oyèwùmí (1997), feminism continues to be enframed by the tunnel vision and the “bio-logic” of other Western discourses. Embracing the West is according to her (1997) not a new phenomenon; the idea that Africa is able to make a choice about whether or not to embrace the West is a displaced metaphor; for Oyèwùmí (1997) Africa is already locked in an embrace with the West. The challenge lies in how to extricate and how much. The meaning of African feminism has thus been up for debate for a long time. Osirim (in Ndulo & Grieco, p. 95, 2009) writes that:

“African feminism combines racial, sexual, class and cultural dimensions of oppression to produce a more exclusive brand of feminism through which women are viewed first and foremost as human, rather than sexual beings. […] African feminism is, in short, humanistic feminism… intrinsically a moral and political statement for human survival and well-being. ”

Traditionalism & modernity

When returning to the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, ‘traditionalism’ means:

“The belief that customs and traditions are more important for a society than modern ideas.” (OALD, 2010)

And these are the derivative definitions listed for respectively ‘traditional’ and ‘traditionalist’:

“Being part of the beliefs, customs or a way of life of a particular group of people, that have not changed for a long time, or following older methods and ideas rather than modern or different ones.” (OALD, 2010)

“A person who prefers tradition to modern ideas or ways of doing things.” (OALD, 2010)

Modernism and modernity are defined as follows according to the Oxford Dictionary:

“Modern ideas or methods, new and intended to be different from traditional styles, contemporary.”

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The age of modernity has been defined by a certain number of historical moments and processes that include the Atlantic Slave Trade, slavery, and European colonization. Modernity is associated with the development of capitalism and industrialization. The establishment of nation states and the growth of inequality as well have characterized modernity. A lot of social and cultural transformations have happened, too, of which the stratification of societies along the axes of gender and race are probably the most visible ones (Oyèwùmí, 2002).

It is possible to deduce or at least suspect from these definitions that the dictionary values the “modern ideas or ways of doing things” more highly than traditionalism. If this is not the case, then notably, ‘traditionalism’ is always used as the opposite of ‘modern’. It is therefore imperative in this research to critically question the notion of “modern ideas and ways of doing things” and so this dissertation will analyze if and how certain practices that would be labeled as ‘traditional’ by certain Western institutions can still influence and foster, whether or not positively, gender equality and empowerment. This way, this analysis will attempt to approach traditionalism beyond the Western notion of it, and will try to create and establish its own interpretation based on the practices that will be reviewed in this thesis.

The re-interpretation and hybridization of traditionalism

As stated above, in Western discourse, traditionalism is often used as the opposite of modernism. This research will try to provide examples of how what would internationally be labeled as ‘traditional practices’ in Rwanda can have a modern outcome in the form of an increase in gender equality and/or gender empowerment. Therefore, some of the practices reviewed in this analysis will have been re-interpreted and adapted to the ‘New Rwanda’ (see later) and/or have become a hybridization of traditions. This will also tie in with the statements made earlier, namely that this research will try to identify connections and correlations between the past and the present. The objective of a ‘New Rwanda’ as envisioned by the

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Rwandan government also articulates this dichotomy of traditionalism vs modernism, as they consider legal and legislative measures to achieve gender equality and gender empowerment as one of the biggest parts of their social justice policy. However, this policy is implemented top-down, and that is why it will be interesting to look at re-interpreted or hybrid practices that may promote gender equality bottom-up.

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GENDER (IN)EQUALITY IN RWANDA

This chapter will lay out the progress made regarding gender equality in Rwanda, while simultaneously trying to identify if there are any, and if so where to find discrepancies between theory and reality. It will so try to pinpoint both the improvements and the pressure points. This is in fact a preliminary analysis of the state of affairs regarding gender (in)equality in contemporary Rwanda. For reasons of clarity, this chapter focuses on steps taken towards gender equality during the post-genocidal period, thus from 1994 up until now.

