Feminist Looking Glass

In Rwanda, 56 percent of the members of the national parliament are women.  This is the highest figure in the world, where the average percent of female parliament members is 18.8.  According to a story in the Inter Press Service News Agency:

Rwandan women achieved this impressive figure in parliament by taking an active role in the country’s reconstruction and lobbying heavily for a constitutional quota for women in the lower house of parliament. They were also able to push for the creation of a government ministry of women’s affairs to promote policies in favour of women’s interests.

Now, after 16 years in exile in the Netherlands, Victoire Ingabire has returned to Rwanda and  been elected by her party (Unified Democratic Forces) to run for president in August.  She says that “[m]y objective is to introduce Rwanda to the rule of law and a constitutional state where international democratic standards are respected, where nationalism will at last be the cornerstone for all public institutions.”

Ingabire has reiterated what is said in other countries in which women have obtained sizable advances in the number of parliamentary representatives, namely, that even though the number of women may have increased, the power of the women has not risen accordingly.  Ingabire says:

There is no women’s empowerment. It is all fiction. What matters is not the number, but the share of power that is given to them. There is still a long way to go in translating women’s nominal weight into effective decision making share,” said Ingabire.
.  .  .  .  .
Women’s political weight is yet to be seen. I am not interested in cosmetic changes whereby women are nominated for propaganda motives. I want to see women’s fingerprints in all sectors of the society. Mine should not be a mere women ticket but one which will make a difference.

Ingabire is not optimistic that she will be able to win.  She says that she is undertaking a “Herculean” task.  But any time a woman runs for high public office is a victory for women, no matter the result.  And the other thing to remember from her candidacy is that, while it is always great when the number of female representatives rises, equality will not exist until the representatives have the requisite power.

Filed under: International, Politics Tagged: | Rwanda, Victoire Ingabire