Water and gender: the unexpected connection that really matters.
Author | Bennett, Vivienne |
Position | REGIONAL ISSUES - Report |
Since the mid-1990s, worldwide focus on water scarcity has exploded. Attention has moved beyond the technical dimensions of water provision to the political and social contexts in which water management occurs. In many places, especially where water is scarce, control over water confers power. The political analysis of water is then an analysis of power relations. As social scientists have entered the water world, and more and more case studies are carried out in Latin America, Africa and Asia, another facet of the politics of water that has been brought to light is gender differentiation in water usage and water management. In our 2005 book, Opposing Currents: The Politics of Water and Gender in Latin America, we provided a framework for understanding the connection between water and gender and a review of the development of global water policy and gender policy since the early 1990s, using case studies from six Latin American countries to highlight the role of women in water management. We found that substantial change is still needed to overcome pernicious gender bias and imbalances that distort water management and lead to ineffective planning in the water sector.
The distortions that we depicted in the book are the legacy of the past century during which the water world was structured as a masculine domain: the domain of engineers, ditch diggers, ditch riders and farmers in the countryside and urban planners in the cities. Changing the conceptualization of water in practice is an exceedingly slow process. Thus, the world depicted in our book remains the reality three years later. The urgent need to address the gender dimensions of water management is evidenced by the decision of the United Nations to name the decade of 2005 to 2015 as The International Decade for Action: Water for Life. The description of the decade includes the following statement in its introduction:
As women play a central role in water provision and management, a special emphasis will be placed on ensuring the participation and involvement of women in these development efforts ... Among the themes that are central for the "Water for Life" Decade are: scarcity ... water and gender ... (1) When Secretary General Kofi Annan launched the decade on 22 March 2005, he ended his speech by saying, "This is an urgent matter of human development and human dignity." (2) This essay provides a framework for understanding the connection between water and gender with examples from Latin America that illuminate the urgency of these issues.
The UN International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which was signed in 1966, established the right to water as a human right in Articles 11 and 12. This led to the conceptualization of water as a collective good, laying the grounds for future international accords on water. The Dublin Conference on Water and the Environment in 1999 was a watershed event in the world of water policy because of the adoption of the four Dublin Principles that have guided decision-making ever since. The principles state:
-
Fresh water is a finite and vulnerable resource, essential to sustain life, development and the environment.
-
Water development and management should be based on a participatory approach, involving users, planners and policy makers at all levels.
-
Women play a central role in the provision, management and safeguarding of water.
-
Water has an economic value in all its competing uses and should be recognized as an economic good.
After the Dublin Conference, most multinational sectoral gatherings (e.g., on housing, health care, natural resources, women, etc.) included water on their agendas and endorsed what are known today as the Dublin-Rio Principles. (4) As a result, there have been tangible changes stemming from principles one, two and four. The first principle has focused worldwide attention on the importance of sustainable development, the second on mainstreaming a participatory approach in water development projects and the fourth has led to a conceptual shift from water as a basic right to water as a commodity These three principles have shaped a revolution in water policy over the past fifteen years. What about the third principle? It is a concept that should have been as revolutionary for water policy as the concepts embodied in the other three principles. However, despite variations on its theme that appear in every global policy statement on water, with rare exception, it is not spelled out, mainstreamed or implemented. (5)
Translating the third principle into action would be quite straightforward as it recognizes an important reality: not that women should become central to water management, but that they already are. What are the implications of this reality? Women already know about water management. Why is this powerful? If women already know about water management, then their knowledge, experiences and priorities will enrich policy and planning in the water sector. Bringing in women's knowledge, experiences and priorities regarding water use alongside men's is to implement a gendered perspective in water management. Failing to do so is to lose valuable knowledge that could have led to more effective water management. This article explains the connection between water and gender for household use as well as in the context of irrigation, focusing on poor urban women, peasants and indigenous women. It then examines the failures of water policy, including privatization, to embrace a gendered perspective and the failures of gender policy in addressing water issues. Throughout, we provide stories that show how women in Latin America have overcome or circumvented these failures to improve water management in ways that improve their daily lives.
WATER AND GENDER: WHAT'S THE CONNECTION?
In the world of water policies, although lip service is sometimes paid to gender, it is generally without depth or consequences for water management practices. In the world of gender policies, water is almost never mentioned. (6) Yet important connections exist between water and gender, and when these relationships are made explicit, more effective and equitable water resource management results. Water and gender are linked both in the contexts of household and domestic water use and irrigation.
This article is based on the assumption that there is an inherent social right of all human beings: the right to water, as per the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Social rights can be defined as the right to a minimum standard of living and well-being according to the prevailing values of one's society. (7) A key element in all societies is easy access to a consistently sufficient supply of water of adequate quality to sustain the health, hygiene and productivity of all members of a community. However, in reality, the right to water is not recognized. Important gender divisions that allocate many water responsibilities to women, but vest most powers and rights in men, characterize most water worlds. The precise nature and form of these divisions is markedly different between the domestic water sector and the irrigation sector.
Gender Divisions in the Domestic Water Sector
Domestic water issues are framed in contexts of social rights and welfare, health and hygiene, and basic needs and in the context of women's responsibilities for social reproduction. This includes the unpaid work within the household that is carried out almost exclusively by women and that is central to the development of families, communities and, ultimately, nations. (8) In contrast, irrigation is framed in terms of production and economic efficiency. These differences shape the possibilities for recognizing and addressing gender concerns. The "basic needs/social welfare" approach to domestic water recognizes women's needs for water, which in itself does not guarantee that they will have the right to a voice in water management, but it at least establishes that women have a legitimate place on drinking water and sanitation policy agendas. This is in contrast to irrigation policy, which focuses on production and other areas where women are invisible. In much of Latin America, farming and irrigation are strongly associated with masculinity and identified as male jobs. Though most rural women farm and irrigate, they are seldom seen as farmers by water management agency staff, or even by their own communities, and, as a consequence, they are seldom endowed with the associated rights and resources. (9)
Within Latin American households and elsewhere, women are generally responsible for all tasks involving water: cooking, cleaning, laundry, bathing children and caring for sick family members. Water scarcity and poor water quality complicate these tasks. Residents in poor urban neighborhoods often get their water either from community faucets that function a few hours each day, and service as many as one to two hundred families each, or from trucks that deliver water once or twice a week. (10) In rural areas, poor households get their household water from community wells, nearby rivers or irrigation ditches, often involving arduous collection efforts. Water is also an input for many traditional productive activities that women in Latin America carry out in their homes or on their land, both in rural and urban settings, including preparing food, baking bread, doing laundry for third parties, managing household vegetable gardens and raising animals. (11) These activities, rooted in the gender-based division of labor, and thus in women's historical roles in the household and shaped by the prevailing gender system, represent a fundamental part of family income. This is especially true in female-headed households, and unless women's roles change will continue to be essential for family nutrition, health and subsistence. Hence, women use water for both household and productive purposes.
Given the central role...
To continue reading
Request your trialCOPYRIGHT GALE, Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.