Linking Gender and Water - Feminist Thoughts

Feminism and Farm Women

It has been a constrained relationship from the beginning in the so0-called 'western world'. Brandth (2002) asked, 'Why are farm women reluctant to identify with feminism'? The answer she thought lies in the nature of farm work itself - where co-operation is the key to a family's survival. She also thought that the urban-based, post-modern, feminists with their great focus on theory and methodology have alienated farm women. Here we can remember Sachs (1996) observation that 'a feminist viewpoint does not immediately derive from women's experiences'. Brandth believes that rural women have been excluded from recent debates by feminists. Feminism grew out of modernity with a focus on progress, equality and rationality. Post-structuralism, however, has led recently to a 'paradigm shift' within feminism, resulting in greater emphasis on variation, difference and positionality. The academic character of contemporary feminism - based in urban centres and focused on theoretical and methodological issues - has alienated farm women. 'Why should women incur losses on their cultural capital to inhabit a position that they recognise as belonging to others?' Alston (1995): 'Being hostile towards men is unacceptable in a system that depends on a high degree of co-operation.'

Shortall (1992) showed that patriarchal power structure and masculine dominance structure women's lives in rural areas. Sachs (1996) 'Although women do the majority of work in agriculture at the global level, elder men, for the most part, still own the land, control women's labor, and make agricultural decisions in patriarchal social systems.'

Feminist research on farm women has documented the extent of women's work, and has shown the ways in which it is invisible and undervalued. Definitions of farm work focus on the work of the owner and manager, and frequently women's work is not considered to be real work.
Another commonality with so-called 'developing countries' is that women's entry into farming has commonly been through marriage. Women rarely inherit land, even in most developed countries, and are not seen as a farmer as a result. Shortall noted (1999): 'Women's whole relationship to farming is shaped by their route of entry and position within the farm family. It not only affects interpersonal relationships within the family, but also women's role in the public space of farming. Women are underrepresented in farming organisations, in training programmes, and in the politics of farming.'

Feminists' tensions with water managers

Irrigation questions are feminist questions - irrigation, modernisation and development are interrelated to each other. Zwarteveen's (2006) book, 'Wedlock or deadlock? Feminists' attempts to engage engineers' shows that the masculinity of irrigation is manifested in 3 worlds.

The first world of irrigation system - where men and women irrigators use water, irrigate, farm, and where operators and managers distribute water, maintain water infrastructure and resolve water related conflicts - is characterised as masculine primarily because rights to irrigation water and infrastructure and rights to irrigated land, almost everywhere in the world, continue to be primarily vested with men. Female irrigators and farmers almost everywhere have significantly fewer possibilities to own irrigated land and water than male irrigators and farmers do. Although women are important providers of labour to irrigated agriculture, and to canal maintenance and cleaning, they often do not control the fruits of their work.

The second world of 'thinking about irrigation' includes the world where representations of irrigation realities are produced. This world is masculine in that irrigation narratives have long de-valorised women's contributions or rendered thinking and speaking about women irrelevant. Most contemporary irrigation texts are no longer overtly sexists, but typically emphasise and attach greater value to those activities and experiences that are associated with men or with masculinity. The 'real' work in farms are done by men. The various and innumerable irrigation activities that women do are not only not seen, but they also have gradually come to be defined as 'non-irrigation' - in the sense that they are considered irrelevant to the irrigation profession - and even as 'non-professional'. When women are cleaning canals or irrigating, they are seen and said to do so on behalf of their husbands, who are the real irrigators and farmers. One barrier is the non-social content of irrigation engineers - soils, plants, water and technology, and although insights from social sciences are increasingly incorporated the legacy of epistemological positivism remains visible in the general absence of critical reflection on the social construction and influences of irrigation designs and conceptualisations.

In the third world of irrigation as a profession, professional irrigation cultures and identities are created and reinforced. In this world, masculinity is evident in the large numbers of male irrigation professionals. 'Hydrocracies' (Rap et al, 2004) the powerful and resourceful irrigation bureaucracies - masculinity and professional irrigation identity have come to belong to one another. They mutually constitute, and define each other at symbolic and metaphorical levels. Attributes and skills that are seen as typical characteristics of good irrigation professionals - such as technical competence, physical strength, being in command, self-confidence and rationality - are normally seen as characteristics more commonly found in men. Zwarteveen notes that one such image is that of a pioneering colonial hero who courageously designed and constructed large water control and irrigation works, and who was not afraid of getting his feet in the mud and rolling up his sleeves to get the work done. Sir Arthur Cotton, William Willcox - these are all masculine heroes who had undertaken a 'heroic struggle' against deadly climate and fearsome rivers of tropical regions.

Back to Main: Gender and Water Definition and Mission

Gender, Water and Ecofeminism

From Vicitimhood to Agency

Streams of Thought - Thinking about Gender

Gender Mainstreaming in IWRM (Integrated Water Resource Management)