Defining Gender

In order to discuss the importance of gender to safe water access, it seems necessary to begin by deconstructing the basic meaning of ‘gender’ in the context of water and development in Africa.  

Gregory et al. (2009) refer to gender as “a categorical distinction between men and women”, not because of the biological difference but the different characteristics associated with a person’s sex. This encompasses a broad range of social phenomena, from behaviour, to identity, rights and responsibilities. Of course, gender plays a hugely varying role in different societies; gender relations refer in part to the way in which power relations impact men and women differently, and how these are reinforced by institutions across society (UNDP, 2006). Unfortunately, many societies across Africa are built on unequal gender relations, hence a gendered approach to developmental issues can be justified.

From my initial reading, it seems to me that the issue of gender in sustainable water access is not that women are not involved in the process – in fact they are often highly involved, for example devoting much time and energy to collecting water from pumps – but that men and women can have entirely different roles in water access and management (CAP-NET and GWA, 2006). One such comparison could be formal water access by male farmers in irrigation systems vs. informal access of water by women for domestic consumption. These divergent roles, and efforts to improve the gender equality of water rights and access, are issues that I intend to explore further.