Tuesday, November 12, 2019
Rwanda is a fascinating case study of the role of women in politics. After the genocide in 1994, the country's population was 60-70% women, which facilitated more women entering the workforce. In 2003, the country instituted a 30% quota for women in Parliament. Now, women make up 61% of Rwanda's Parliament!
Despite the increase in the number of women in electoral politics, it remains unclear whether the social and cultural landscape of the nation has shifted. Feminism, especially "Western feminism," isn't a concept that's directly addressed in Rwanda. In the article below, women share that they still feel they carry the burden of all household chores and family duties even if they work. Likewise, schools and organizations aren't necessarily treating girls and boys equally or allocating equal resources. So the article begs the question: "Can a country truly transform its core culture from the outside in?"
https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2016/07/29/487360094/invisibilia-no-one-thought-this-all-womans-debate-team-could-crush-it
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Though it's really unfortunate that it took a genocide to shake up the gender roles, this is truly fascinating! Could it be the case that because the power of the Rwandan state is weaker and does not yield as much control over people's daily life that women in political office does not directly translate into women having equality in the household? Or perhaps it is a more deeply rooted cultural bias that needs more effort to eradicate...
ReplyDeleteI think what struck me right off the bat was the statement that Mireille was "too American." I've heard this before too from Korean people who are both older and the same age as myself in response to questions about why daughters are expected to come home before sons, why a woman is considered a gossip, but a man isn't, or why women have to come home and do all the cleaning and the cooking, even if she works longer hours than her husband. I find it interesting that being "too liberated" is considered a negative trait, and also that a similar notion of putting the country and society before the self exists in Rwanda and Korea.
ReplyDelete