Water, Energy, Food and People Across the Global South by Larry A. Swatuk & Corrine Cash

Author:Larry A. Swatuk & Corrine Cash
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer International Publishing, Cham

Theoretical Framework

When discussing gender, it is first necessary to define the terms being used. Although gender may seem, at first glance, to be a clear and unambiguous term, there have been varying conceptualizations of what gender, as a term, represents. For our purposes here, gender refers to the socially constructed expression of behaviour, most commonly expressed through the self-identification of ‘man/men’ or ‘woman/women ’ (Fausto-Sterling 2000). While it is acknowledged that gender exists on a spectrum and is often expressed outside of this dominant binary, in terms of the societies in question herein, it is the traditional male/female dichotomy that generally applies. Accordingly, this chapter works within the framework of the dominant gender binary, as it pertains to how women and men interact in water use and water management processes.

This foundational understanding of gender is complemented by the utilization of an analysis that frames women as a class of people whose oppression is linked to categorization of women as a class similar to the Marxist conception of the proletariat as a class. As such, women and men have had different experiences with water as a result of class formulations based on socially defined genders rather than being rooted in biological sex distinction (Kennedy and Lapidus 1980). This analytical framework is adapted from the work of socialist feminists such as Zillah Eisenstein, who argued that the liberation of women would have to be accompanied by the social liberation of all people (Kennedy and Lapidus 1980).

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