Evaluating Effects of a Women’s Leadership Program

Though Rwanda has the highest proportion of women in parliament of any country in the world (64%), this does not necessarily reflect the reality women face in community decision-making. In fact, patriarchal norms and gender discrimination still pose barriers to women’s de facto power across the country. This project partners with Resonate, an organization teaching a leadership curriculum to promote women’s participation in local governance, to evaluate whether such workshops increase women’s local leadership roles and decision-making power. At the one-month follow-up, answers to statements such as “I can usually handle whatever comes my way” show statistically significant increases for women who participated in the workshop compared to those who did not. The project will continue to test intermediate outcomes like self-confidence and self-efficacy in six month and one year follow-ups. Results forthcoming.