Putting Rwandan Women in Their Place: Parliament

by Jordan Yerman | September 17, 2008 at 09:43 am

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The dudes have been more or less screwing it up for quite some time, so Rwanda's women are getting a go at running things. In a nation where female voters outnumber male voters by 5%, 24 women are standing for reserved Parliamentary seats.

This hybrid system, combined with the fact that women now outnumber men, has led to an almost 50-50 representation in Parliament. In the outgoing House, 48% of the members are women.

The country was left with an imbalance following the 1994 genocide of minority Tutsis by majority Hutus in which, according to the United Nations, 800 000 died and many others fled.

Eugenie Musanabaganwa, a nurse in her 30s, said the high number of women in Parliament could only help the country "take the right decisions".

"Very often, it was the woman who pushed her husband to confess to what he did during the genocide," she said.

According to voting results form Monday, President Paul Kagame's Rwandan Patriotic Front won 42 of the 53 open seats.

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