“With regards to empowering women and promoting their socio-economic and political participation, we continue to make modest progress. We believe that, besides improving gender relations in our country, this makes healthy progress towards realizing our vision of a united, democratic and prosperous Rwanda.” – Paul Kagame at the 63rd_{United Nations Assembly in New}

York, September 2008

How do we measure gender (in)equality?

Rwanda has become a “donor darling” because of its “stable and peaceful” government (Abbott & Malunda, 2016) and is loved by the international community and as a result receives a lot of international support and aid (Ansoms & Rostagno, 2012), it can be of importance to think about and examine why this is the case. That is why –when looking at gender equality in Rwanda– the definitions, goals, explanations and facts and figures from the UN are often used as a reference point. This would demonstrate that if, in theory, Rwanda can achieve the formalistic goals and reach the assumed standard set by an in origins a huge Western institution, albeit over time have globalized and having been accepted as an international institution, like the UN, it can be no surprise it has bombarded itself to a “donor-darling”-state. It therefore merits attention to look beyond the benchmark set by a Western institute like the UN, but if we want to look beyond it, we first have to compare it to the current Rwandan situation.

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This chapter will hopefully demonstrate how a state can formally comply to almost all the standards set by both international as well as national actors, but still continues to fail to achieve genuine and durable gender equality. Theory and reality are often as far from each other removed as possible.

An introductory clarification: Vision 2020, “New Rwanda” and National Gender

Policy

Apart from the western benchmark kept in mind, it is useful to look at internal and Rwandan-national-led objectives and standards as well. That is why this chapter also acknowRwandan-national-ledges and incorporates the Rwandan Vision 2020-plan (2000), the notion of a “New Rwanda” and the National Gender Policy (2010). It is necessary and essential though, to bear in mind that Vision 2020 and the National Gender Policy were both established with reference to international guidelines and directives. The fragment of President Kagame’s speech that is quoted above at the beginning of this chapter was delivered at a UN Conference where Rwanda ratified treaties regarding gender equality. The internal and national policies concerning gender, as a result, do not emerge out of thin air and are interwoven and interconnected with the international arena, which is in huge part an explanation for the “donor-darling” status Rwanda holds (Abott & Malunda, 2016).

Vision 2020

The report-plan regarding Vision 2020 was published in 2000 by the Ministry of Finance and Economic planning from the Republic of Rwanda. This plan is, according to the document itself:

“[…] a result of a national consultative process […]. There was a broad consensus on the necessity for Rwandans to clearly define the future of the country.”

The major aspiration of Vision 2020 is the transformation of Rwanda’s economy into a middle-income country which requires an annual growth rate of at least 7% (Ministry of Finance and Economic

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Planning, 2000). However, the Ministry (2000) recognizes that economic growth alone will not be sufficient to bring about the required rise in the living-standard of the population. Vision 2020 therefore:

“[…] aspires for Rwanda to become a modern, strong and united nation, proud of its fundamental values, politically stable and without discrimination amongst its citizens.”

As some sort of consensus, the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning (2000) defines Vision 2020 as follows:

“Vision 2020 is to be achieved in a spirit of social cohesion and equity, underpinned by a capable state. Rwanda’s ongoing development will have, at its core, the Nation’s principal asset – its people.”

When looking at what Vision 2020 has in mind for gender equality, we find that Vision 2020 is committed to gender equality because it is treated as both an objective as well as a cross-cutting area that needs to be kept in mind at every stage of the process. Gender equality will be achieved as follows in the Vision 2020 document (Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, 2000):

“In order to achieve gender equality and equity, Rwanda will continuously update and adapt its laws on gender. It will support education for all, eradicate all forms of discrimination, fight against poverty and practice a positive discrimination policy in favor of women. Gender will be integrated as a cross-cutting issue in all development policies and strategies.”

“New Rwanda”

This Vision 2020-plan will help Rwanda become the “New Rwanda” that leans on six pillars: (1) good governance and a capable state, (2) human resource development and a knowledge based economy, (3), a private sector-led economy, (4) infrastructure development, (5) productive and market oriented agriculture and (6) regional and international economic integration. Apart from these “pillars” there are three cross-cutting areas of Vision 2020 as well that will be necessary to eventually transform Rwanda into the “New Rwanda”: (1) gender equality, (2) protection of environment and sustainable natural resource

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management and (3) science and technology, including ICT (Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, 2000).

