The Incorporation of Women in Rwandan Politics after 1994

Abstract

Liberation struggle usually entails the active incorporation and participation of women. However, in the period following liberation after power is captured, we tend to see women excluded. Women are often relegated to the sidelines, gender roles are reinforced, with political positions reserved for men. In Africa, the gender backlash that follows liberation was observed in the liberation movements of the first wave (1960s and 1970s) and second wave (1980s and 1990s). However, this was not the case in Rwanda when the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) took power after halting the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. The RPF actively included women in politics appointing women to half their allocated seats in the Transitional National Parliament (TNP). This initial inclusion during the transitional period is important because it lay the ground for women's participation in Rwandan politics. The subsequent policies that enshrined women's political inclusion in the constitution through the quota system, as well the structures developed at the lowest level of government to encourage women's political participation, have their roots in the active incorporation that happened during the transitional period. This chapter explores the factors that led to this initial incorporation and why the gender backlash common in liberation movements did not occur in Rwanda.