Myths and beliefs about work – The Role of Work in Society (Senior 1 Entrepreneurship) | Ganzaa

The Role of Work in Society

Lessons

Senior 1 · Entrepreneurship

The Role of Work in Society

4 lessons

Lesson 3 of 4

Myths and beliefs about work

25 min

Case: "You went to university to dig?"

Ishimwe finished a business degree in 2024 and spent eight months applying for office jobs without success. Then he rented a plot in Bugesera, put up a small greenhouse and planted tomatoes.

At a family gathering an uncle laughed: "You went to university to dig?" An aunt added that farming was "for people who have nothing else". Ishimwe answered with his notebook. His first season's figures are in the worked example below. By the next season he was paying three neighbours to help at harvest time. (An illustrative case.)

Think about it: What beliefs about work lay behind his relatives' comments? Were they true?

Selling tomatoes at a market in Bugesera. Growing and selling food takes skill: the farmer must judge planting dates, pests, prices and customers. Photo: ROSEMURA250, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Definition

Myth (about work): a widely repeated idea about work that is false, or true only in a few cases.

Example: "Only office jobs are real jobs."

Definition

Belief: an idea that a person or group accepts as true, whether or not there is evidence for it.

Example: a family's belief that its children should become civil servants.

Definition

Stereotype: a fixed, oversimplified idea about what a whole group of people is like or can do. A gender stereotype is one about men or women.

Example: "Women cannot be mechanics."

Common myths, and the facts

Myth	Fact
Only office jobs are real jobs.	Any honest work that produces useful goods or services is real work. Most Rwandans work in farming, trade, transport and crafts.
Manual work is for people who failed at school.	Skilled manual work such as welding, plumbing and electrical installation needs years of training, for example in a TVET school, and can be well paid.
Some jobs are only for men, others only for women.	Skill decides who can do a job, not gender. Women drive moto taxis in Kigali; men work as tailors, cooks and nurses.
Farming is for the old and the poor.	Farming feeds the country and supplies two of its main exports, tea and coffee. Greenhouses and irrigation make it a business.
Educated people should not get their hands dirty.	Education makes a farmer, builder or mechanic better at the job, not too good for it.
You need a lot of money to work for yourself.	Many businesses start small, from savings, and grow (Unit 1).
Only the government creates jobs.	Most jobs are created by private businesses, farms and cooperatives.
Work is a punishment.	Work brings income, skills, independence and self-respect (next lesson).

Warning

Don't swap one myth for another. "All manual work pays well" is as false as "manual work pays nothing". Pay varies widely in every kind of work. Judge each job on the evidence: its pay, its conditions and its prospects.

✦

Testing myths with numbers

A myth is best answered with evidence. For work that makes a profit:

$\text{profit} = \text{income} - \text{costs}$

and to compare two amounts of pay:

$\text{percentage difference} = \frac{\text{difference}}{\text{amount compared with}} \times 100\%$

Worked example

Ishimwe's first season (illustrative figures)

He harvested 2,400 kg of tomatoes and sold them at an average of Frw 500 a kilogram. His costs were: seedlings Frw 120,000; fertiliser and sprays Frw 180,000; water and hired help Frw 300,000; plot and greenhouse rent Frw 100,000.

Step 1: income. $2{,}400 \times 500 = 1{,}200{,}000$

Step 2: costs. $120,000 + 180,000 + 300,000 + 100,000 = 700,000$

Step 3: profit. $1,200,000 - 700,000 = 500,000$

Step 4: per month, for a 4-month season: $\dfrac{500{,}000}{4} = 125{,}000$

A profit of Frw 125,000 a month in his first season, from a business he owns, which also paid wages to his neighbours.

Worked example

Is manual work always paid less? (illustrative figures)

A trained welder in Kigali earns Frw 12,000 a day and works 22 days a month. An office assistant earns a salary of Frw 180,000 a month.

Welder's month: $12{,}000 \times 22 = 264{,}000$

Difference: $264,000 - 180,000 = 84,000$

Percentage difference: $\frac{84{,}000}{180{,}000} \times 100\% \approx 46.7\%$

In this example the manual job pays about 47% more. The welder's income stops on days without work, while the salary is steady, so a fair comparison looks at security as well as pay.

Tip

Ask for the evidence. When you hear a claim about work ("that job pays nothing", "that job is not for girls"), ask: Who says so? How do they know? Can I find one example that proves it wrong?

Channels Television, "Motorbike Taxis: Women Compete With Men In Rwanda" (2019, about 8 minutes). Watch for the belief these women had to overcome, how customers reacted, and what the drivers say about their earnings.

✦

Activity: myth or fact?

In groups, write eight statements about work you have heard at home or in your community, each on a separate card.
Sort the cards into "myth", "fact" and "not sure". For each "not sure" card, decide what evidence would settle it.
Hold a class debate on the motion: "Office work is better than work with your hands." Each speaker must give at least one piece of evidence.
Ask an older relative which beliefs about work were common when they were young, and which have changed.

Practice

Define myth and stereotype.
Give three myths about work and the fact that answers each.
Why is "some jobs are only for men" a stereotype? Give one example that disproves it.
A plumber earns Frw 15,000 a day and works 20 days a month. What is his income for the month?
In his second season Ishimwe's income was Frw 1,500,000 and his costs were Frw 800,000. Calculate his profit.
Explain how myths about work can keep young people unemployed.
"It is better to wait for an office job than to start a farming business." Do you agree? Give reasons for your answer.

Show answersHide answers

A myth is a widely repeated idea that is false or only rarely true; a stereotype is a fixed, oversimplified idea about what a whole group of people can do.
Any three rows of the table, each with its fact.
It judges people by their group, not their skills. Women moto-taxi drivers in Kigali disprove it.
$15{,}000 \times 20 = 300{,}000$ : Frw 300,000.
$1,500,000 - 800,000 = 700,000$ : Frw 700,000.
Young people may refuse available work (farming, trades, self-employment) because they think it is shameful, and wait for scarce office jobs instead, earning nothing meanwhile.
Answers may differ, but should weigh evidence: waiting earns nothing and office jobs are scarce; a farming business can make a profit (as Ishimwe's did) but carries risk. A strong answer might suggest starting small while still applying for jobs.

Sources and credits

Photo: Gucuruza inyanya, ROSEMURA250, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Video: Motorbike Taxis: Women Compete With Men In Rwanda, Channels Television, embedded from YouTube.

Written by Ganzaa: the Bugesera case, the table, the worked examples, the activity and the practice items. Prices and pay are illustrative (2026).

1Case: "You went to university to dig?"

2Common myths, and the facts

3Testing myths with numbers

4Activity: myth or fact?

Case: "You went to university to dig?"

Common myths, and the facts

Testing myths with numbers

Activity: myth or fact?