Women in Science for Water
Alice Bouman-Dentener
DiploriA- Sustainable Development Solutions
The Hague, The Netherlands
E-mail: alice.bouman@gmail.com; alice@diploria.org
Affiliations: Vice-President Water Research & Training Centre; Vice-Chair Trade + Impact Association; ISC member Young Water Solutions Fellowship; Honorary Founding President, Women for Water Partnership
Abstract
This chapter looks at the gender discourse through a water lens and at water governance in the context of women’s inclusion in decision-making at all levels. The transformation to gender-sensitive and women-inclusive water governance is a lengthy and on-going process in a sector that is highly fragmented, intrinsically gendered, and traditionally in the technical domain of public administration. The water-gender (SDG5 – SDG6) interface emerges as an important but still underused pathway to further sustainable and equitable development. Next to women’s contributions to water governance in their individual capacities as decision-makers, scientists, water professionals and water users, women’s civil society comes to the fore as an important actor to ensure bespoke solutions that take local gender realities into account. Contemporary research is biased toward women as water users. The role of women in water management has received limited scholarly attention, despite agreement since 1992 by UN Member States that it is a cornerstone for Integrated Water Resources Management. Moreover, research on the gender-water nexus is limited, uncovering the need for increased data mining on this important topic. Those data that are available demonstrate that gender-water research is still very much a woman’s business, as an estimated 88 percent of the authors of relevant research are female.
Keywords: Water, women, gender, IWRM, water governance, intersectionality, science and research
1. Introduction
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development that was agreed by the United Nations General Assembly in October, 2015 contains two Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that are foundational to achieving sustainable and equitable development worldwide, and that have a bearing on most, if not all other SDGs: the Gender Goal – SDG 5, which sets out to: “Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls”, and the Water Goal – SDG6, which aims to: “Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all” {1].
The 2030 Agenda makes an ambitious commitment to achieve gender equality and leave no one behind. Next to the stand-alone importance of SDG5-targets for gender equality and women’s empowerment, there is considerable added value in the interlinkages with other SDGs. In this regard, the UN global survey on the role of women in development conducted in 2014 reveals that the domain of water and sanitation has a particularly strong potential to transform the lives of women and girls [2]. Inversely, the World Water Development Report 2015 states that: “The principle of equity[1], perhaps more than any technical recommendation, carries with it the promise of a more water-secure world for all” [4]. As both water security and women’s empowerment are of the essence to address the persisting inequalities in society, working on the SDG5-SDG6 nexus can create a triple win for sustainable and equitable development: It unleashes the underused potential of women to contribute to the economy, it strengthens good water stewardship which helps to attain water security for all, and it contributes to building inclusive societies where no one is left behind.
This chapter looks at the gender discourse in relation to water (chapter 2) and at the discourse on water governance in relation to women (chapter 3). Both water and gender are complex topics that have been the subject of extensive deliberations in the international development domain for many decades, resulting in agreements, strategies and policies that determine the collective way forward for the UN Member States. To understand where we stand today, the major transformations in conceptual thinking in both domains are briefly recaptured in these chapters.
Science is indispensable for advancing the SDGs in a strategic and forward-looking manner with due consideration for geopolitical, social and cultural diversities Under Agenda 2030 a United Nations Interagency Task Team on Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) for the SDGs has been established, complemented by a collaborative STI Multi-stakeholder Forum and an on-line platform[2].
Furthermore, several SDGs include specific STI targets, notably Target 3.b, 4.3, 7.a, 8.2, 9.5 and 9.b, 12.a, 14.a, 17.6 and 17.8 [1]. The gender goal SDG5 and the water goal SDG6 however, do not have a specific reference to the importance of research and science to support these goals. Chapter 4 presents the author’s thoughts on women in science for water.
2. The gender discourse in relation to water
Gender equality has been core concern of the United Nations from its beginning. The UN Charter (1945) has the equal rights of women and men front and center [5], and in 1946 the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) was instated as the intergovernmental body to develop agreements, policies and action agendas, and to monitor implementation and evaluate progress on women’s rights and gender equality [6]. After more than 70 years of CSW-work, the United Nations Women’s Decade (1975-1985), four global Women’s Conferences culminating in the Beijing Platform for Action in 1995 [7], the adoption of the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1979 [8], a multitude of gender strategies, and the dedicated gender goal (MDG3) in the Millennium Development Goals [9], gender equality remains a largely unfinished business[3]. This is no different for the water realm, where women are underrepresented in decision-making at all levels, and where priorities for water allocation continue to reflect the unequal power relations between men and women (see for instance [11 - 14).
