The Damaging Assumptions of Gender Mainstreaming

This week, I read an interesting article by Wendoh and Wallace (2006) entitled ‘Re-thinking gender mainstreaming in African NGOs and communities’. It addresses some of the challenges faced when undertaking gender mainstreaming initiatives. The article examined the situation in four African countries (Zambia, Rwanda, Uganda and Gambia) as these are countries with contrasting economic, political, religious and cultural contexts.

Though this article does not directly mention any connection with water or water management schemes, it does demonstrate that whilst female empowerment is considered necessary and important by academics, international organisations and others, there can be resistance when trying to implement gender equality initiatives within local communities. Furthermore, these gender equality initiatives do affect all levels of development and economics, including, of course, issues related to water. Local NGOs actually felt that gender mainstreaming was for the benefit of donors rather than local communities as work to address gender inequality issues is usually donor-promoted through government initiatives. Local NGOs and communities felt these initiatives were imposed upon them and so were either skeptical or had no real understanding of the issues.

Whilst some governments in Africa have increased the representation of women in parliament and are working on gender policies, resistance has been found at implementation level as people give higher priority to other activities. Most donors want around two-thirds of the main beneficiaries to be women but many governments have decided one-third is more appropriate as they fear a great number would exclude men. There is clearly misunderstanding by cultural policy makers as to how gender inequality is perceived on a local level.

During interviews with line ministries in the four countries, resistance was found to be due to concepts of gender being culturally inappropriate as it was considered to be a direct threat to male power as well as not being well adapted to local realities. Additionally, the speed with which gender equality ideas are expected to be adopted is seen as unrealistic. Not only must the concept be understood, but in order for changes to be effective, time must be allowed for people’s views and values to alter

The article also highlighted the need for women to be seen as agents of change in gender initiatives rather than objects of development. Women are told what equality is rather than being able to define it for themselves, which can result in further problems.

Whilst this article is relatively dated, a more recent book by Amutabi (2013) entitled ‘The NGO Factor in Africa: The Case of Arrested Development in Africa’ seems to reinforce these views seven years later. Amutabi discusses that some NGOs’ attempts to empower women have actually done the opposite and some women are actually content with the status quo as it is. Furthermore, their workshops were considered to be of little to no value and NGOs actually fuelled confusion and tension in the communities they became involved with.

Whilst these authors have discussed female empowerment in general in Africa, as opposed to in direct relation to water issues, they have demonstrated that the implementation of gender mainstreaming is not straight forward. Female empowerment is still crucial and has been found to have various widespread benefits, but, as mentioned in a previous post, we cannot assume that this is an outright solution. In fact, there is great complexity across time and space and so each context must be considered carefully and individually in order for any objectives to be successfully achieved. Female empowerment cannot just be forced on all communities in Africa in the hope that this will solve issues such as those related to water. Again, the local community must be consulted and considered when trying to improve or change any current situation.

References

Amutabi, M. (2006). The NGO factor in Africa. 1st ed. New York: Routledge.

Wendoh, S., & Wallace, T. (2005). Re-thinking gender mainstreaming in African NGOs and communities. Gender & Development, 13(2), 70-79.

Sanitation

On the day of writing this post (the 19th of November 2016), it is annual ‘World Toilet Day’, first established in 2013 by the UN General Assembly. The theme of this year’s event was to focus on ‘how sanitation, or the lack of it, can impact on livelihoods’ (http://www.worldtoiletday.info/theme/). 

There has also been a stress placed this year on the need to invest in toilets in workplaces and schools so that women and girls have separate facilities in order to maintain their dignity and manage menstruation or pregnancy safely. This can apparently boost the ‘girl effect’ which involves maximising the involvement of half the population in society.

Sanitation is an important concept in relation to water issues and undoubtedly affects women and girls, particularly in relation to menstruation and shared facilities. For women in various parts of the global South, cultural norms combined with the desire to maintain privacy mean that women feel they can only relieve themselves under cover of darkness. This can put women at risk of scorpion or snake bites and also leaves women vulnerable to attacks or rape due to the predictability of their movements (Jewitt, 2011). Amnesty International has reported that women and girls in Nairobi’s slums are often too scared to leave their houses to use the communal toilet due to risk of attack. Some women actually feel it is safer to defecate in a plastic bag than go out to shared toilets at night due to the risks they may face. 

