Rwanda continues to make progress in supporting women and girls, particularly in leadership and decision-making positions. However, significant challenges remain in areas including household decision-making, family welfare, asset ownership, access to technology and addressing gender-based violence.
This is according to findings from the 2025 Rwanda Demographic and Health Survey (RDHS), conducted by the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR) among more than 20,831 people, including 14,283 women and 6,548 men.
The section on women’s empowerment involved 7,410 respondents and examined women’s participation in decisions concerning money, ownership of houses and land, access to technology and financial services, household decision-making, attitudes towards violence against women, and reproductive health.
The findings show that younger women are less involved in decision-making than older women. Among women aged 15–19, only 32.9% participate in decisions concerning sexual relations, contraceptive use and reproductive health.
Within the same age group, 49.5% participate in decisions regarding their own healthcare, while 41.1% participate in all three major household decisions: their healthcare, major household purchases, and visits to family or relatives.
By comparison, women aged 45–49 report higher levels of participation. In this group, 54.8% participate in reproductive health decisions, 79% participate in decisions about their own healthcare, and 68.1% participate in all three major household decisions.
Married Women Show Greater Awareness of Their Rights
The RDHS defines participation in household decision-making as a woman making decisions alone or jointly with her husband on matters such as her own healthcare, major household purchases, and visits to family or relatives.
Among married women, 61% participate in all three major household decisions, while 6% do not participate in any of them.
Men are more likely than women to participate in decisions concerning major household purchases, with 93% of men involved compared with 77% of women.
The survey also found that 75% of married women can refuse to have sexual intercourse with their husbands when they do not want to, while 74% can ask their husbands to use condoms.
Regarding attitudes towards women’s rights within marriage, 69% of women believe a woman is justified in refusing sex with her husband if she knows he is having sexual relations with other women. Similarly, 85% believe women have the right to ask their husbands to use condoms if they know their husbands have a sexually transmitted infection.
However, gaps remain in control over household finances. Among married women aged 15–49 whose husbands earned money during the 12 months before the survey, 65% said they jointly decided with their husbands how the money was used. Meanwhile, 31% said their husbands mainly made those decisions, compared with only 5% who said they themselves mainly decided how their husbands’ earnings were spent.
Asset Ownership Remains a Major Challenge
Ownership of houses and land can provide economic security and create opportunities for investment and access to loans. However, the survey shows that women continue to face significant gaps in asset ownership.
Overall, only 5% of women aged 15–49 own a house individually, while 35% own a house jointly with their husbands. About 59% do not own a house.
Land ownership is also limited. Only 4% of women own land individually, while 20% own land jointly with their husbands. By comparison, 8% of men own land individually, while 50% own it jointly with their wives.
Legal documentation is another challenge. Among women who own houses, 43% have land titles or other government-recognised documents proving their ownership. Another 10% have ownership documents that do not bear their names, while 46% have no documentation proving that the houses belong to them.
For land, 49% of women who own land have documents registered in their names, while 8% have documents that do not bear their names and 42% have no land ownership documents.
The findings suggest that even where women own assets, gaps in legal documentation and recognised ownership rights can limit their ability to benefit fully from those assets.
Women Continue to Lag Behind in Technology Access
The RDHS 2025 also highlights a gender gap in access to mobile phones and financial services.
Among people aged 15–49, 64% of women and 73% of men own mobile phones, representing a gap of 9.6 percentage points. Smartphone ownership stands at 28% among women compared with 35% among men, a gap of 7.5 percentage points.
The gap is wider when it comes to using phones for financial activities. During the 12 months preceding the survey, 57% of women used phones for financial activities compared with 71% of men.
The disparity is significant because mobile phones and digital financial services are increasingly important for accessing information, saving money, conducting business and pursuing economic opportunities.
Education and location also influence women’s empowerment. Women with education beyond secondary school report higher participation in household decisions, with 77.1% participating in all three major household decisions compared with 63.9% of women with no education.
Urban Women Report Higher Empowerment Levels
The survey further shows that women living in urban areas generally report higher empowerment indicators than those in rural areas.
Among urban women, 66.3% participate in all three major household decisions, compared with 59.1% of women living in rural areas.
Urban women also have greater access to mobile phones, with 80.6% owning phones compared with 55.8% of women in rural areas.
The findings point to the continued need for measures that strengthen women’s economic independence, access to technology and financial services, legal ownership of assets, and participation in household decision-making, particularly among younger women and those living in rural areas.
While Rwanda has made progress in advancing women’s empowerment, the RDHS 2025 findings show that more needs to be done to ensure women and girls have an equal voice, greater economic opportunities and stronger control over decisions affecting their lives and families.