Gender equality goes two ways. It is about equal rights and benefits for women and men, but just as much about equal opportunities and responsibilities. In the 1970s the United Nations, instigated by the women’s movement, launched a global process on Women in Development (WID)[4] creating a paradigm shift away from regarding women solely as a vulnerable group and passive beneficiaries of aid. Since then, developments have gone through several stages and transformations: from looking at women almost exclusively in terms of their development needs through recognizing their essential contributions to development processes, to actively seeking women’s socio-economic empowerment and their full participation at all levels of human activity (see for instance [11, 16]). This chapter explores how these developments are reflected in the water realm and how they affect water realities in situations where traditional gender roles prevail.
2.1 Water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH)
A field with a long-standing focus on women is the drinking water, sanitation and hygiene sector (WASH). A recent multidisciplinary review of gender in WASH [17] concludes that the way in which women’s issues have been conceptualized since the 1970s is not only reflected in, but also shaped by the WASH sector. Women’s experiences, perceptions, and roles in WASH became an important area of focus from the early 1970s because of the potential that access to sufficient and safe drinking water and adequate sanitation has to lift people out of poverty, and the notion that women in particular were lagging behind. This research and advocacy, including on the empowerment potential for women, was primarily carried out by feminist anthropologists and economists leading up to the First UN World Conference on Women in 1975. A scholarly interest in the WASH sector itself is reported from 1984 onwards[5]. This was well into the International Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Decade (IDWSSD) of 1981 – 1990, which aimed to ensure full access to water supply and sanitation by all inhabitants in the developing countries by the year 1990.
The partial overlap of the IDWSSD with the UN Decade for Women sparked efforts at different levels to reconcile the water and gender agenda. Fueled by the IDWSSD Inter-Agency Task Force on Women (IATFW), a pro-active women’s movement, a core of dedicated scientists and researchers – mostly women – and support programs of UN Agencies, there was a growing realization among policy- and decision-makers that for the unserved part of the population to get access, their women needed to be involved. This led to formal recognition of the role of women in water supply and sanitation by the IDWSSD in 1987 [18]. The IDWSSD evaluation report shows however, that the scholarly and policy focus on women had not yet led to structural implementation in practice. While considerable progress was achieved in service delivery, particularly in urban settings, at the closure of the Drinking Water and Sanitation Decade, 30 percent of the developing world's population still lacked access to safe water, and 40 percent was left without adequate sanitation, with the majority of the unserved living in rural regions and in low-income, marginal urban areas. The evaluation report mentions that: “Women's involvement in decision making, planning and management, crucial for effective community participation, has been neither systematically encouraged nor applied, but is, at best, pursued on an ad hoc basis” [19]. Furthermore, women as actors in WASH initially implied that women were fitted into the technology-focused development thinking of the 1980s: they were involved as an instrument for cost-effective service delivery at community level rather than empowered to develop themselves (see page 191 [17]).
In the wake of the social development paradigm of the 1990s, the international focus moved from women to gender, which takes into consideration the unequal power relations between men and women and their often-distinct roles in society and associated opportunities for social and economic development. After the 4th World Conference on Women and the adoption of the Beijing Platform for Action, gender mainstreaming became the new paradigm and the WASH sector followed suit. Gender mainstreaming is defined as: “The process of assessing the implications for women and men of any planned action, including legislation, policies or programs, in all areas and at all levels. It is a strategy for making the concerns and experiences of women as well as men, an integral dimension of the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies and programs in all political, economic and societal spheres, so that women and men benefit equally and inequality is not perpetuated. The ultimate goal is to achieve gender equality” [20]. In the new millennium, the mainstreaming of gender issues within WASH programming has become an accepted norm, with conceptual tools and frameworks in place at different levels (see for instance [21 – 24]), including for engineers and technicians [25]. However, there continues to be a considerable gap between commitment to gender equality and implementation through gender mainstreaming in the sector.
Recent research findings show that the integration of gender is hampered by the lack of appropriate approaches, particularly for non-gender experts, who experience difficulties in implementing ‘gender’ concepts into their programmatic work and often lack knowledge of viable entry points, including on how to engage women in genuine dialogue about the gendered impacts of projects [26].
