Imperatives for gender transformative decentralized water governance

1. Anjal Prakash, PhD
Programme Coordinator – HIAWARE, ICIMOD
Understanding Masculinity
in Irrigation
Imperatives for gender transformative
decentralized water governance

2. Defining masculinity in irrigation
• Making women more visible in irrigation and their
legitimate right over access to resources including
institutions that governs (women as political
subjects)
• Gender issues in irrigation has been researched
but the professional irrigation context is still a
‘man’s world’
• Adopting a relational approach that locates
gender within broader dimensions of power and
social difference (irrigation is a context)
(Source: Zwarteveen, 2011)

3. Understanding Masculinity..
3 distinct processes (Sandra Harding, 1986) –
symbols, structures and identities
1. Dualistic Gender Metaphors (Symbolism)
• Public domain
(masculine)Water For
production
• Private domain
(feminine)Water for HH
Consumption

4. 2. Gender Dualism interacts with social and
power structure (structure)
Income and
resources are
divided
following the
social structure
Interaction with
gender
dualism
Leading to
gendered
social life..

5. 3. Identity
• Socially constructed individual
identities
• Imperfectly co-relates with perception
of sexual differences
• Leading to gendered social life – sex-
gender system (Rubin, 1975) or as
‘hegemonic forms’ of masculinity
(Connel, 1987)

6. Is irrigation system masculine?
(Janwillem, 2014; Zwarteveen, 2008)
Men’s control
over rights to
irrigation water
and
infrastructure
Male
domination in
the professional
irrigation
domain
Gendered
thinking in
irrigation
knowledge
lacking
Most work on gender and FMIS is done
by Wageningen School and IWMI
Bruins and Heijmans, 1993; Zwarteveen
and Neupane, 1996; Koppen et al., 2001;
Udas, 2002; Ghimire, 2004; Upadhyay,
2004; Udas et al., 2014.
Janwillem, 2014

7. What do you make out of this
picture?

8. And this…??

9. Gender differentiated impacts
• Migration has
differential impacts on
women and men
• traditional roles
as water and food
collectors for the
household
• Decreased food
consumption by
women and girls
• climate variability
lowers agricultural
production (women’s
labour)
Declining
Agricultural
production
Food
insecurity
Increased
conflict
and
migration
Changes
in Water
Availability

10. FMIS and imperatives for
gender relations
• Male outmigration – increasing feminization of
agricultural labour
• Women are less represented in institutions
• Women’s noninvolvement as formal members
in meetings and the lack of representation
affect their access to irrigation services
• Resources, knowledge and authorities are
controlled by masculinity – implications for
gender relations

11. References
• Harding, S. 1986. The Science Question in Feminism. Ithaca, USA and London, UK: Cornell University
Press.
• Rubin, Gayle. 1975. The Traffic in Women. In: R. Reiter, Toward an Anthropology of Women. New York,
U.S.A.: Monthly Review Press.
• Connell, Robert W. 1987. Gender and Power. Society, the Person and Sexual Politics. Cambridge, UK:
Polity Press.
• Feldstein, Hilary and Susan Poats (with Kathleen Cloud and Rosalie Huisinga Norem). 1989. Conceptual
Framework for Gender Analysis in Farming Systems Research and Extension. In: Hilary Sims Feldstein and
Susan V. Poats (eds.), Working Together. Gender Analysis in Agriculture. Volume I: Case Studies. West
Hartford, Connecticut: Kumarian Press, pp. 7-37
• Kabeer, Naila. 1994. Reversed Realities: Gender Hierarchies in Development Thought. London, UK: Verso.
• SaciWATERs. 2009. Situational Analysis of Women Water Professionals in South Asia. Crossing
Boundaries Project. SaciWATERs.
• Goh H.X. Amelia. 2012. A literature review of the gender-differentiated impacts of climate change on
women’s and men’s assets and well-being in developing countries. CAPRI Working Paper 106.
• Skinner. Emmeline2011. Gender and Climate Change. Bridge Report. IDS Sussex. UK
• Zwarteveen, Margreet Z. 2008. Men, masculinities and water powers in irrigation. Water alternatives, 1 (1):
111-130.
• Koppen, Barbara van; Jacobijn van Etten; Prabina Bajracharya and Amita Tuladhar. 2001. Women irrigators
and leaders in the West Gandak scheme, Nepal. Working paper 15. Colombo, Sri Lanka: International
Water Management Institute.

12. Thank you
Supported by the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) and
Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC)