Women's Legislative Representation: The Rwandan Case (1994-2016)

In 2013,women's representation arose up to 64%in Rwanda's Lower House,which is the highest throughout the world.In 1994,a deadly ethnic conflict between the Tutsi and the Hutu spiraled into mass violence in Rwanda,leading to what many independent observers describe as a 'genocide'.After the genocide,social transformation caused a shift in mind-set about how women are viewed by society and in how they view themselves,and the burden of rebuilding state unity fell naturally on Rwandan women who made up 70%of the population.At the same time,Paul Kagame,the sixth and current president of Rwanda,who took office in 2000,presided over a new government that began to adopt ambitious policies to include women in decision-making bodies.The 2003 Rwandan Constitution included a mandated quota of 30%reserved seats for all women in the legislature.After implementing the gender quotas,Rwanda reached levels of female representation which are among the highest in the world.The Rwandan case can shed some light on how the numerical strength of women' s representation in legislatures(descriptive representation)leads to women-friendly policy(substantive representation).This research applies the idea of critical mass which is the popular notion about the link of descriptive representation and substantive representation.Chapter I identifies representation and women's representation,and proposed the analytical framework of this research-critical mass theory.Chapter ? combs the history of women's legislative representation in Rwanda,and summarizes the characteristics of it.Chapter ? studies both the process and the policy outcomes of substantive representation of the Rwandan female parliamentarians.Chapter ? finds out that the substantive representation of women parliamentarians in Rwanda is limited to "mandate effect" and "label effect",challenged by the overwhelming power of the executive branch of the government,and curbed by the low level of socio-economic development.