In 2015, the UN Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP)[6] reported that at the onset of Agenda 2030, all regions have witnessed increased access to improved sources of drinking water since 1990, but that an estimated 663 million people worldwide still use unimproved drinking water sources, including unprotected wells, springs and surface water. Nearly half of all people using unimproved drinking water sources live in sub-Saharan Africa, while one fifth live in Southern Asia. Sanitation coverage still falls short considerably, with 68% coverage globally and 28% of the world’s population still practicing open defecation, the majority living in rural areas [28].
In a renewed effort to achieve full global coverage, the water goal SDG6 contains specific targets for water and sanitation: Target 6.1 aims to by 2030 ‘achieve universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all’. Target 6.2 is dedicated to sanitation, aiming to ‘achieve access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all, and end open defecation, paying special attention to the needs of women and girls and those in vulnerable situations’ [1].
With respect to gender sensitivity and women inclusiveness, gender strategies are now the norm. Women are widely seen as key actors and beneficiaries. They continue to be the majority of the unserved, bearing the brunt of gender-based inequalities, including violence, unequal distribution of unpaid work, and lack of voice. Hence, an explicit consideration for and addressing of gender inequality in all global and national efforts to achieve Targets 6.1 and 6.2 of the SDGs is called for [29]. Into the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the water, sanitation and hygiene sector continues to be a strong actor in support of gender equality and women’s empowerment, holding the position that WASH serves as a critical pathway to transforming gender relations and supporting women as agents of change. Having a say over and participating in WASH services is an effective empowerment tool. Furthermore, adequate access to WASH has a positive bearing on public health, nutrition and school attendance, improves the situation of women in fragile situations, creates economic opportunities for women, and reduces the burden of unpaid work (see for instance [30]).
Equal Measures 2030 (EM2030), a multi-stakeholder partnership for the advancement of gender equity across the SDGs, has developed gender performance indicators for 14 of the 17 SDGs. The water goal, SDG6, has three gender performance indicators: women’s basic drinking water access, women’s basic sanitation access and women’s satisfaction with water quality. The 2019 EM2030 SDG Gender Index lists SDG6 as second-best performer on gender equality [31]. This shows that the continuous efforts since the 1970s, aided by scientists and researchers who have documented the need for, the ways towards and the positive outcomes of gender sensitive and women inclusive WASH interventions, are paying off. Progress may seem slow. But one should bear in mind that for water and gender to integrate, a marriage is needed between technical and social disciplines. Furthermore, for internationally agreed principles to translate into national and local realities and practices, considerable awareness raising, mindset change and capacity development must take place. Lastly, the still unserved segments of the global population live in remote areas where centralized services are not an option and traditional gender roles prevail. Bespoke solutions are therefore needed that take the specific physical circumstances and socio-cultural contexts into consideration.
Data collection and research have played an important role in making the case for women’s involvement in WASH. A Web of Science topic search on records from 1977 – 2016, using women and water as combined keywords reveals that water and gender research remains strongly biased towards women as water users, whereas the role of women in water management receives only limited attention (see page 213 [32]).
3. Water Governance and Women
Water is essential in all spheres of life and water security underlies human well-being and sustainable growth. Water is also the primary link through which climate change affects people’s welfare and ecosystems [33]. The pressure on the earth’s water resources is mounting due to continuous population growth and economic expansion, among other factors. This makes sustainable water governance pivotal for achieving the 2030 Agenda and its 17 SDGs. Water security is defined as: “The capacity of a population to safeguard sustainable access to adequate quantities of acceptable quality water for sustainable livelihoods, human wellbeing and socio-economic development, for ensuring protection against water-borne pollution and water-related disasters and for preserving ecosystems in a climate of peace and political stability” [34]. Water security is globally acknowledged as the foundation and the glue for sustainable development, whilst holistic and inclusive water governance and/or Integrated Water Resources Management are recognized as the way towards achieving water security (see for instance [35 – 39]).
In recognition of the vital importance of water for development and to expeditiously address the pressing water challenges, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) has declared 2018 – 2028 as the International Decade for Action “Water for Sustainable Development”. The new Water Action Decade builds on the 2005 – 2015 ‘Water for Life’ Decade [40] and focuses on the sustainable development and integrated management of water resources for the achievement of social, economic and environmental objectives. The Decade resolution highlights the importance of inclusiveness and the full involvement of women as relevant stakeholder group [41].
