Act on Gender: A peep into intra-household water use in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) region. [PDF, 192KB] (original) (raw)
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Rural Society, 2008
Intra-household water use and management from a gender perspective has remained a relatively under-researched theme in developed countries. Australia is no exception, with the lack of research particularly evident in the many rural and peri-urban communities. These communities have experienced significant water scarcity in recent years. In this context, this paper explores the potential of water use diaries to explore gender perspectives in Australian intra-household water use. Primarily a methodological paper, it examines the concepts that might inform a water diary examining gendered aspects of intra-household water management and use. Following the research approach to gendered intra-household resource allocation established in developing nation research, the aim is to develop a tool that has the potential to clarify the gender implications within households of current water policies and practices. Albeit a tentative step toward understanding gender aspects of intra-household water use and management, this paper raises a number of issues suggesting this type of research has both practical usefulness and academic importance. Its practical value lies in it capacity to influence the water agencies' ability to target specific 'water user groups' and develop effective public policy in a participatory manner with detailed household information. The academic worth lies in the 'cutting edge' nature of the research as it explores an approach proven in developing nations but as yet narrowly adopted in Australia and other developed countries.
COUNTING (GENDERED) WATER USE AT HOME: FEMINIST APPROACHES IN PRACTICE
In recent years, international policy-making bodies, including UN agencies and major donors, have been vocal in demanding gender-disaggregated water-use data, a requirement that is also receiving attention in academic research. Although the data sought is presumably macro-scale official statistics of sectoral water consumption divided into male/female categories, the structure of such data and the means of collecting them remain unclear. The demand for gender-disaggregated data has arisen at a time when feminists have urged researchers to exercise caution in how they generate data, what might be considered as data, and what that information signifies to the users. Feminist scholars also caution against the “knowledge effect” produced by numerical data: an overwhelming conversion of complicated and contextually variable phenomena into unambiguous, clear, and impersonal measurements. Heeding their concerns, I argue in this article that the generation of official statistics cannot be the aim; in order to understand gendered water use, particularly at the microscopic scale of the household, tools must be consistent with broad feminist goals and ideologies. This would necessitate not merely the aggregation of statistical data – referred to here as “counting” – but also consideration of the circumstances in which it occurs and its envisioned purpose and authorship, typified by questions such as “where does the counting take place?”, “who counts?” and “what purpose is the counting for?”. This research reflexivity and transparency is crucial, lest the numbers subsume decades of hydro-feminist insights by reducing gender equity to simplistic and replicable technologies. To substantiate my argument, I give examples of two recent “counting exercises” undertaken in India and Australia that were based in feminist philosophy and practice.
Gender in integrated water management: an analysis of variation
Natural Resources Forum, 2001
Gender is an important variable in water use, policy, and intervention. This article explores this variation and its policy implications. Concepts are applied in several case studies to draw generic conclusions. Variation is related to the purpose of water use (consumptive or productive) and to the local, culture-specific patterns of the intra-household organization of consumption for fclmily welfare (which includes domestic water provision) and income-generation (for which water is an input, especially in rural areas). For domestic water use, the intra-household sharing of unpaid domestic responsibilities is a key gender issue. Water for productive use, on the other hand, is embedded in the gendered organization of household economic activity, as elaborated for smallholder-irrigated agriculture. In female-managed and dual farming systems, where a high proportion of farm decision-makers are women, irrigation agencies need to better target their support. In male-managed farming systems, however, the majority of women lack their own farm enterprise in which water is an input. Women's access to land, markets and credits besides access to water, is at stake. To conclude, given the strong variation in water use along gender lines, gender analysis is indispensable for any concrete water policy and intervention. 0 2001 United Nations. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Women and Modern Domestic Water Supply Systems: Need for a Holistic Perspective
Water Resources Management, 2004
As domestic water managers, the strategic need of women has been identified as having access to domestic water sources that are convenient, reliable and located close to home. The need has been addressed through installation of low cost improved water supply systems in different parts of the developing world. While the need of women as domestic water managers has been globally articulated and addressed, perhaps adequate attention has not been drawn to the fact that this role is actually performed within the context of local communities where domestic water management activities are built upon the users' perceived needs to be fulfilled through culturally appropriate means. How do cultural intricacies in local communities influence the water fetching behaviour of women? What is the impact of such factors on the adoption and utilization of modern domestic water supply systems? The paper explores the implications of local cultural realities for the effectiveness of handpump as a modern domestic water supply systemarguing that the locally perceived water needs of women are holistic and fail to be adequately addressed through the new source. Consequently, it has been admitted only as an `add on' source, thereby hindering achievement of the basic objective of bringing women greater comfort, better health and socio-economic empowerment.
