Abstract The number of women participating in Rwandan politics has significantly grown since the second half of 1994 (after the civil war and Tutsi genocide). Gradually, especially in parliament where women now compose 63.8%, this has attracted the attention of scholars and the international community. While Rwandan government and the international writers document Rwanda’s relative progress on increasing and promoting women’s participation in politics, the majority of academic work to date has investigated women’s representative role and in most cases explored women in the legislature. Little or no academic work has focused on female politicians’ experiences of balancing their traditional female responsibilities and the public (male-stream) roles they are now taking on. Using semi-structured one-to-one interviews with female politicians in the cabinet, lower and upper chambers of parliament, local government and from women’s major groups (umbrella and networks), this dissertation examines the women’s narratives of their lived experiences of balancing their private and public roles, and what impact this has had on their lives and career paths. This thesis argues that despite the relevance of women’s access to political posts/work, failure to tackle gender inequalities in all areas of socialisation reshape and reinforce patriarchy in significant ways – especially due to increased time and work penalty that appear not only detrimental to women’s lives but also to the country’s social-economic development. Change in these circumstances seems to require a cultural shift, almost as large as the cultural shift that brought women into politics. This thesis also argues that women’s substantive representative role is better understood if the social-political contexts within which they live and work are considered. This study contributes new ways of understanding and theorising women’s political participation in Rwanda (and in similar contexts) to policy makers and activists. i Dedication To my late mother Esperance Kayitesi I dedicate this thesis. ii Acknowledgements To begin with, I would never have been able to finish this research without the guidance and tutorship of my supervisors Prof. Diane Richardson and Prof. Janice McLaughlin to whom I owe a lot of gratitude – there are no words enough to express my gratitude. I am sincerely grateful for their excellent guidance, focused teaching, caring, patience, and for providing me with an excellent study atmosphere. I would like to thank the women in this research for accepting to be interviewed despite their scarce time, completing this research would not have been possible without them. I also received help from friends, in particular I want to thank Elizabeth Powley, Celia Male and Jacqueline Close who were always willing to help and give their best suggestions. Many thanks to all colleagues sharing the same office with me, you have been great support to me. I am very grateful to my husband Jean and my sons Jordan and Jayden for their love, understanding, and tolerance which allowed a peace of mind to complete my research. They have always supported, encouraged and blessed me with their best wishes – their endless prayers brought me this far. My sincere thanks are to relatives and friends who helped in many ways, Ali-Hasan and Innocente, Robert and Sarah, and my sister in-law Gorret and her husband Charles. I also thank the teachers throughout my school life that always nurtured the potential in me and paved a way through an obscured and difficult journey of education. I am grateful to the School of Geography, Politics and Sociology for assisting me in many different ways, including financial and material support. I am thankful to George Kania, the school IT technician for his prompt responses and assistance whenever I called on him for help. Most importantly, I wish to thank my mother who selflessly toiled to put me through school, urging me to study hard in order to get a better future – you passed too early mother! With God, all things are possible. iii List of Acronyms CEDAW: Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women CSO: Civil Society Organisation EA: Economic Affairs ECOWAS: Economic Community of West African States EDPRS: The Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy ES: Executive Secretary EU: European Union FFRP: Forum des Femmes Rwandaises Parlementaires GBV: Gender Based Violence GMO: Gender Monitoring Office GNU: Government of National Unity GTM: Gender Training Manual HE: His Excellence IPU: Inter-Parliamentary Union LG: Local Government MIGEPROF: Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion iv MINALOC: Ministry of Local Government MoG: Ministry of Gender NA: Not Applicable NEPAD: New Partnership for Africa’s Development NGP: National Gender Policy