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Abstract
This article analyses how women in the rural district of Kamonyi experience gender equality laws and policies in their everyday lives. Traditional Rwandan society had a patriarchal social structure that accepted unequal power relations between men and women. The 2003 new constitution, adopted after the 1994 Tutsi genocide, recognizes the importance of gender equality and includes specific legal provisions to ensure women's equal protection under the law. Drawing on focus group discussions with women in Kamonyi, it emerges that women's experiences are mixed with regard to the new laws: they enjoy the right of access to family assets, inheritance, and work opportunities; yet they also experience a “gender dilemma” of whether to exercise rights enshrined in the constitution even though that may lead to marital difficulties in their households.
Notes
1. Uwineza and Pearson, “Sustaining Women's Gains in Rwanda,” 8.
2. Adekunle, Culture and Customs of Rwanda, 45.
3. For instance, Articles 9, 10, 11, 16, 25, 28, 37 and 40 of the 2003 Constitution have clear provisions on equal rights of both males and females in Rwanda. It reinforced the principle of gender equality and provided quotas of at least 30% for women in decision-making organs.
4. The Law No 22/1999 of 12 November 1999 to supplement Book one of the Civil Code and to institute Part Five regarding Matrimonial Regimes, Liberalities and Successions. The law mandates that all children, irrespective of sex, have a right to inherit property, over which they then assume full ownership – is now legally stipulated as a parental duty in Articles 42 and 43 of the Succession Law.
5. Republic of Rwanda, Constitution of the Republic of Rwanda; Republic of Rwanda, National Gender-Based Violence Policy.
6. Gender-based violence in Rwanda is defined as
Any act that results in bodily, psychological, sexual and economic harm to somebody just because they are female or male. Such an act results in the deprivation of freedom and negative consequences. This violence may be exercised within or outside the household.
7. Republic of Rwanda, Constitution of the Republic of Rwanda, Article 26.
8. Daley, Dore-Weeks, and Umuhoza, “Ahead of the Game,” 144.
9. Bayisenge, Changing Gender Relations?, 22; Rwanda Gender Monitoring Office, Gender Best Practices, 33; Cooper, Challenges and Opportunities, 5.
10. Food and Agriculture Organization, State of Food and Agriculture.
11. UNDP, “UNDP – Rwanda”; Nambi, “UNFEM Director in the Country.”
12. McAuslan, “Personal Reflections,” 125.
13. USAID, “Gender Assessment in Rwanda,” 10.
14. Powley, “Women's Contributions to Governance.”
15. Hategekimana, Women's Empowerment, 264.
16. Rwanda Gender Monitoring Office, Perceptions Towards Gender Equality, 13.
17. USAID, “Gender Assessment in Rwanda,” 13–14.
18. See note 16 above.
19. RWAMREC, “Sexual and Gender Based Violence,” 83.
20. PRO-FEMME TWESE HAMWE, “Situational Awareness,” 53.
21. Kagaba, “Threatened Masculinities,” 18.
22. UNFPA, “Gender Equality.”
23. World Bank, “Engendering Development.”
24. Squires, New Politics, 1.
25. Levit and Verchick, Feminist Legal Theory, 13.
26. Kabeer, “Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment,” 13.
27. Parpart, “Rethinking Gender and Empowerment,” 355.
28. Parpart, “Rethinking Em(power)ment,” 10–11.
29. Rowlands, “A Word of the Times.”
30. Batliwala, “Meaning of Women's Empowerment,” 129.
31. Kabeer, “Resources, Agency, Achievements,” 437.
32. Allen, “Power of the Feminist Theory,” 21.
33. Hategekimana, Women's Empowerment; Cherry and Hategekimana, “Ending Gender-Based Violence”; Powley, “Women's Contributions to Governance.”
