Gender inequality as the determinant of human trafficking in Rwanda

Abstract Gender inequality is built on the premise that women have been marginalized in all aspects of life and this has resulted in poverty which is a function of human trafficking. The purpose of this study is to investigate the contribution of gender inequality to human trafficking in Rwanda. Quantitative and qualitative approaches were adopted. The target population of the study comprised of 341 respondents and the sample size was 184 respondents. Among those who were issued a questionnaire only 154 responded. Stratified sampling technique and simple random sampling were used to obtain a representative sample. A questionnaire was used to collect the primary data. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) Version 21.0 for windows was applied to analyze the quantitative data. The findings indicated that R  = 0.50 and R 2  = 0.30 which is a strong relationship between the independent variables and the dependent variable. The significance of the F ‐statistic is 0.000 which is less than 0.05. This implies that null hypothesis is rejected and conclude that there is a relationship between gender inequality and human trafficking. The proposed model shows that gender inequality (Beta = 0.539) was the most important in influencing human trafficking and the Y intercept is 0.969, Thus, the model is written as, Y  = 0.969 + 0.539X. The study concludes that human trafficking in Rwanda is a result of socioeconomic marginalization. To overcome gender inequality and, therefore, human trafficking the government of Rwanda needs to encourage women do the nontraditional vocations which are mostly in off farm works and joining government decision‐making positions.