Just over two-thirds of households in Rwanda keep livestock, with female-headed households almost five percentage points less likely to own livestock than their male counterparts.
For households that owned animals, ownership was similar for all livestock except that female-headed households were much less likely to raise cattle, except in Eastern Province.
Land ownership was similar in male- and female-headed households, except male heads were more likely to have acquired land in the previous 12 months, which may be connected to the much older age profile of female heads. Female heads were more likely to have rented or sharecropped land.
91% of female heads and 79% of male heads reported owning land. Very few other household members own land. However, the land registration system allows for joint and family registration in most cases, although this is not captured in the EICV.
Almost 90% of female heads of household work in agriculture compared with 62% of male heads. Furthermore, almost three quarters of all women work in agriculture compared with around 60% of all men. Women are much less likely to have paid non-farm work.
There are almost 2 million female small-scale farm workers compared with just over 1.1 million men. Moreover, there seems to be a route out of farming for men which is more difficult for women; over the past five years there has been a fall in the number of men working in agriculture but a rise in the number of women doing so.
Men have benefited much more from the growth in non-farm jobs. Women are highly concentrated in the agricultural sector, with some 82% of women working in agricultural occupations compared with 61% of men.
The occupations in which women find work outside agriculture are sales and commerce, where similar proportions of men and women work.
Men find work outside farming as drivers and machine operators or in semi-skilled occupations. Women seem to have much less access to this kind of occupation.