The growing importance given to water for achieving sustainable and equitable development is also visible in science and research. A recent assessment of water-related research shows that the number of publications supporting SDG6 has increased steadily from 7,070 publications worldwide in 2014 to 9,813 in 2018, whereby the annual compound growth rate of 8.5% is much higher than the average of 2% for all research fields. Furthermore, the bulk of the water-related publications is on water management [42]. In comparison, a 1990s Google Scholar search is reported to record just 47 references on water governance; by 2014, this number had risen to 2,460 references [43][7].
Water governance is a broad concept that reflects the different ways in which the provision, management and safeguarding of water is conceptualized and shaped around the world, ranging from a focus on scarcity or environmental integrity to prioritizing economic efficiency, and from taking a river basin or watershed as organizing principle to applying polycentric or network governance [43]. It is an umbrella term and no agreed definition exists, although there is a common understanding that water governance is a multilevel process and that, while Government holds the prime responsibility, participation in water governance should not be limited to State entities. A much-used definition of water governance is: “The set of rules, practices, and processes (formal and informal) through which decisions for the management of water resources and services are taken and implemented, stakeholders articulate their interest and decision-makers are held accountable” [44].
Water governance is henceforward addressed through the concept of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM), as this is the UN approved concept.
3.1 Integrated Water Resources Management
The times of supply-driven, centrally organized and continuously expanding service delivery as the prevailing water governance model are long gone [45]. In the light of the looming water crisis, water experts and policy makers developed a new paradigm to reconcile the increasingly competing demands for domestic, agricultural, industrial, environmental and recreational water uses. The concept of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) was adopted during the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro (UNCED, 1992) as the agreed way forward towards the sustainable use and equitable allocation of water resources, through the combined effort of state and non-state actors. IWRM is based on the Rio/Dublin Principles that call for a holistic approach to water governance with decentralization to the lowest appropriate level, and that emphasize the importance of stakeholder participation and the central role of women in this regard [46]. Integrated Water Resources Management has since gained worldwide recognition. The ways in which the IWRM principles are put to practice, however, are diverse, ranging from top-down comprehensive planning to bottom-up adaptive management, and from centralized hierarchical decision-making to inclusive water governance. IWRM is not a stage that can be reached, but a dynamic and continuous process of adaptation to changing circumstances; and its implementation is a complex process that depends on the social, economic and environmental conditions in a country and on the political choices in case of conflicting demands [47].
IWRM is presently considered as an essential framework not only to achieve availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all (SDG6), but also underlying the realization of all Sustainable Development Goals. IWRM implementation is included in SDG6 under target 6.5: “By 2030, implement integrated water resources management at all levels, including through transboundary cooperation as appropriate” [1]. The global baseline for the degree of IWRM implementation in 172 UN Member States reveals that more than 80% of countries have laid a solid foundation for IWRM, meaning that they report to have policies, laws and IWRM plans and the institutional framework for implementation largely in place at national level. This to a lesser extent also holds true for sub-national and river basin levels, bearing in mind that there are considerable differences between individual countries [48].
3.2 Rio/Dublin Principles 2 and 3: a call for participatory and women-inclusive water governance
Integration is at the core of IWRM. A comparative research on IWRM practice in 13 countries across the globe concludes that IWRM encompasses three types of integration: functional, institutional and societal integration. Functional integration refers to the multi-facetted nature of the resource. It seeks to reconcile the increasingly competing demands on water by the different ways it is used in its course from source to sea. With it comes the need to address the fragmented governance and overlapping jurisdictions between the different systems in a watershed. Institutional integration concerns the effective cooperation between institutions that have water management responsibilities for different sectors and at different levels in a country as well as transboundary. It is about harmonizing laws and policies, and creating coordination mechanisms and other instruments that help authorities to address water governance in a holistic way. Societal integration seeks to overcome the disconnect between a government and the society it serves, and refers to different forms of participatory water governance [47]. As indicated above, Integrated Water Resources Management has four guiding principles that were established at the International Conference on Water and the Environment (ICWE) in Dublin, Ireland, of January 1992 and adopted later that year during the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil as part of Agenda 21 (BOX 1). The first Rio/Dublin Principle for IWRM relates to functional integration. The subsequent two principles address societal integration: Principle 2 outlines the need for stakeholder participation, including non-traditional water actors, and Principle 3 is specifically on the pivotal role of women in this regard. As water is traditionally governed through public administration, it should come as no surprise that IWRM generally starts with some form of institutional integration (see for instance [49]).