National Gender Policy

Apart from the general plans like Vision 2020, the Rwandan Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion (hereafter referred to as MIGEPROF) made a National Gender Policy as well (2010). This policy document is trans-sectoral in nature and provides overarching principles towards an integrated gender equality in policies, practices and programs. In addition to Vision 2020, the National Gender Policy will be a tool that will facilitate gender equality and equal opportunities between men and women, boys and girls, in every sector (MIGEPROF, 2010). The National Gender Policy’s vision is to set Rwandan society free from all forms of discrimination based on gender and to ensure that men and women are able to fully participate and to enjoy equitably from the development made. Its mission is to adhere to the elimination of gender inequalities in all aspects of life. The objective of the National Gender Policy is to promote gender equality and equity in Rwanda through defined processes, policies and programs where gender equality and equity is mainstreamed, implemented, monitored, evaluated and coordinated (MIGEPROF, 2010).

The centrality of gender equality is highlighted by this policy-document and is often underpinned by President Paul Kagame. The achievement of the goal of gender equality is the reason why, already in 2004, a first version of a National Gender Policy was put in place. MIGEPROF (2010) lists key achievements in gender equality and women’s empowerment, such as poverty reduction, access to education, access to health, the fight against violence against women, women in economy and women in decision-making. This chapter will examine these key achievements, and bottlenecks, if there are any.

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Gender (in)equality: politics & decision-making

According to the UN Women (2020), only 24.3% of all parliamentary seats worldwide are held by women, as of February 2019. A slight increase of 11.3% can be noticed in 1995. In June 2019, the UN Women counted 11 women who served as head of the state and 12 women who served as the head of the government. There are 27 states where women hold less than 10% of the parliamentary seats in the single or lower houses. There are three chambers with no women at all. The UN Women site also separately

remarks that Rwanda holds the highest number of female parliamentarians globally, where

women hold 61.3% of seats in the lower house (UN Women, 2020).

The UN General Assembly on women’s political participation indicates that:

“Women in every part of the world continue to be largely marginalized from the political sphere, often as a result of discriminatory practices, attitudes and gender stereotypes, low levels of education, lack of access to health care and the disproportionate effect of poverty on women.” (UN

Women, 2020)

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) measured gender equality partly through parliamentary participation of women. The UN Women claims to advocate for legislative and constitutional reforms to make sure that women have fair access to the political sphere in all its forms, be it as voters, candidates, elected officials and civil service members. They collaborate with the UN country teams and work with the civil society on programs so that elections uphold women’s rights, including the right to vote and to campaign free from electoral violence. The UN calls on their member states to review the impact of the political scene on their female constituents and to adjust if needed.

The UN claims to not only encourage their member states to review and adjust their political scene, but also to remove obstacles that directly or indirectly discriminate women in participating in the political

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sphere, and to adopt systems and policies to make the participation of women in politics possible. The UN also highlights its commitment to the greater participation and involvement of:

“[…] women who may be marginalized, including indigenous women, women with disabilities, women from rural areas, and women of any ethnic, cultural or religious minority.” (UN

Women, 2020).

The Rwandan government has launched a number of programs that are supposed to bring about this desired participation. One of these is called “performance contracting” or “imihigo” which tends to involve the population in the formulation, implementation and monitoring of national policies. Every head of the household signs a contract committing to reach a number of detailed targets (Hasselskog, 2015). Despite the fact that these policies do entail participation when it comes to implementation, they do not entail participation when it comes to formulation or monitoring. Hasselskog (2015) concludes therefore that programs like imihigo do increase the efficiency and boost the government legitimacy, they do not provide for local relevance or empowerment.

