How successful has Rwanda been in its efforts to increase the participation and representation of women? This study from Louisville University explores the increase in women’s participation in public life and representation in governance, as well as the increasing authoritarianism of the Rwandan state under the guise of democratisation. It argues that while the participation of women has increased, their ability to influence policymaking has decreased. In the long term, however, increased female representation in government could lead to participation in a genuine democracy because of a transformation in political subjectivity.
Across Africa, many countries have taken initiatives to increase the participation and representation of women in governance, despite the fact that many of them, like Rwanda, are authoritarian, single-party states. Since seizing power in 1994, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) has taken many steps to increase the participation of women in politics such as creating a Ministry of Gender, organising women’s councils at all levels of government, and instituting an electoral system with reserved seats for women in the national parliament.
The lasting repercussions of the 1994 genocide, the material realities of life in post-genocide Rwanda and the greater representation of women in public life and political office have promoted a great deal of change in cultural and social conceptions of gender roles:
- There is a greater acceptance of women in positions of authority and of women as independent agents in the public sphere.
- Through its policies, the RPF has linked gender equality to nationalism.
- As a whole, the top-down gender initiatives of the RPF have had a positive impact on gender equality.
- These initiatives have transformed the collective cultural imagination: ‘wives’ and ‘daughters’ now have a wider range of socially circumscribed agencies and they are conceiving of themselves and their agencies in the world differently.
This case of an authoritarian, single-party state pushing for greater gender equality highlights several points relevant to political theory and democratisation studies as well as to the increasingly female political representation across Africa:
- Even in an authoritarian state, policy can be influenced by interest groups (such as women) who have access to decision-makers and who have the political savvy to operate the hidden levers of power.
- The emphasis on elections instead of other aspects of democratic governance may reduce rather than increase the capacity of interest groups to shape policy.
- Top-down gender initiatives, even when implemented by authoritarian regimes, can lead to transformations in political identities, subjectivities and agencies.
- These transformations in political subjectivity may pave the way for effective engagement in democratic governance, should it emerge.
