Effect of Gender Representation on Leadership Equity in Rwanda’s Commercial Banks: Evidence from BPR Bank Rwanda Plc

Furere Wellars & Ruth Odengo
University of Kigali
Email: furerewellars68@gmail.com

Abstract: Rwanda is globally acclaimed for women’s political representation, yet women remain underrepresented in the leadership of its commercial banks. This study examined the effect of gender representation on leadership equity in Rwanda’s commercial banks, using BPR Bank Rwanda Plc as a case. Specifically, it assessed the effects of gender representation, participation in decision-making, institutional mechanisms for promotion and leadership development, and organisational culture on leadership equity. Anchored in Human Capital, Gender Role, Social Role, and Institutional theories, the study adopted a convergent parallel mixed-methods design. Questionnaire data from 83 of 96 leaders (86.5% response rate) were triangulated with administrative records, interviews, a focus group and document review, and analysed using descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation, multiple regression and thematic analysis. Women held only 16.5% of leadership positions, declining from 42.9% on the Board to 10.8% among branch managers. The five predictors jointly explained 66.7% of the variance in leadership equity (F(5, 77) = 30.86, p < .001), each exerting a positive and significant effect; organisational culture was the strongest predictor (β = .276, p = .001), followed by participation in decision-making (β = .237, p = .002). All four null hypotheses were rejected. The study concludes that leadership equity depends less on numerical presence than on the cultural and institutional conditions that convert presence into influence and progression. It recommends gender-disaggregated succession targets, audited promotion systems, structured sponsorship, culture-change interventions and regulatory reporting on leadership diversity.