Furthermore, water.org emphasises the problem of school toilets as some schools have no toilets available or do not provide separate toilets for girls meaning that many girls drop out of school once they reach puberty. This perpetuates gender inequality issues as well as poverty according to WASH Advocates.

WASH Advocates further state that women and girls may be choosing to ignore their needs because of a culmination of the issues stated above and so their likelihood of developing urinary tract infections, chronic constipation or mental stress may be increased. 

A recurring conclusion in much of the academic literature, ‘grey’ literature and websites I have read in regard to all the themes I have previously discussed, is the need for female empowerment as a solution to water issues. Sanitation is no different as women’s participation can increase the effectiveness of water and sanitation management schemes as well as the sustainability of these projects. School attendance can be increased as the need for separate toilet facilities are acknowledged which can, in turn, improve gender equality issues as a whole. Ultimately, women’s voices and concerns must be heard in order for water and sanitation issues, that are currently affecting them so negatively, to be addressed. 

References

Jewitt, S. 2011. Geographies of shit: Spatial and temporal variations in attitudes towards human waste. Progress in Human Geography 35, 608–626.

https://www.amnesty.org/en/press-releases/2010/07/17350/ 

http://water.org/water-crisis/womens-crisis/

http://www.washadvocates.org/learn/wash-and-women-and-girls/

http://www.worldtoiletday.info/theme/

The Dangers of Ecofeminism

Last week, those registered on the Water and Development in Africa course at UCL took part in a role playing seminar. Here, we took on the roles of many different groups affected by the Komadugu-Yobe River Basin. Those acting as the Association of Kano River Irrigation Project (KRIP) Farmers mentioned the work of Jackson in relation to ideas of female empowerment.

Having read the paper ‘Doing What Comes Naturally? Women and Environment in Development’ (Jackson, 1993), I have been forced to consider the idea of female empowerment in relation to ecofeminism and the damaging assumptions that can be made. Though this paper is quite dated now, it does demonstrate the issues associated with assuming women are natural conservationists. I myself have stated in previous posts that women face a greater number of issues relating to water and water management in Africa, but it is important to remember that this does not necessarily mean that women therefore have a greater interest in protecting the environment. Ultimately, the relationship between women and the environment cannot be thought of as in isolation from men’s relationship with the environment as women do not have a particular instinctive closeness to their environment (Jackson, 1993: 1959).

Another problem with the assumptions that ‘Ecofeminist’ and ‘Women, Development and Environment’ literatures can make is that women are somehow homogenous in their attitudes towards the environment across the world. Actually, it is necessary ‘to locate environmental attitudes within particular economies’ (Jackson, 1993: 1949). In fact, Jackson cites two studies that actually demonstrate that women cannot be characterised as inherently environmentally friendly. One study in Kenya (Gould, 1992) describes an area of high male emigration and suggests women can then be successful environmental managers as they are able to impart their knowledge. However, a study in Tanzania (Eele et al., 1992) found male farmers were more likely to make a ‘conservation investment’ than female farmers. Not only do women not experience environmental degradation in a uniform manner, but their attitudes are also not the same across the globe (Jackson, 1993: 1949).

In a more recent paper ‘Environmental Ethics’ by Palmer (2014), the section on ecofeminism further highlights this criticism of the link between women and nature. Palmer suggests that interpretations of ecofeminism have had to be expanded to include oppressions of class and race as previous ideas of ecofeminism were too limiting. This critique also demonstrates this idea that women cannot be assumed to be natural protectors of the environment and that actually, these sorts of discourses, expressed by bodies such as NGOs, can be just as damaging.