BOX 1: DUBLIN PRINCIPLES FOR INTEGRATED WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT [43]
Principle 1 - Fresh water is a finite and vulnerable resource, essential to sustain life, development and the environment
Since water sustains life, effective management of water resources demands a holistic approach, linking social and economic development with protection of natural ecosystems. Effective management links land and water uses across the whole of a catchment area or groundwater aquifer.
Principle 2 - Water development and management should be based on a participatory approach, involving users, planners and policy-makers at all levels
The participatory approach involves raising awareness of the importance of water among policy-makers and the general public. It means that decisions are taken at the lowest appropriate level, with full public consultation and involvement of users in the planning and implementation of water projects.
Principle 3 - Women play a central part in the provision, management and safeguarding of water
This pivotal role of women as providers and users of water and guardians of the living environment has seldom been reflected in institutional arrangements for the development and management of water resources. Acceptance and implementation of this principle requires positive policies to address women’s specific needs and to equip and empower women to participate at all levels in water resources programmes, including decision-making and implementation, in ways defined by them.
Principle 4 - Water has an economic value in all its competing uses and should be recognized as an economic good
Within this principle, it is vital to recognize first the basic right of all human beings to have access to clean water and sanitation at an affordable price. Past failure to recognize the economic value of water has led to wasteful and environmentally damaging uses of the resource. Managing water as an economic good is an important way of achieving efficient and equitable use, and of encouraging conservation and protection of water resources.
When progress was assessed in 2002 at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD, Johannesburg South Africa), it became clear that 20 years after the adoption of IWRM, fragmental and sectoral approaches in water management persisted. This has prompted UN Member States to call for the development of IWRM and water efficiency plans by 2005 as part of the Johannesburg Platform of Implementation [50]. Countries across the globe have since increasingly addressed their prevailing water challenges under the flag of IWRM, with significant efforts to co-ordinate water policy across ministries and between levels of government, but not necessarily with matching degrees of stakeholder involvement in the process [51].
Reviews from different regions of the world, where IWRM is implemented under varying geopolitical, environmental, cultural and climatological circumstances, show that the conditions to advance on Dublin Principles 2 and 3 are often not in place [52 – 54]: Strategic vision and political commitment that are indispensable to making participatory water governance a reality are often lacking, while reforming institutional structures towards more participatory water governance requires a simultaneous ‘top-down’ and ‘bottom-up’ approach with strong leadership and long-term commitment at all administrative levels. Furthermore, the complexity and lengthy process of partnership-building, in particular with respect to community involvement and the inclusion of women, youth, minorities and vulnerable groups, is easily underestimated. Cultural norms and customary law present compounding factors for women’s inclusion in decision-making. Investment in an enabling environment for the different state and non-state actors to engage in effective governance at the appropriate levels is key to successful stakeholder participation. Important elements are cultural and gender sensitivity and conducting meetings in a neutral and trusted environment. Stakeholder processes come at a cost, both financially and in-kind; sufficient means, financially and otherwise, need to be deployed.
3.3 Women’s Agency for IWRM
There is a clear distinction between gender-sensitive and women-inclusive water governance. Women and men have a different physique and often occupy different roles in society, including their reproductive roles. Consequently, water allocation schemes and other management measures, water pollution and other health hazards, or climate change and water-related disasters may affect women and men differently. Gender-sensitive water management takes those gendered differences into account. IWRM on the other hand, is about the way in which water resources are allocated, used and managed, which should be women-inclusive.
Women’s participation in the provision, management and safeguarding of water takes many forms. An important distinction to make is between women as individuals of the female sex, and the involvement of women’s civil society. The term civil society organizations (CSOs) refers to the wide array of nongovernmental and not-for-profit organizations that have a presence in public life and express the interests and values of their members or others, based on ethical, cultural, political, scientific, religious or philanthropic considerations. This definition of civil society marks a deliberate shift away from use of the term nongovernmental organization (NGO), which refers more narrowly to professional, intermediary and non-profit organizations that advocate and/or provide services in the areas of economic and social development, human rights, welfare, and emergency relief. Civil Society Organizations include trade unions, community-based organizations, social movements, faith-based institutions, charitable organizations, universities, foundations, and professional associations [55].
Women’s civil society, however diverse, always has the female gender as an organizing principle. Many organizations are social networks unifying women of the same professional, ethnic or cultural background, or with the same interest, religious or political affiliation; others bridge between women across distinct peer groups and segments in society and/or across national boundaries. Women’s civil society practices horizontal and vertical integration which makes them an asset for IWRM. The social capital represented by women’s organizations is a substantial resource for collective action at all levels, contributing to social cohesion, democracy, economic development and sustainability of interventions {56].
