Politics
Does Female Leadership Stimulate Business Growth in Rwanda?
Prophecy and Political Science
“Whether women’s role is likely to change in the sense of making significant inputs depends on what kind of political system Rwanda will become in years ahead,” Lemarchand told AFKInsider. “There is a distinction between prophecy and political science.” Female politicians in Rwanda have been pushing forward a number of initiatives connected to relations between men and women, Hintjens said. The male-female relationship “already changed massively with the genocide, since most of it was engineered by men, even if women too were involved as perpetrators.”
A Rwandan radio soap program, “Urunana“ took on the issue of women’s sexual health and became a national sensation. Hintjens researched the topic.“It is a good example of how issues that were once taboo in relation to male-female sexuality and marriage have become widely discussed and talked about,” Hintjens said. “This is the ‘vulgarity’ that some more old-fashioned, older-generation Rwandans complain about.”
Of all the issues that matter in Rwandan politics and female political participation today, business is the most important. “Business is veritably the new official religion,” according to Hintjens. Rwanda is enjoying an impressive and stable economic growth. Although Rwanda is still a major U.S. ally in the region, “it is no longer a darling of the U.S. in Africa that it has been in the years following the genocide,” Lemarchand said. He added, “U.S. policy makers are getting increasingly irritated over President Kagame’s double talk, particularly his repeated denial of involvement on behalf of the rebel military group March 23 Movement in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.”
Rwanda’s history of genocide is comparable with few if any other countries in the continent. From a policy perspective, Rwanda can be an example for other African countries to open the arena for gender-sensitive policy making. With more women in politics the opportunity is there to articulate debate about gender roles.
Copyright AFK Insider 2014
