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Women's Participation in Water Management

In today's short post, I want to talk about how the meaningful participation of women in water management has been posed as an approach towards reaching gender equality in relation to water. If the needs of women in relation to water are to be considered and their knowledge is to be utilised effectively, then more women must be involved in water management (Boateng and Kendie, 2015). However, there are factors which limit the potential for women's participation and arguably, including women in water management to fill gender quotas is not enough; to avoid tokenistic participation and have meaningful participation instead, a 'contextually specific understanding' of women's needs is required to create appropriate solutions (Lasiter and Stawicki, 2014). 

Figure 1: Women professionals in water management in Tanzania 

Limitations to the meaningful participation of women:

  • The lack of spare time that women have due to their commitment to domestic work, such as water collection or caring for children (Adams et al, 2018)
  • Women who are involved in water management may be hesitant raise their opinions because of societal norms and patriarchal beliefs (Coulter et al, 2018); 'overly vocal' women can be seen as 'socially unacceptable' and even unfit for marriage (Mandara et al, 2017). 
  • Many male-dominated fields, like water management, disempower and intimidate women from taking on important decision-making roles (Svahn, 2011); when women do gain a place in the field, their roles are often those that include little participation in important decisions but have a more demanding workload (Hemson, 2002)

Figure 2: Barriers to women's participation 


How meaningful participation can be achieved (Hemson, 2002):

  • Gender sensitivity training for members of water user associations and water schemes can sensitise men and women to the importance and benefits of women in water management; gender roles and societal norms can also be broken down to encourage the participation of women in important roles
  • Provision of education for adult women so that their knowledge is equivalent to that of men in the field and they can perhaps feel less intimidated to participate 
  • Increased technical training for women to gain access to equal employment opportunities as men 

In conclusion, meaningful participation of women in water management is certainly attainable, however, certain measures like the suggested above by Hemson (2002) should be employed to ensure this. Indeed, simply getting women to participate in water management is not enough; societal norms and structural barriers must be broken down in order for women to succeed in the future.  

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