The central role of women in the provision, management and safeguarding of water is anchored in Dublin Principle 3 as a corner stone of Integrated Water Resources Management. While the importance of involving women in the management of water and sanitation was already recognized at the 1977 United Nations Water Conference at Mar del Plata [57] – which is generally seen as the starting point of IWRM – it has long been ignored in the mainstream IWRM discourse. A global turning point was the second World Water Forum (2000, The Hague), where women rose to the challenge and shaped the water and gender discussion that was included as a topic for the first time [58]. Women’s voices were included in the World Water Vision for the 21st Century [59] and two complementary global networks emerged: the Gender and Water Alliance (GWA) and the Women for Water Partnership (WfWP). GWA is dedicated to mainstreaming gender in water resources management and the membership includes individuals, both female and male, as well as organizations [60]. WfWP on the other hand, is a global women’s civil society network based on Dublin Principle 3 uniting women leadership from around 130 predominantly low and middle-income countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia (EECCA region) and Western Europe. It presents a collective women-for-water voice in international fora, and supports and capacitates its diverse member organisations to partake in decision-making and to take action on the implementation of gender-sensitive and women-inclusive water governance in their respective communities and countries [61].
The International Decade for Action ‘Water for Life’ 2005 – 2015 included a specific goal to: “ensure the participation and involvement of women in water-related development efforts” [62]. It has been a catalyst for women’s inclusion in decision-making on water at all levels and has sparked many projects and programmes. In the course of the Water for Life Decade, the major themes of integrated water resources management have been addressed in a dedicated UN Water Day and Year [63]. Women’s civil society has consistently been included in the deliberations at the annual Zaragoza conference to shape the year theme, and has also co-organized the Women’s Fora of all High-Level Dushanbe conferences for the Decade (see for instance page 12 [64]). Throughout the Water for Life Decade a great many different initiatives have been documented, at which women’s civil society engagement in water projects and programmes across the globe has provided the much-needed link between the global frameworks and the grassroots level. Their involvement has produced sustainable and cost-effective outcomes through building local ownership and correctly addressing community needs, as well as using indigenous knowledge to prevent expensive mistakes. Involving women in project implementation makes them more likely to reach intended beneficiaries [65, 66].
The Royal Academy of Science International Trust (RASIT) co-organized the first Women Water Forum of the new Water for Sustainable Development Action Decade in Dushanbe in 2018. ‘Bridging Voices to Actions’ incorporaed the theme of Women in Science for Water and ensured that the multi-stakeholder debates were informed by contemporary scientific knowledge. The focus was on SDG Target 5.5, i.e.: “Ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic and public life”, which bears a strong resemblance to Dublin Principle 3 (see BOX 1). The Forum called for problem-oriented and transdisciplinary research which connects academic, public and private spaces. Stakeholder engagement was considered crucial to ensuring that science-based plans address the real-world problems and change policies and behaviors alike. Participants concluded that he intersectionality of gender is still poorly understood, and women are often looked at as a homogenous group. An important observation was that women scientist are underrepresented in the water and development domain. Their leadership was considered essential to achieving SDG6 timely and sustainably, and to adequately addressing the gender dimension of water-related challenges [67].
A closer look at the gender indicators in the global baseline for IWRM implementation reveals that gender objectives are lagging in the IWRM implementation processes of most countries, and more so at the local and transboundary levels. Subnational laws, policies or plans, for instance, include gender objectives in 44 per cent of countries, but with limited or no funding for implementation. Gender objectives are not explicitly addressed in 23 per cent of countries, and a considerable number of nations mention that gender objectives are not applicable [48]. This indicates that the gap between internationally agreed principles and the actual situation in a country is still considerable and that the entities and individuals responsible for water are not necessarily aware of the social and gender implications of their work.
Science can contribute to bridging that gap, e.g. by further explaining and highlighting the intersectionality of gender [68], as well as by developing system-thinking approaches to address the local gender realities in a structured way. A study from Peru demonstrate the added value of incorporating the wisdom of traditional water governance approaches into the modern engineering water profession [69].
