Women in African politics: The case of Rwanda

Rwanda has been ranked first in the world in terms of female representation in politics for the last ten years. In our study, starting with the question "why is Rwanda's rate of female representation high in politics?" an attempt was made to answer the following questions "What is the effect of women's participation in politics in the precolonial and post-colonial eras?" and "Is there an impact of political culture on Rwanda's development after the Rwandan Genocide?". The aim of our thesis is to examine the reasons for Rwanda's success in women's representation in politics and to reveal the effects of women and gender norms in Rwanda's social and political traditions on the successful female representation rate today. The study we have done to that end is divided into three parts with a deductive approach. In the first part, processes of women's acquirement of political rights and feminist theory are discussed. Current representation rates of women in world politics have been examined regionally. In the second part, the position of women in African politics has been analysed. The statue of women in the social structures and the political systems and in the pre-colonial period of Africa has been investigated. An analysis was made on the prominent female figures of that period, as well as women who participated in the independence struggles during the colonial period. In the third part, the statue of woman in politics in Rwanda's pre-colonialism, colonialism and post-colonialism periods have been evaluated. Afterwards, the policies made for women's participation in politics and the effects of women in Rwanda's development in the period following the 1994 Rwandan Genocide have been discussed. It has been tried to reveal the effects of women and gender norms in Rwanda's social and political traditions on the successful female representation rate today.