34. Nordstrom, Different Kind of War Story, 7.
35. Brooks, Feminist Standpoint Epistemology.
36. Rwanda Districts Performance Evaluation Report 2011–2012.
37. This research is part of a larger project on experiences of gender equality in Rwanda that entails interviews with rural men and women and also government gender agencies known as gender machineries. The objective is to understand how a variety of people in the rural areas in Rwanda experience current gender equality policies and laws.
38. National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda, EICV3 District Profile – Kamonyi.
39. Under the Rwandan Constitution art.26 only civil monogamous marriage between a man and a woman is recognized.
40. Padgett, Qualitative Methods.
41. Spivak, “Can the Subaltern Speak.”
42. In Rwanda, there is a mandatory community service day from 8:00 am to 11:00 am, on the last Saturday of each month called Umuganda meaning community service. The day is designed to be a day of contribution and building the country by citizens themselves. The day is intended to build community involvement and strengthen cohesion between persons of different background and levels. It is a day where people in the community express their needs and voice opinions on various issues (Rwanda Governance Board).
43. Ubusabane is a great event where residents share foods and drinks with their leaders during or after discussing issues affecting the particular area. It is largely viewed as a rallying point for unity and togetherness (Rwanda Governance Board).
44. Woman, 54, V2.
45. Woman, 34, V1.
46. National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda, Integrated Household Loving Conditions Survey, 22.
47. Daley, Dore-Weeks, and Umuhoza, “Ahead of Game,” 137.
48. Woman, 62, V4.
49. Woman, 54, V3.
50. Woman, 39, V2.
51. Woman, 30, V2.
52. Woman, 56, V1.
53. Woman, 47, V1.
54. Woman, 38, V2.
55. Woman, 27, V2.
56. Woman, 32, V2.
57. Sunny, Women Paid Work.
58. Woman, 51, V4.
59. Woman, 49, V4.
60. Stromquist, “Education as a Means for Empowering Women,” 23.
61. Woman, 48, V3.
62. Woman, 46, V3.
63. Woman, 50, V3.
64. Woman, 57, V1.
65. Man, 61, V4.
66. Man, 57, V4.
67. Man, 55, V4.
68. Inzaratsi consisted, in Rwanda, of some products made by herbal medicine that wives used to give their husbands in beer or food, or put a little quantity in the conjugal bed so that the husband may always think only of his wife and may never react badly against her. Man, 48, V4.
69. Republic of Rwanda, National Gender-Based Violence Policy.
70. Woman, 43, V1.
71. Rwanda Gender Monitoring Office, Gender Best Practices; Rwanda Gender Monitoring Office, Perceptions Towards Gender Equality.
72. Woman, 31, V2.
73. Woman, 27, V2.
74. Woman, 32, V2.
75. Woman, 29, V2.
76. Kabeer, Voice, Agency and the Sounds of Silence, 17–18.
77. Woman, 40, V1.
78. Woman, 47, V1.
79. Woman, 37, V1.
80. Woman, 28, V3.
81. Woman, 26, V1.
82. Woman, 33, V1.
83. Woman, 44, V4.
84. Woman, 39, V4.
85. Woman, 48, V4.
86. Narayan, Voices, 205.
87. Woman, 31, V3.
88. Woman, 29, V3.
89. Woman 26, V3.
90. Uwineza and Pearson, Sustaining Women's Gains, 10.
91. Narayan, Voices, 176.
92. Kabeer, “Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment,” 15.
93. Powley, “Women's Contributions to Governance.”
94. Win, “Open Letter,” 76.
95. Sylvester, Producing Women.
96. Jackson, “Gender Analysis of Land,” 475.
97. Agarwal, “Bargaining and Gender Relations,” Narayan, Voices, 108.
98. Agarwal, “Bargaining and Gender Relations.”
99. Narayan, Voices, 179.
100. Parpart, Choosing Silence, 4; Hansen, “Little Mermaid's,” 287.
101. Kabeer, Voice, Agency and the Sounds of Silence, 18.