Therefore, though women in Africa face a great number of problems in relation to water issues which are no doubt caused by inherent inequalities, we cannot then assume that they will be the natural constituency for conservation activities as actually, women too can be agents of environmental degradation (Jackson, 1993: 1952). In a later blog post, I will discuss the importance of female empowerment in creating successful water management schemes. Therefore, this post has been a preface to my later post to draw attention to the fact that though I believe female empowerment to be necessary for successful water management schemes to be achieved, I am not assuming that female empowerment will automatically lead to environmental solutions because women are somehow natural protectors, but rather that their experiences and knowledge can only aid water management schemes as more views are considered and more stakeholders are represented.

References

Eele, G., et al. (1992). Environmental change and the response by small-holder famers: some evidence from Tanzania. Paper given at the Annual Conference of the British Society for Population Studies, Exeter College (Oxford, September 9-11).

Gould, B. (1992). Population growth, environmental stability and migration in Western Province, Kenya. Paper given at the Annual Conference of the British Society for Population Studies, Exeter College (Oxford: September 9-11).

Jackson, C. (1993). Doing what comes naturally? Women and environment in development. World Development, 21(12), 1947-1963.

Palmer, C., McShane, K., & Sandler, R. (2014). Environmental Ethics. Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 39, 419-442.

It's Not All Doom and Gloom

A comment on my second post, relating to female farmers, asked me to consider countries outside of the African continent in order to compare any issues or solutions raised for women in agriculture in other parts of the world. This could then provide some insight into what the future might hold for women in Africa.

The article provided by Baljeet Lakhan (the commenter) (Paul, 2012) examined women farmers in India and their unequal treatment. This has resulted in their exclusion from discussions and workshops organised by the local council that exist to provide farmers with information about new agricultural schemes as well as to train them and provide them with the skills to carry out more innovative methods of farming.

Clearly, the situation described in India is not too different from that in Africa. However, the story is not all doom and gloom, as in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh in India, over one million women living in 8,000 villages are earning a living under the Community Managed Sustainable Agriculture programme. The primary purpose of this programme was to eliminate poverty, but they have also aided in the reclamation of thousands of acres of degraded land.

Additionally, the personal experience of Sujathamma Begary demonstrates the programme’s success in improving the position of female farmers as this woman is now the co-owner of a three acre farm with four other neighbours and is now formally recognised as a farmer. This programme demonstrates the success that female empowerment can bring when women are included in discussions of agriculture, and by extension, water management issues.

Perhaps a similar programme could be established in many regions of Africa where female farmers are experiencing problems as a result of inequality. In fact, according to an article in the Cornell University Chronicle (Hautea, 2016) the UN even dedicated October 15th of this year as the International Day of Rural Women where the contribution of rural women around the world was recognised for enhancing agriculture as well as improving food security.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN has even suggested that by giving women farmers equal access to training, knowledge and finance, productivity could be increased by around 30%. Female empowerment will not only benefit women, but men also (Hautea, 2016). 

For Sub-Saharan Africa in particular, the Gender-responsive Researchers Equipped for Agricultural Transformation project team seeks to improve the lives of farmers by increasing gender equality. Their goal is for agricultural practitioners and scientists to improve the productivity and livelihoods of smallholder farmers by bringing ‘gender responsiveness’ to their work (Hautea, 2016).

Furthermore, the Next Generation of Cassava Breeding project, aims to ensure that the needs of women are considered as, in this case, men and women usually prefer different properties in the crops they consume and grow. This project hopes to use innovative technologies to breed cassava varieties that are useful to both men and women (Hautea, 2016).

Hopefully, this post reveals the potential for a positive future with regard to female farmers in Africa as their opinions, knowledges and experiences are increasingly being considered and used to establish more successful practices and improvements within agriculture. Whilst this post has considered female farmers in particular, it is worth remembering how crucial water is for agricultural practices and so how important the empowerment of female farmers is when tackling water issues.

References:

Hautea, S., 2016. Programs empower women farmers around the world. Cornell Chronicle. Online:  http://news.cornell.edu/stories/2016/10/programs-empower-women-farmers-around-world [Accessed 2/11/16].

Paul, S., 2012. Inequality deepens climate challenge for India’s women farmers. Thomson Reuters Foundation News. Online: http://news.trust.org//item/20121030094100-ik53r/ [Accessed 2/11/16].