Role of Gender in Water and Development

My watercolour painting.

Water infiltrates (see what I did there?) into every aspect of every persons life and as every individual has a gender identity, gender is intrinsic to this discussion. Gender is an extremely important part of any discussion, particularly in development and water,  however it has not always been treated as such. Topics surrounding equality and inclusion are currently center stage on the world platform and within policy, with movements like 'Times up' and 'Me Too' women across the global North are calling for equal footing and treatment in everyday life. It is in this political climate that I chose to write this blog on gender as it is important for us to decolonize our knowledge and look at the world not from the default viewpoint (usually from a privileged, Western, white and/or male stance) which provides a single story of places like 'Africa' and doesn't address many issues from the other side of gender.

WPS, 2012 

  I will be focusing on inequalities in African water use, provision and development, and gender inequality is key to this. While I understand that although arguments around gender tend to focus on women, particularly regarding inequalities, 'gender' does not automatically equal 'women'. Gender identities include men, women and any other way a person represents themselves, so it is important not to completely exclude them from the conversation but redress the balance, as women have historically tended to be under-represented as women, locally and nationally, are a not usually the primary decision makers when it comes to resource management or development (Haigh & Vallely, 2010). This means balancing the conversation by focusing on and including women and women specific issues in the conversations. It is also important to recognize that not all women are disadvantaged or excluded from development and not all men have privilege. However what we do know is that proportionately women and girls are responsible for the management and collection of water, making women key to any discussion of water provision.

As the world bank states in their working paper 'The Rising Tide A New Look at Water and Gender', "Water can be thought of as an asset, a service, and a space" - (Das, 2017). 
Water is many things and holds different values, these are economic, social, political, cultural and spiritual. Socio-economic systems and cultural customs mean that water becomes a platform for which culturally ingrained gender relations are practiced. This highlights gendered inequalities. 

The Economic Value of Water:

Water, as an economic resource, particularly in regards to women farmers, can highlight aspects of resource control/ownership, employment, labor division and exposure to risks. In Kenya, for example, women, on top of their traditional domestic tasks, comprise 42-65% of agricultural labour across the population. Yet only 6% of women own land and, a tiny fraction, just 0.5%, can access financial services!! - This story is common across much of Sub Saharan Africa (Diiro, 2018). Rural women's agricultural role continues to be underestimated in many countries, particularly as much of women's workload is just seen as part of the domestic role so working as unpaid family workers, means they tend to be excluded from national statistics for example women farmers being labeled 'housewives' in censuses.

Non-Economic:

On the non economic value of water, which is just as, if not more important, is how underlying behaviour patterns and social/cultural norms are played out in the paradigm of water because hierarchies, taboos and rituals all affect women and men in different ways and to different extremes. The relationship can often play out in ways that you do not expect, for example, in the Global South, girls are taught to swim less but yet more die of drowning. Women and girls relate to water differently from men and boys, while "norms and practices related to water often exacerbate ingrained gender and other hierarchies" (Das, 2017). Water collection for example is seen as a mainly female task (see my next post for expansion on this). The power relations that play out in water and sanitation can negatively affect girls, for example, constraining girls time meaning that many girls miss school everyday or sanitation issues like a lack of toilet facilities. When there is a lack of adequate and safe toilet facilities, especially in schools, girls on their periods are affected more severely and completely differently to boys. Taboos and embarrassment around menstruation, are exacerbated when there then is a lack of sanitary facilities and cause many girls stay at home during their periods. Up to 1 in 10 girls across sub-Saharan Africa are estimated to miss school during their period (Higgins, 2017). These are just a couple of examples of  how water reinforces and reflects gender inequality.

The relationship between water and gender is salient to broader progress on gender equality. Therefore, it is important to normalize conversations from the female viewpoint from the global south if we are ever to combat equity issues an understand the true impact of topics that are, for various reasons, generally shied away from, like sanitation related practicalities like menstrual hygiene management and reproductive health and sexual assault during water collection or long walks to the toilet. These very real issues are shrouded with taboos, secrecy and imposed beliefs; water has a huge part to play within these and how this impedes on women's lives. These are issues I will discuss further in my next few posts.