Module 2. Theorethical Concepts of Gender - FSN Network Portal

Mainstreaming Gender into Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Programs
Module 2: Theoretical Concepts of Gender
Lesson 8: Social Vulnerability and WASH
Water: A Woman’s Opportunity
Handout 8.2
When Action Aid asked a group of women in Kibbwezi, Kenya what their
greatest burden was, the response was unanimous: ‘water’ (Curtis, 1994).
The burdens associated with water remain a woman’s responsibility.
While water is a woman’s problem, today the ‘water world’ is still largely a
man’s domain when it is managed through the paid public domain. This is
because in this arena it is paid and productive. When water resources are not
paid for, and are part of the informal economy, women are responsible. Once
water enters the paid, public domain, this changes. Here it becomes subject
to hierarchy and the forces of patriarchy. Within this domain, men control the
management and distribution of water globally, while women are the primary
carers of the management of WASH locally. Women take responsibility for the
day-to-day collection of water, cleaning the water point, washing laundry,
cleaning the home and latrines, cleaning children, watering fields, cooking,
etc. Traditionally, men have been in charge of maintaining the water point,
although this is not always the case.
The unequal gender distribution of participants at worldwide water
symposiums is one example of the marked discrepancy between women and
men at a decision-making level. In 1997 at the Marrakech Forum, of 503
participants only 20-30 were women. In the same year, at the Consultative
Group meeting of the Global Water Partnership, 10 of 110 participants were
women. With this lack of representation at the policy level, it is therefore no
surprise that this feeds down to the local level (Rathgeber, 2003).
Although the demand for improved drinking water supply is often higher
among women then men, women are frequently marginalised from the
management structures of water systems and sanitation. It has traditionally
been assumed that men and women have similar interests, and therefore
men’s interests are taken to represent those of the household.
However, studies of bargaining power and patriarchy indicate that, in reality,
the community is not a collection of equal people living in a particular
geographic region. A community is made up of individuals and groups who
command different levels of power, wealth, influence and ability to express
their needs, concerns and rights. Communities contain competing interest
groups.
Gender roles shape the opportunities and constraints that women and men
face in securing their livelihoods across all cultural, political, economic and
environmental settings. Gender influences the roles and relationships of
people throughout all of their activities. This includes the position of women
and men in the institutions that determine access to land and other resources,
and to the wider economy. As with any other resource, women often have
limited access to water and the structures that govern it.
A Training Manual for Water Professionals developed collaboratively by PROTOS and SNV, 01/02/2007
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