To increase female representation on the political level, Rwanda has instituted gender quotas in all decision-making bodies. Burnet (2008) asserts that through gender quotas, women’s political participation has increased dramatically because of gender quotas across the continent in Africa, but also especially in Rwanda. In the 2003 constitution, 30% of the parliamentary seats and all other decision-making institutions were set aside, reserved for women (Hunt, 2014). At the beginning of 2007, President Paul Kagame was elected winner of the 2007 African Gender Award. This ideological support for gender equality and women’s rights has resulted in a great deal of support from the international community for the RPF-regime led by Paul Kagame.

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Although an increased female political participation paves the way for a more meaningful and genuine democracy in the future, this increase has resulted in a number of negative consequences: it has resulted in a loss of human capital from dynamic civil society organizations, leaving the existing women’s organizations with fewer experienced leaders as they left for parliament or other decision-making bodies. The departure of these women has also led to a more difficult cooperation between these women in government and the civil society organizations they left behind, that felt as if their ex-leaders were no longer interested in activism and women’s interests. The increase of women’s participation in government may also be used by political leaders to legitimize their agendas. However, it is complex to prove this to be factual (Burnet, 2008).

According to Abbott and Malunda (2016), the advancement of women encompasses key mechanisms as

positive discrimination, rules and laws, empowerment and redistribution of

resources. Despite Rwanda’s dedication to female participation in politics, some academics are not convinced that these government policies have had the desired empowerment and emancipation of Rwandese women. Abbott and Malunda (2016) say that most women have hardly benefited from the higher female representation in parliament. Moreover, they find that the high political participation and representation of women in the Rwandan parliament was not yet translated into legislative advancements. According to them (2016), Rwandan parliamentarians rarely rally around “women’s issues” and often they vote for policies that curtail legal protection for women or eliminate female-friendly legislation, e.g. a law that reduces and shortens maternity leave. Notwithstanding, according to Bauer and Burnet (2013), advocates for the increase of female political participation in parliament will represent women’s interests.

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Nevertheless, some women-friendly laws were introduced in the post-genocidal era, new inheritance and land laws accord women the same rights as men when it comes to owning and inheriting property and land. A Law on Gender Based Violence was adopted in 2008 and a Labor Law in 2009. These laws try to at least establish some sort of gender equality, according equal pay for equal work and protection for pregnant women and nursing mothers. An Inheritance Law as well was passed, which made it legal for women not only to inherit property, but also to enter contracts, to seek paid jobs and to open bank accounts. However, this law had not been passed without the hard work of women’s civil society organizations and activists. The Inheritance Law was adopted well before women were a majority in parliament (Burnet, 2008). Despite these laws, no incorporation in the law is made to prohibit direct or indirect discrimination of women. There is also little protection to be found for women who work in the informal sector (partly because there is a lack of labor inspectors) and bride price continues to be allowed (Abbott & Malunda, 2016). According to Bauer and Burnet (2013) and Burnet (2008), the increased female political participation may not have led to the desired legislative gains, but it does alter gendered ideas and the roles of women and men in society, making it possible to think of women as political actors, both as voters and as political stakeholders.

According to Bauer and Burnet (2013), the effect of gender quotas and the increased female participation in Rwandan politics has been mixed. That is in part because the laws mentioned above targeting women’s rights were adopted even before the government introduced gender quotas in 2003. Even the classification of rape and/or sexual torture in the category of most serious crimes took place before the gender quotas. The increased female political representation after the gender quotas have, however, broadened the political discussion and the female parliamentarians have made it possible to legalize abortion in limited circumstances, including in a situation of rape.

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Gender quotas have had a significant symbolic effect: increased female political participation as well as representation have penetrated the grassroots layers of society and altered various aspects of social, economic and political life in Rwanda. Quotas changed how Rwandans think of women as political leaders, and they increased the political as well as the social agency of women. Women and girls also have greater access to education since the gender quotas and in general, the status of Rwandan women has changed as a result of the gender quotas (Bauer & Burnet, 2013). Female parliamentarians serve as role models for Rwandan women (Berry, 2015). Female participation may not immediately change the system and the political process, but it does change women’s identities, subjectivities and agencies. These women changed what is possible for their daughters and the women and girls that come after them (Burnet, 2008). Numbers do count in this way, because the only genuine change that automatically accompanies a higher number of female parliamentary representatives is a change in the “social climate” in parliament. These numbers guarantee the continued presence and normalization of women’s issues on the agenda and female presence in the decision-making institutions (Devlin & Elgie, 2008).

