In 2019, the labour force participation rate among female in Rwanda was lower by 18 percentage points than that of male (45% against 63% respectively).
The gap in labour force participation rate of females and males was more pronounced in rural areas with the difference of 18 percentage points (42% for female against 63% for male) than in urban area where the difference was 14 percentage points (58% for female against 72 % for males).
This difference between urban and rural areas may be due to the fact that, more female involved in subsistence food staffs production live in rural area while subsistence food stuffs producers no longer considered as employed in the new ILO definitions.
The findings from the labour force surveys (figure 2) show that, regardless of the marital status, the labour force participation of female is lower than that of male.
The gap is much bigger among female in union where married female are 21 percentage points lower in labour force participation rate than their male counterparts (46% compared to 67%) while for female living together the gap is 23 percentage points lower than their male counterparts (57% compared to 80%).
The gap is lower among widows and widowers (32% compared to 41%). When the area of residence is considered still the labour force participation is lower among female than male regardless of the urban-rural settings.
But with more labour force participation in urban area for both female and male than in rural area due to the fact that, subsistence food staff producers are no longer considered participants in labour force as long as they only produce for own consumption.