Gender and multiple-use water services. Thematic note 1
2009
The feminization of poverty is the tragic consequence of women's unequal access to economic opportunities.-UNDP 1995: 36 I n many part of the world, women play a major role as farmers and producers, based on materials presented in the different Modules of this Sourcebook. However, their access to resources and opportunities to enable them to move from subsistence agriculture to higher value chains is much lower than men's. Women increasingly supply national and international markets with traditional and high-value produce, but compared to men, women farmers and entrepreneurs face a number of disadvantages, including lower mobility, less access to training, less access to market information, and less access to productive resources. Evidence suggests that women tend to lose income and control as a product moves from the farm to the market (Gurung 2006). Women farmers can find it hard to maintain a profitable market niche. Men may take over production and marketing-even of traditional "women's crops"-when it becomes financially lucrative to do so. Women-owned businesses face many more constraints and receive far fewer services and less support than those owned by men (Bardasi, Blackden, and Guzman 2007; Ellis, Manuel, and Blackden 2006; World Bank 2007a, 2007b). These disadvantages reduce women's effectiveness as actors in value chains and reduce overall market effectiveness. Providing women producers and entrepreneurs with the same inputs and education as men in Burkina Faso, Kenya, and Tanzania could increase their output and incomes by an estimated 10-20 percent (World Bank 2005). Apart from efficiency gains, food security and welfare gains are also strongly linked to the provision of greater economic opportunities for women. Studies show that resources and incomes controlled by women are more likely to be used to improve family food consumption and welfare, reduce child malnutrition, and increase the overall well-being of the family (FAO 2006; see also Module 1). Although this Module supports enabling both poor men and women to access market opportunities and resources, it focuses more on women's economic empowerment. In many societies and countries, women are excluded from more lucrative and profitable markets than men, and it is this inequality in access to resources and opportunities that is analyzed and discussed here. Bringing women into lucrative markets requires targeted analysis and program interventions. One important consideration, as presented in the Thematic Notes, is that projects and programs that aim to increase women's economic empowerment should involve both women and men as partners. The value chain concept is a useful analytic tool to understand a series of production and postproduction activities-whether it is a basic crop, such as vegetables, or a highly processed good, such as cotton textile or canned tuna-and the enterprises and individuals who are involved. This Module uses the value chain concept as an analytic tool. A value chain incorporates the full range of activities required to bring a product or service from
En(gender)ing the debate about water’s management and care – views from the Antipodes
Geoforum, 2007
In this paper, we map the gendered contours of contemporary water management in order to demonstrate that regimes for individual ownership of water rights, markets, and the productive use of water simply reinscribe and simultaneously submerge in their apparent gender-neutrality a normative masculinity that underpins economic globalization and fortiWes existing power relations. Not only do such arrangements disadvantage reproductive values and non-consumptive users; more generally, they also lack the capacity to ensure water's sustainable development. Consequently, new management institutions for sustainability are demanded and, in making a case for equityenhancing and adaptive institutions that better reXect water's materiality, its multiple values and emerging water scarcity, we argue the need to invoke the conserving and ecologically protective feminine principle. To support our reasoning, we analyse water reform processes instituted in Australia and speciWcally by the State of Tasmania, referring to the latter jurisdiction to illustrate the gendered nature of resource management and to underscore tensions between economic globalization and sustainability, concluding that the tensions between the two agendas are probably irresolvable. We position our work in the borderlands among gender studies, feminist geography and philosophy, and political ecology, drawing together insights about the construction of resource management, the possibilities of the feminine care ethic, and ideas about the characteristics of institutional systems that could ensure equitable allocation and sustainable use of the planet's resources.
Women and community water supply programmes: An analysis from a socio-cultural perspective
Natural Resources Forum, 2005
Community water supply programmes are seen as instrumental in achieving the goal of ‘safe’ water for all. Women, a principal target group of these programmes, are to be benefited with greater convenience, enhanced socio-cultural opportunities and better health for themselves and their families, provided through improved water facilities. Water supply programmes largely consist of three essential components, namely: technology, people and institutions. Although such programmes are intended to benefit women members of local communities, scant attention is paid to the impacts of the socio-cultural context of the community on these programmes. This article explores the influence of social and cultural intricacies on the implementation of community water supply programmes, and assesses their effectiveness. The article offers important lessons for the design and implementation of this type of programme. It concludes that the local socio-cultural context sets the stage for programme implementation, being a dynamic factor that determines actual access to water sources, more so than mere physical availability, which is often used as a criterion for programme performance. The article stresses the urgent need to integrate socio-cultural factors as a fourth dimension in designing community water supply programmes, and suggests practical measures for enhancing the effectiveness of such programmes.
Economic and gender benefits from domestic water supply
MOST DOMESTIC WATER projects are only designed and managed to improve welfare and health. Yet in (semi) arid areas, where water is a serious development constraint, women may use water and time gains also for economic purposes. This project investigated the scope and value of such uses and the impact on gender relations in north Gujarat (India). The research used case studies and PRA methods with women focus groups and also interviewed men. This paper presents the results and discusses the implications for the design and management of rural water services in (semi)arid areas.
International journal of social sciences, 2014
This paper focuses on the interface between gender roles in water provision and use at household and community level and its relationship with women’s practical and strategic gender needs. Data were collected in nine villages in the districts of Kondoa and Mpwapwa, Dodoma region in Tanzania. Results have shown that women gain more knowledge on the appropriateness of water for consumptive and productive uses while pursuing their reproductive roles in the provision and use of domestic water at the household level. However, social-cultural context limit women’s participation during designing and planning of water services at community level; ultimately their preferences and perceptions on the appropriateness of the domestic water are not integrated in the water projects. We recommend systematic analysis on the interdependence between women’s domestic water needs, their involvement in community management and the bigger picture of gender roles in society.