According to those female representatives and government officials, the value of the function as role model is higher than the actual policy-making role. However, some of these women still consider themselves more fit to represent other women because they have experienced and faced the same problems (Coffé, 2012). This is consistent with the findings of Devlin and Elgie (2008), women considered themselves to have a greater concern with grassroots politics.

Although there are a lot of supporters of the current Rwandan regime, and it being a “donor-darling” (Ansoms & Rostagno, 2012), these supporters rarely know the true nature of the authoritarian state of Rwanda and develop an idea of the RPF as brave defenders of the Rwandan people who promoted gender

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equality and democracy. When human rights organizations demonstrate the violation of certain human rights in Rwanda, supporters often react with an attitude of “at least it is not genocide” (Burnet, 2008).

Gender (in)equality: rural/urban women

According to the UN Women (2020):

“Rural women are key agents for achieving the transformational economic, environmental and social changes required for sustainable development. But limited access to credit, health care and education are among the many challenges they face, which are further aggravated by the global food and economic crises and climate change. Empowering them is key not only to the well-being of individuals, families and rural communities, but also to overall economic productivity, given women’s large presence in the agricultural workforce worldwide.”

When women are granted rights, it will almost always be those with greater social resources and on the highest ends of the social order that are able to benefit more greatly from it than women on the lower ends of the social order. Elite women, often from a dominant ethnic group take bigger advantage of legislative gains and women from the ‘lower’ or marginalized ethnic groups are often left behind unchanged. In Rwanda, gender-sensitive policies have been aimed at “women” as a homogenous category, while ignoring the significant divide based on class, ethnicity and region (Berry, 2015).

The 1994 genocide had been subversive when it came to gender relations and roles. Women were the majority and many of them had lost their husbands in the genocide. The disruption in gender roles and expectations opened the door for women to more freedom in pursuing a career or other commercial activities. Yet, this role-reversal should not be considered too positive, because for peasant women in rural areas, the lack of husbands created the burden of increasing poverty as well as social isolation. Running a farm or farming without a husband present developed a heavier workload and a

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reduced social status. The decrease in income caused by the lack of income from husbands resulted in a shortage of money to pay for health care, school fees or other needs (Burnet, 2008).

A study done in rural Rwanda demonstrates that rural Rwandan women’s experiences are mixed concerning new gender equality laws: they do enjoy the right of access to family planning, inheritance, and work opportunities. Yet, at the same time they face “gender dilemma” on whether or not to exercise these rights because this may cause mayhem and shame in both their households and communities (Kagaba, 2015).

Ladić (2015) did bottom-up research among house-girls in Rwanda, which are part of the what she calls the “subaltern group” in Rwanda. A huge gap can be observed between the understanding of ‘gender equality’ of the subaltern group and the understanding of the Rwandan government. Local leaders understand gender equality in terms of economic development and growth, international investment, business and infrastructure while house-girls understand gender equality in a much more personal way: personal development, progress in life, chances at a better job, and education. Local leaders and government officials should not forget that modernization and economic growth does not automatically have positive effects on everyone. Gender equality policies are lacking grassroots participation and formulation. That is why they are often seen as “elite-driven” (Ladić, 2015).

However, Stern, Heise and McLean (2017) found that there is more likely to be found a deviation of the dominant norms of the husband as the sole provider for the household in poorer families. Women are permitted to work outside of the home when there is an economic necessity, as will be discussed later on. This economic necessity is far more common among poorer families than wealthier families. As some women work jobs that are extensions of their care and domestic duties, a lot of them work as

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house personnel. Only wealthier women can afford house personnel. It can thus be said that working outside the family home is more socially accepted within poorer families than it is among wealthier families. However, it is ambiguous who benefits hereof: women who come from lower-income backgrounds are more likely to experience a double burden this way, because they now have two households to run, and as will be explained further on, women who fail to complete their domestic and care responsibilities could possibly face increased violence. They may have a job outside the house, but they have a double household burden, while urban women do not have a job outside the home, but have no household burden to bear (Stern, Heise & McLean, 2017).

