Kagame was speaking Tuesday in Belgium at the opening ceremony of the 12th edition of the European Development Days.
This year’s European Development Days was organized under the theme, ‘Women and Girls at the Forefront of Sustainable Development: protect, empower, invest’.
“Women and girls constitute half of humanity. They are equal in ability in every way. Guaranteeing their equal rights is therefore common sense. Consensus on this point was reached more than a generation ago,” Kagame said.
Kagame said that countries are a long way from treating women with equality and respect things which continue to lag women and girls behind.
“Incidents from across the world continue to show that this problem cuts across regions and affects us all,” he noted.
He said that in the workplace or as public leaders, men expect to be judged on the basis of their character and ability alone contrary to how women are treated.
“It’s not enough for a woman to be as good or better than male counterparts. She must look a certain way, even be careful about her tone of voice. Failure to conform comes with a cost in terms of salary and career advancement, a penalty men don’t have to worry about,” he said.
Kagame said that women perform countless extra hours of unpaid labour every day. Organising social gatherings. Taking care of sick relatives. Maintaining the household and raising children.
“It is often said that working women have two full-time jobs. This is not far from the truth. These duties affect women’s careers, and serve as an implicit justification for promoting men faster,” Kagame added.
The recent World Bank study says that countries are losing $160 trillion in wealth because of the lifetime earnings gap between women and men.
The Head of State said that for too long, society has created a psychology that women are inferior and can only rise at the mercy of men, the norm which he said can no longer be tolerated.
Kagame urged that people should use different promotional campaigns towards impactful changes.
“ ‘He for She’ and ‘She Is We’ should not be mere hashtags, but expressions of our determination to make change really happen. Rights and outcomes are only equal, when treatment is equal,” he noted.
“Compensating women for where they have been disadvantaged is not enough. We have to truly level the playing field and make public pledges that raise standards and expectations going forward,” he added.
He requested leaders at all level to ensure that there is accountability for changing harmful societal norms.
{{Rwanda’s experience}}
Kagame said that Rwanda has instituted an insurance scheme that allows women to continue receiving their full salary during twelve weeks of maternity leave.
“Our approach all along has been to focus on the benefits that gender equality brings to society. As a result, no one feels they have lost something and the gains are sustainable,” he said.
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