The Role of Community Radio in Promoting Gender Equality in Rwanda

Abstract

Rwanda has become a role model for the progress it has made on gender equality and women empowerment. The credit of this transformation goes to the media such as community radio stations which have been constantly promoting gender equality through their programming by bringing out the gender issues, educating people on gender-based violence (GBV), leading dialogues, and coming up with solutions to promote gender equality. Drawing from the feminist theory and participatory communication concept, the results reflect that empowering community on issues related to gender and GBV is directly linked to understanding the audience perception and involving local audiences in community radio programming. This encourages people and helps to understand power relations existing in the community and promote gender equality. The results showed that community radio plays an important role in creating awareness to rural populations in Rwanda about gender issues including GBV and that it helps in empowering the rural population thereby contributing to promote gender equality in Rwanda.