After the first national election since the genocide in 2003, women won 49% of the parliamentary seats up for grabs. Once they were in office, according to Hunt (2014), these elected women reached back into their rural communities to encourage even more women to run for office. Gender quotas implemented by the Rwandan RPF-led government have transformed the colonial and post-colonial gender paradigm where men worked and occupied the public sphere and where women ran the domestic sphere and remained financially dependent on their male counterparts. This subversion of the old paradigm has, however, benefited urban women more than rural women because women from the urban areas have found the pathway to paid employment and more power while rural women in localities were left with increased workloads (Burnet, 2011).

Non-elite women, as disclosed in interviews to Berry (2015), show hopelessness and the inevitable poverty. They also disclose a fear of poverty following their children. Some of them confessed they aspired being businesswomen, ministers, government employees and doctors when they were young.

Rwanda is trying to obtain a radical modernization of the rural agricultural sector, which brings about new policies that eliminate subsistence farming and only sanctioning certain forms of labor. These policies forbid

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informal work, which is considered dirty and in disagreement with the “New Rwanda” as envisioned by the Rwandan government. These new approaches particularly target urban, poor women because women dominate the low-skilled industries which are disproportionately illegal as well, e.g. informal domestic work and cleaning, doing laundry, sex work, retail (Berry, 2015).

Gender (in)equality: sexual health & reproductive rights

According to UNHR (United Nations Human Rights, 2020):

“Women’s sexual and reproductive health is related to multiple human rights, including the right to life, the right to be free from torture, the right to health, the right to privacy, the right to education, and the prohibition of discrimination. […] This means that States have obligations to respect, protect and fulfill rights related to women’s sexual and reproductive health. The Special Rapporteur […] maintains that women are entitled to reproductive health care services, goods and facilities that are: (a) available in adequate numbers; (b) accessible physically and economically; (c) accessible without discrimination; and (d) of good quality.”

Unmarried women or girls in Rwanda must act like “timid virgins” and have none of the rights that are accorded to adults, like independence or control over her fertility. Formal marriage is still the basic requirement for adulthood and, as a consequence, for access to resources and rights. The patriarchal structures that link up marriage with adulthood (and so the access to resources and rights) continue to serve as mechanisms for the oppression, subjugation and control of women (Berry, 2015).

Rwanda’s national health care program, Mutuelles de santé, accords women access to low-cost or free family planning. According to Berry (2015), contraceptives are easily available to Rwandan women in theory. However, in practice, the value that is put on virginity and the honor of a woman hinders women to actually go and get contraceptives at the pharmacy, unless these women are married. Reactionary pharmacists also often deny women contraceptives, but even more regularly, Rwandan women let their

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fear of being judged, be it by pharmacists or the community in its whole, prevent them from accessing contraceptives (Berry, 2015). As disclosed in interviews with Berry (2015), the idea that birth control is for women, not for girls, is persistent. Girls do not want to be labeled as “prostitutes”. Birth control and asking for it is accompanied with shame and stigma. Despite the national health program granting women access to resources for family planning, persistent and stubborn beliefs about relationships, sex and marriage hinder young women from exercising their rights (Berry, 2015).

However, according to Kagaba (2015), Rwandan women themselves feel that they now have more control over their sexuality. Earlier, when a man wanted to have sex, at any time, a woman was supposed to oblige. As women, they had no control over their own bodies. Sexual relations were directed by the needs of men, not love or sexual desires of women. It should thus be mentioned that Rwandan women do feel appreciative over the gender-sensitive policies and laws in place, e.g. the Law on Gender-Based Violence because these enable access to rights they were denied before as a result of cultural norms and values (Kagaba, 2015).