3.4 Gender diversity in the workplace
Individual women can be politicians, managers, scientists, water professionals, farmers, teachers or housewives. However, they belong to different social strata and will generally follow the predominant paradigm of their peer group. They may or may not experience discrimination in their work environment, and they themselves may or may not be gender-sensitive. In the water sector, women water professionals are a minority and their career opportunities are often limited. A recent survey of 64 water utilities in 28 low- and middle-income countries shows that less 20 percent of water workers are women. In technical and managerial positions on average only 23 percent are women. Some of these water utilities have no women in technical and managerial positions at all. Key barriers and bottlenecks that women face in their career in the water sector include biased recruiting processes, legal constraints, insufficient flexibility in arrangements that enable women to reconcile work, as well as domestic roles and unequal opportunities for career advancement [70].
As was also highlighted during the Women Water Forum ‘Briding Voices to Actions’, gender parity among water professionals and in leadership does not guarantee gender-sensitive water management, as this requires a good understanding of gender roles in daily life, i.e. outside water agencies, in communities and across the different geopolitical zones of the country. There are however many benefits to gender diversity in the workplace including better governance and financial performance, improved communication relations and customer satisfaction and increased sustainability and complicance ( BOX 1.1 [70]).
4. Women in Science for Water
Much has happened since the Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995, which united 17,000 participants and 189 UN Member States for the purpose of furthering gender equality and women’s empowerment and ensuring women’s equal participation in all spheres of life. The Beijing Platform for Action states in article 69 that: “Investing in formal and non-formal education and training for girls and women, with its exceptionally high social and economic return, has proved to be one of the best means of achieving sustainable development and economic growth that is both sustained and sustainable.” Moreover, article 75 notes that “Science curricula in particular are gender-biased and do not relate to women’s and girls’ daily experience and fail to give recognition to women scientists” [7].
Globally, a mere 28.8% of persons employed in Research & Development (R&D) are women, with Central Asia (48.1%) and Latin America and the Caribbean (45.5%) almost reaching gender parity, whilst in South and West Asia only 18.5% of researchers are female. [71]. These findings are supported by a detailed analysis in 2019 of research performane through a gender lens. The study compares gender research in 12 OECD countries and regions for two 5-year periods, i.e. 1996 – 2000 and 2011 – 2015, revealing that overall the proporion of women researchers has increased, and on average, there is gender parity. Divided per research field, there tend to be larger proportions of women researchers than men the Health and Life Sciences, whereas in the field of Physical Science, men outnumber women. Moreover, women tend to have lower scholarly outputs than their male colleagues, although the author’s gender does not significantly influence download and citation rates [72].
There appear to be no data available on the proportion of women researchers in the water science field. A recent study on higer education in the water sector contains some sex-disaggregated data on higher education, mostly drawn from UNESCO Institue for Statistics [73]. It shows that overall, the gender gap in tertiary education is closing. More women than men complete tertiary education in 80% of the countries with available data. Women are more likely to graduate from five fields of tertiary education, namely Education, Humanity and Arts, Social Sciences, Business and Law, and Health and Welfare. Men are the majority in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and in Agriculture, and more so in the fields of Engineering and Manufacturing and Construction.
There is no sufficiently detailed global data source on educational activities in the water sector. Similar to water, hydrology, too, permeates a great many scientific disciplines ranging from biology, chemistry and earth sciences to law, political science, public health and sociology, to name just a few. Moreover, there are a multitude of pathways through which a qualification as a water expert can be obtained, making it virtually impossible to get an overview of the proportion of female and male scientists and students.
To shed some light on the proportion of female and male authors, the author has searched two online databases (i.e. Springer-Link, and Taylor & Francis) for publications since 2000 that contain references to both water and gender/women in their title. Publications with either water or gender in the title have been included if the other term was among the abstract keywords. This search, complemented with research published in the Water Alternatives Journal and the author’s personal literature database, resulted in 140 publications on various water- and gender-related topics. In 134 of the 140 publications it was possible to identify the gender of the author(s). The (co)authors appeared to be predominantly women (82%), whilst 88% of research had a female first author[8].
The abovementioned study on research performance through a gender lens [72], looks also at the scope of gender research activity. With respect to the water-gender interface, the study reveals interesting findings: Chapter 3 includes a map of gender research categories, for both aforementioned 5-year periods.[9] To be included on that map, a term must have appeared in at least 40 research papers. The bigger the dot, the more publications with the term have been found. In the map charting 1996 – 2000, the theme ‘Water’ appears as a small, isolated dot, meaning that research on water and gender was only a marginal category in the years directly following the adoption of the Dublin Principles for IWRM and the Beijing Platform for Action. Moreover, between 2011 and 2015, a period in which gender research increased significantly, research on water and gender combined was even more negligible. Furthermore, a previously mentioned study on the proportional appearance of different water themes supporting SDG6 research does not feature gender as a theme either [42].
