In an interview with local radio media this week, President Paul Kagame was asked if in the gender equality journey, men would not be left behind. He responded that in fact, we as a country are not doing enough to uplift women. “We shouldn’t merely focus on the numbers. We should also focus on them being in decision-making positions, and in business. It should be obvious that they are there and that it is not merely their number in parliament or elsewhere. We wish to reach a point where even that number becomes a reality in actions and capacity,” Kagame said. ALSO READ: Rwanda's eight landmark achievements in gender equality Indeed, to start seeing women empowerment as a threat to men is misguided and alarming. In fact, in 2022, the United Nations reported that it would take 286 years to close gender gaps in legal protection and remove discriminatory laws against women, 140 years for equal representation in positions of power and at least 40 years to achieve gender parity in national parliaments globally. Although Rwanda has already achieved gender parity in the parliament and removed discriminatory laws that existed, the gender gap is still wide. For instance, in decision making positions, only 30 percent of District Mayors and 15 percent of Vice-Mayors in charge of Economic Development are women. Only 16.5 Director Generals in Ministries are women. ALSO READ: In Rwanda, Patriotism and gender equality are synonymous In education, although school enrolment in primary and secondary schools is almost equal for boys and girls, less women attend and complete tertiary education. In a country where more than half of the population are women, we should have much higher numbers, not just in the parliament where there is a functional electoral gender quota. We should ask ourselves if we would still have gender parity without the quota. ALSO READ: Roses are red, violets are blue, women need equality If Rwanda has been ranked the second most gender equal country in Africa, and still we don’t see women in certain spaces, surely there is something that is not being done. The question today is not to ask what about the man, but instead, where are the 52 percent of the population.
