The End to This Blog, but Not to Fighting Gender Inequality

Unfortunately, we have come to the end of my blog now! Over the past few weeks, I have looked at a range of different issues which disproportionately affect women including: the unequal access to groundwater, the burden of water collection, gender-based violence, period poverty, inequalities in irrigation, participation in water management and climate change. After exploring these issues in my blog, it has become clear that there is still work to be done to fight gender inequality in relation to water.

If gender inequality in relation to water is to be dismantled in Africa, then socio-cultural norms and taboos need to be broken down so that women can have equal opportunities to men. Although improving infrastructures and technologies will help women to an extent, wider societal inequalities between men and women need to be addressed first. In order for this to happen, both men and women should be educated on the issues perpetuated by socio-cultural norms, as well as the benefits that meaningful participation of women in water management can bring.

Whilst these gender inequality challenges may have brought a negative tone to this blog, I want to end this journey by acknowledging the progress that has already been made in different places across Africa. The relationship that gender has with water and development is certainly being increasingly recognised by people; as our understanding of women's needs in relation to water grows, gender inequality is slowly being dismantled.

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Water, Gender and Development in Africa

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