Understanding the women and water relationship (IWC5 Presentation)

5th Biennal GEF conference 26-29 Oct 2009

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Understanding the women and water relationship

Seema Kulkarni

SOPPECOM, Pune, India


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Is water a women’s question? Why is it so?


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Why women and water

Water is a crucial means of production and source of life

All socially disadvantaged groups therefore need to have access to means of production

Equal citizens argument Women’s presence in the water related work

is high


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Gender Analysis- An exercise

Analysis of activities around water: who does what?– Farming, Domestic, Other paid jobs, politics

Analysis of water resources: who owns what?– Access, ownership; Control: the power to decide whether

and how a resource is used Analysis of benefits and incentives

– who controls/has access to the benefits outputs of production

– Analysis of who decides the rules- power structures


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Women and water- relationship- special one

Access/control Activities Rule making process benefits


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Right to Water

Water entitlements

Water technology and infrastructure and

Voice or decision making in the water related institutions are mostly vested in men (some)


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Water knowledge

– Mostly technocentric where infrastructure and its management are seen as central

– Women’s water related work is invisible in the current water paradigm

– Women, dalits, gender relations or equity in general do not feature as part of the core debates of water thinking


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Tracing history- key trends

Women as victims of degradation of nature and water scarcity

Women as privileged knowers Women as solutions to the problem Theoretical underpinnings in the ecofeminist

thinking- essentialist and material basis Feminist environmentalism and feminist political

ecology- dynamic relationship of women with nature and women as diverse


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Tracing history ….

The 80’s were characterized by emerging advocacy in women’s leadership in environmental action.

Emphasis on special relationship with nature This had a tremendous impact in setting

development agendas. Women were seen as privileged knowers and therefore the solution to the problem rather than merely victims.


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Ecofeminism

Both these were informed by the varying trends in the ecofeminist thinking

close connection between women and nature based on a shared history of oppression by patriarchal institutions and dominant western culture as well as positive identification by women with nature. Ecofeminist thinking had various strands within it-essentialist, ideological and material basis for domination of women and nature


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How are women visualised

Women first seen as the victims affected by the environmental crisis

Then seen as the solution because of their natural roles as care takers and nurturers


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How it translated into programmes

Because women are the victims and because they are also the privileged knowers they need to be integrated into environmental regeneration programmes- participation leads to efficiency

Soil building planting trees, afforestation programmes, nurseries, energy efficient stoves community water management projects –increased burden on women’s work without challenging existing division of Labour


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Dominant assumptionsmale and female sector

Women are home makers, nurturers and carers of natural resources and hence they should be seen in those very roles in the water sector.

Women’s domain therefore remains that of domestic water sector- collecting and using that water for the welfare of the family.

Men’s domain is seen in the productive sphere or the irrigation sector. This is considered as a natural extension of their work of value addition and surplus generation.


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Approaches for gender water advocacy

Welfare Instrumentalist efficiency


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Emerging Critiques

The 90’s saw a lot of critiques of these ecofeminist and WED approaches- older concerns of women’s relationship with nature have now been recast in terms of their property rights


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Feminist Environmentalism

Feminist environmentalism emphasized the material aspects of gender-environment relationships. Interests in particular resources and ecological processes are shaped by the roles and responsibilities that men and women are engaged in on a daily basis-(BinaAgarwal)


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Feminist Political ecology

Feminist political ecology draws on works from political ecology and from various lessons in the gender and environment debates.

It draws attention to questions of gendered knowledge, access and control over resources and the engagement between local struggles and global issues.(Rochleau et al)


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What did they highlight?

Women’s relationship with the environment emerging from the social context of dynamic gender relations challenging the notion of a natural affinity

They unpacked women as a homogenous category- relationships with nature differ for different categories of women


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Shifting of focus from roles to relationships these critiques pointed out relations of tenure and property , and control over labour resources decisions shape people’s environmental interests and opportunities

Both these critiques highlighted the property relations and the need to look at informal practices and arrangements in property that underlie the formal arrangements.


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They also challenged the notion that women’s participation is equivalent to benefit for women. Saving the environment can become an additional burden for women thereby reinforcing regressive gender roles or not challenging existing gender roles

They highlighted the need for progressive or enhanced gender equity


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New approaches

Equity and empowerment


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Where do we go from here

What will our goals be? How will we achieve them (different

approaches equity, welfare, efficiency) What are our major constraints in doing so

(gender intersects with caste, class other social differences- so can we build shared interests?)


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Way forward

Assess the status of women’s access to water and decision making across diverse social groups- GEG-Levels of contestation across domains

calls for a restructuring of the water sector on sustainable, equitable and democratic lines

Understanding the women and water relationship (IWC5 Presentation)

Documents

water scarcity women

women visualised women

water relationship

biennal gef conferenc5

current water paradigm

domination of women

biennal gef conferenc11

biennal gef conferenc3