NISR: National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda NWC: National Women Council RAUW: Rwanda Association of University Women RPF: Rwandese Patriotic Front RWPF: Rwanda Women Parliamentary Forum SA: Social Affairs UK: United Kingdom UN: United Nations UNCRWC: United Nations Commission for Refuge Women and Children UNDPI: United Nations Department of Public Information UNHCR: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees USA: United States of America v Table of Contents Abstract i Dedication ii Acknowledgement iii List of Acronyms iv Contents vi Chart and Tables ix CHAPTER ONE: Introduction 1 Introduction 1 Geographical and Population Depiction 2 Historical Antecedents 3 Gender under Rwandan Tradition 10 Women in the Aftermath of the War and Genocide (1994) 17 Thesis Structure 24 CHAPTER TWO: Conceptualising Women, Political and Family Roles: A Literature Review 26 Introduction 26 Setting the Scene 26 Gender in Rwandan Policy 31 Gender mainstreaming 38 Gender quotas 44 Gender and Feminism 47 Gender, the Public and Private Spheres 53 Conclusion 60 CHAPTER THREE: Studying the Lives of Rwandan Female Politicians 62 Introduction 62 vi Epistemological Approach 62 Participant Sampling 66 Research Schedule 72 Information Sheet and Consent Form 73 Ethical Issues 75 Fieldwork 77 Getting settled in Rwanda 77 Meeting research advisors 77 Recruitment and interviews 78 Conducting Interviews 80 Fieldwork Supervision 83 Transcribing and Translation 84 Data Analysis 85 Conclusion 89 CHAPTER FOUR: Situating Women in Politics 90 Introduction 90 Women’s Accession to Political Participation in Rwanda 91 The political will to enact gender equality 95 Gender quotas 98 Women’s solidarity and partnerships 103 Political representation of women 107 “Women’s Participation in Decision-making has become a Culture” 111 Individual Benefits from Political Participation 114 Capacity and Skills 119 Women, Social Expectations and Public Scrutiny 123 Conclusion 126 CHAPTER FIVE: “Mutima w’Urugo” (“Heart of the Family”) 127 Introduction 127 Social-cultural Context within which Women Politicians Live and Work 128 Being a “Good” Woman in the Rwandan Tradition 132 vii Family Roles and Responsibilities 140 Help with domestic work 148 Modern Tools 153 Conclusion 157 CHAPTER SIX: Motherhood and Politics 158 Introduction 158 Motherhood and Rwandan Tradition 159 Motherhood as identity 159 Social understanding of childcare 168 Balancing Work and Childcare 171 Work proximity from home, age of children, and childcare 172 Single motherhood and partnered parenting 178 Political post, work attributions and childcare 181 Childcare and political work Penalty 183 Work, time and schedule 188 Conclusion 193 CHAPTER SEVEN: Conclusions and Recommendations 195 Research Positioning 195 Summary of Findings 197 Access to and participation in politics 197 Women politicians, the private and public spheres 200 Gender difference and equality 203 Way Forward 207 Suggestions for policy 208 Recommendations for women’s groups 211 Suggestions for future research 212 Appendices 215 - 233 Bibliography 234 -255 viii Tables and a Chart Chart 1: Hierarchical organisational chart showing three political levels studied in this research………………………………………………………………………………….8 Table 1: Percentage of female politicians per political position under study since 2003 to 2013 …………………………………………………………………………………21 Table 2: Number of planned and accessed participants by political category...……….69 ix CHAPTER ONE: Introduction Introduction Since the late 1990s, there has been a systematic and rapid increase in the number of women participating at various levels of Rwandan politics (Kantengwa 2010; Burnet 2011; Bauer 2012). For example, since 2003 Rwanda has had the highest number of women in parliament in the world (Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU 2013), and a significant number at different levels of leadership (see Table 1.p.20). The Rwandan government’s will to promote women has been seen as an important factor in this increase. This is illustrated through the adoption and enactment of different laws and regulations, in putting forward gender responseive policies and in creating organs specifically charged with gender equality and women’s promotion1 (see Appendix I). However, whilst it can be argued that the Rwandan government has made significant efforts to promote gender parity in political decision-making positions (Hamilton 2000; Powley 2005; Bauer 2012), this thesis aims to explore how the benefits of women’s participation in politics may be curtailed by how they have to balance the family and political roles. The focus for this research is to examine to what extent women’s participation in politics has changed social-political gender inequalities in the private and public spheres