Rwanda is often praised for the decrease in the birth rate from 5.8 births per woman in 2000 to 4.6 births per woman in 2010. It has to be noted, however, that still today 47% of pregnancies are unintended. In Rwanda, an unmarried young mother is shamed in the community and has decreasing options and chances for a career or a relationship. These girls lose “value” or “agaciro” when becoming pregnant out of marriage (Berry, 2015).

Most unmarried, pregnant girls carry these unintended pregnancies to term, carry the social burden and brave the stigmatization that comes with it, but an estimated 60,000 women acquire induced abortions yearly. Getting an abortion, which is a risky and illegal choice, is about the only method to keep one’s value

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after becoming pregnant unwantedly. Abortion is a criminal offence and can be punished with years in prison. However, 14 abortions occur in every 100 live births, and about 40% of them result in medical complications: “bleeding out” is way too common. Showing up at a hospital is no option either, as abortion is illegal and institutionalized care can result in arrest and imprisonment (Berry, 2015). Sadly and as a consequence, 30% of the women who need medical care after an induced abortion (and who do not get it), die (Berry, 2015).

Another aspect is the fact that is becoming increasingly difficult to get married in Rwanda. Young men are expected to construct a house for their bride-to-be. However, 18% of young male Rwandans are faced with extreme poverty. As a consequence, Rwandans from poor and middle-class backgrounds more regularly engage in informal or common-law marriages. As established before, the lack of a legal marriage can have serious impacts on the access to and the cultivation of certain resources and rights (Berry, 2015).

Finally, HIV is a recurring and ongoing problem in Rwanda. According to Berry (2015), women have a 68% higher rate of infection than men. During the genocide, sexual violence was much more than a soldier’s alienation against an individual Rwandan woman. In 1994 in Rwanda, mass sexual violence was used as a means for Hutu extremists to foster their political goals and they actively used HIV as a weapon. Apart from physical illnesses such as HIV and AIDS, psychological illnesses like depression, posttraumatic stress and flashbacks haunt Rwandan women (Cohen, d’Adesky & Anastos, 2005).

Gender (in)equality: education

The UN Women (2020) writes that girls and women should have the equal right to a quality education and learning throughout all phases of their lives. 15 million girls compared to 10 million boys primary school age are out of school worldwide. Despite progress being made, as many as 48.1% of girls remain out of school

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in some regions. Gender gaps in primary and secondary enrolment rates have nearly closed, on average. The UN Women (2020) claims to:

“[…] promote educational equality through the revision of school curricula and the set-up of policies to counteract discrimination based on gender, and equal access to vocational education and training as well as information technologies.”

In Rwanda, girls currently outnumber boys in primary school. There is however a growing frustration among Rwandans that are in no way able to achieve their educational desires and aspirations. Despite having balanced out the percentage of girls and boys in lower education, this has not yet led to the complete fulfillment on an educational level. The Vision 2020 government-led plan resulted in higher expectations and aspirations concerning future educational accomplishments. These expectations have risen, especially for girls who perceive new educational policies as new opportunities and who grew up seeing and hearing from NGOs and others about how “a good education is the key to a good life”. Yet again, the theory differs from the reality. In theory, every child can attend the six years of primary school for free. The reality on the contrary is somewhat different as fees are still being demanded for uniforms, school supplies, coaching, weekend and evening classes and others. The final three years of secondary school are still privately run and students are required to pay for the classes or to earn a scholarship through national exams. Because all of these costs, children born in poorer families cannot attend school (Berry, 2015).

According to Berry (2015), among the wealthiest 20% of Rwandans, 15.5% of younger people have attended school after primary school or have had a higher education. Among the poorest 60% of Rwandans, this number is less than 1%. When Rwandans graduate from secondary school, a significant gender-divide can be observed: the “educationally privileged” seem to be boys, as in 2010 only 1,865 girls obtained the opportunity to attend public universities, in comparison to 4,801 boys. Students become disillusioned when they are forced to drop out of school because of financial reasons (Berry, 2015).