Overall, very little data are available on research on the gender-water nexus, thus demonstrating the need for increased data mining on this important topic. But those data that are available clearly demonstrate that gender-water research is still very much a woman’s business.
5. Conclusions
As both water security and women’s empowerment are of the essence to address the persisting inequalities in society, working on the SDG5-SDG6 nexus can create a triple win for sustainable and equitable development by increasing women’s contributions to the economy, strengthening good water stewardship in support of water security for all, and contributing to inclusive societies where no one is left behind.
Unfortuantely, the gender goal SDG5 and the water goal SDG6 do not specifically reference the importance of research and science to support these goals. Data and research on the water-gender interface are particularly scarce and scattered, and there is an urgent need for increased data mining on this important topic. There can be no green growth without the sustainable use and management of water resources. Water permeates various SDGs and cuts across many sectors and disciplines. Hence it is important to generate cross-sectoral interests and cooperation for the sustainable use and management of this vital resource. We must provide interdisciplinary research that is tailor-made for the specifc geopolitical and environmental circumstance and includes the social and gender dimensions of water governance. What women are contributing to these research fields, and in particular to the water and gender nexus, is an interesting and partly unanswered question.
The UN Memher States have agreed on IWRM as the framework not only to achieve availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all (SDG6), but also underlying the realization of all Sustainable Development Goals. The global baseline for the degree of IWRM implementation in 172 UN Member States reveals that institutional integration (laws, policies, IWRM plans and institutional coordination) are well under way, especially at at national level. Digging into the gender objectives reveals a less rosy picture. Dublin Principle 3 is lagging in most countries, in particular at the sub-national and transboundary levels. The historical reviews in the WASH and IWRM domains demonstrate that reconciling the water and gender agendas is a complicated and lengthy process that requires a marriage between technical and social disciplines, as well as bespoke pathways to translate internationally agreed principles into national and local realities and practices.
The transformation to gender-sensitive and women-inclusive water governance is a lengthy and ongoing process in a sector that is highly fragmented, intrinsically gendered, and traditionally in the technical domain of public administration. The contribution of interdisciplinary teams involving social and technical scientists and researchers is indispensable to guiding this process and providing independent knowledge for awareness raising, mindset change and capacity development.
The central role of women in IWRM is achhored in Dublin Principle 3. Women’s participation in the provision, management and safeguarding of water takes many forms. An important distinction to make is between women as individuals of the female sex, and the involvement of women’s civil society. Women’s civil society, however diverse, always has the female gender as an organizing principle, unifying women of the same profession, ethnicity background or interest, harnessing their social capital and cutting across segments in society and geogapical boundaries. This makes women’s civil society a crucial and still underused asset for IWRM.
Acknowledgements
The author is indebted to Jordi Bouman for his critical reading of the manuscript and his valuable advice. The support of Iris Caris, Utrecht University, in the search for water and gender publications is highly appreciated.
Conflict of Interest
The author certifies that her analysis of the subject matter and presentation of materials discussed in this manuscript is not a reflection of any personal or financial interest.
End notes
[1] Gender equity and equality are not synonyms. While gender equality refers to the status of enjoying equal rights, opportunities, rewards and access to resources, gender equity is the process to get there: creating a level playing field and ensuring women’s empowerment [3]
[2] See article 70 of A/RES/70/1 [1]
[3] See also UNSG Gutierrez’ message on the occasion of International Women’s Day 2018 [10]
[4] "WID", a term originating in the 1970s, is understood to mean the integration of women into global processes of economic, political and social growth and change [15].
[5] Indicator used is the proportion of WECD conference paper titles containing gender related keyword; WECD being the annual International Conference of the Water, Engineering and Development Centre, uniting academics and practitioners in WASH (see page 189 [16]).
[6] The WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene was established in 1990 in response to the need for a structural monitoring on drinking-water and sanitation coverage. It is now part of the UN Water Integrated Monitoring Initiative for SDG6 [27].
[7] The terms water management and governance are sometimes used interchangeably, while being perceived as different concepts by others. The figures should therefore not be compared as absolutes, but be considered as showing a trend.
[8] The data can be obtained from the author at alice@diploria.org
[9] i.e. 1996 – 2000 and 2011 – 2015
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