Rwanda - world’s first women-led country

BEFORE READING 

1. SYNONYM MATCH: Match the following synonyms from the article:

1.	huge	a.	terrible
2	tragic	b.	undeveloped
3.	coalition	c.	tired
4.	encouraged	d.	pay tribute to
5.	fed up	e.	alliance
6.	praise	f.	brought up to date
7.	strengthen	g.	enormous
8.	pride	h.	supported
9.	enlightened	i.	joy
10.	backward	j.	toughen

Rwanda will soon become the first country in the world where female politicians outnumber male politicians. The small central African country has made huge progress since its tragic genocide in the 1990s. It can now proudly call itself a beacon of sexual equality. The ruling party coalition won 78% of seats in the election. Women took at least 44 out of a total of the 80 seats. Women may still win another three undecided seats. The head of the country’s election commission stated: “It's clear women representatives will be more than 50 per cent." Since the genocide, the government has encouraged women into politics. Many in Rwanda say the election results show that people are fed up with male-dominated politics. They say women will bring freshness and change to the nation.


Women’s groups were quick to praise the government of President Paul Kagame for promoting such a strong gender equality programme. A female voter told the BBC’s Focus on Africa show that the new political landscape would help strengthen her country. She explained: "Men, especially in our culture, used to think that women are there to be in the house, cook food, look after the children... but the real problems of a family are known by a woman and when they do it, they help a country to get much better." A local newspaper editor told the Voice of America website of his new pride in his country: “We have really been the first…where the women have broken the glass ceiling…now it's like we are enlightened. We are no longer in this backward sort of thinking,” he said.

COMPREHENSION 

1. TRUE / FALSE: Look at the article’s headline and guess whether these sentences are true (T) or false (F):

a.	There will soon be more female than male politicians in Rwanda.	T / F
b.	Rwanda suffered a terrible genocide earlier in this decade.	T / F
c.	Women took 47 out of 80 seats in the recent election.	T / F
d.	A lot of people in Rwanda became tired of male politicians.	T / F
e.	Women’s groups said the equality was just cosmetic and not real.	T / F
f.	A woman voter said women leaders would make her country stronger.	T / F
g.	A newspaper editor said women had smashed a lot of windows.	T / F
h.	The editor suggested Rwanda could now start thinking positively.	T / F