We at Vital Voices are excited by a bit of little known, but ground-breaking news. Rwanda has just sworn in the world’s first women-majority parliament, as well as their first female Speaker of Parliament, Rose Mukantabana! The Vital Voices Global Leadership Network pledges its support to these women leaders to ensure that together, we can create lasting change in women’s lives.

The lower house of the Rwandan parliament (the Chamber of Deputies) is now 56.3% female, and leads the world as #1 for the percentage of women in parliament, according to the International Parliamentary Union (IPU). Other African countries to rank among the IPU’s top 20 for percentages of women in parliament are Angola at (#8 with 37.3%), Mozambique (#13 with 34.8%), South Africa (#17 with 33%) and Uganda (#20 with 30.7%). The USA ranks number 69 with 16.8%.

The people of Rwanda and their political parties have shown great confidence in women as leaders, having elected them to national office in significant numbers for the second time. Jane Mutoni, a Vital Voices alumna and member of FAWE Rwanda and shared with us her reactions. “Sure, we are excited as well for the increase in the number of women in the recent elections, which to me were free and fair. The preparation process, which involved sensitizing citizens right down to the grassroots, enabled all to participate and it motivated women to get involved in big numbers.”

Of Rwanda’s 80 member Chamber of Deputies, 44 are women. 24 were elected through the affirmative action seats reserved specifically for women, and they were elected through a process conducted exclusively for and by women (30%). In addition, women can run in general elections against both men and women incumbents, and this year women won 18 additional seats. In addition, one of the two seats reserved for youth and the reserved seat for people with disabilities were also won by women. The majority of the women elected are from the RPF party. Members serve 5 year terms.

The Rwandan Senate, comprised of 26 members, currently has 9 women (34%). Senators serve 8 year terms. Eight are appointed by the President and the other 16 seats are reserved for and elected by specific constituency groups.

The Speaker of Parliament is the third highest post in the country, and for the first time this post is now held by a woman, Rose Mukantabana from Kigali.

While Rwanda has had great success in electing women to national office, it is well known that there is a gap between what is legislated, and what actually happens in the lives of women at the grassroots level.

“Women in decision making need to be empowered in order to enable them to play an influential role in their post,” says Crescence Mukantabana, a Vital Voices alumna and member of the Nzambazamariya Veneranda Association.

The abundance of women participating in Parliament is not replicated at other levels of government or public life, especially in key administrative and policy areas that affect women’s lives, such as banking, the courts, and the police forces. This has a great impact on the implementation of these laws, as well as the ability of women to access and benefit from the laws that the women in parliament create.

“My organization is planning to arrange training on the Gender Agenda as well as on the MDG’s,” says Francisca Mukakarangwa, Vital Voices Alumna from Kigali City. “We shall put emphasis on these issues and how women in parliament can be a real source of development and of improvement in the lives of their fellow women—economically, socially and politically.”

Jane Mutoni agrees. “I think Vital Voices of Africa can do a lot to support these women, first by helping them to have united goals, and also empowering them to speak out.”

It is also significant to note that many incumbent women MPs were not returned to office (only four were re-elected) in this election. Jane writes, “I think I can comment on why only few women (4) were re-elected. First of all we did not know most of them and their contributions over the last 5 years that most of them have been in Parliament. Why? Because they did not go down to the grassroots and also their voices were not heard. This year’s elections involved grassroots nomination, and many of these women were not known to them.” Fortunately women as a group did not lose ground, because other women were elected in their place.

However, this raises important questions about the sustainability of women in national leadership. Rwanda’s Presidential elections are in 2010. Can Rwanda field a viable woman candidate for President? Liberia holds presidential elections in 2011. Will President Sirleaf remain? To use basketball terminology—is our “bench” deep enough? Are there enough strong women leaders “on the bench” waiting to be called in to play. Are we preparing enough women in the pipeline to replace those women who leave office?

We at Vital Voices look forward to working with women in Rwanda and in other countries to ensure that this pipeline does exist, and that it continues to grow. We want women leaders to continue to experience growth in their opportunities not only to hold public office, but also to change women’s lives for the better. And Vital Voices will do its part to tell the story, even if no one else does.

Read the New Times Article on these historic elections