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•Website of the organisation gender and water : http://www.genderandwater.org/
== Gender definition ==
It is generally accepted that good water governance will lead to equitable outcomes for men and women, however there is very little acknowledgement that at a local level systems can be adapted in ways that reproduce gendered hierarchies (Boelens and Zwarteveen 2005; Tukai 2005). In addition, a gendered perspective is rarely an integral part of governance discourses even though social institutions play a large role in determining how decisions are made about water.
Social aspects like gender, race, and class shape our relationships with water and with other people who are responsible for making decisions about water, and therefore shape issues like access and control over resources. In discussions of gender and water governance it is often assumed that integrating women into governance processes meets the required gender aspect of governance, but this is not the case. Often times at the interface of formalised institutions and social institutions there are mixed messages with regards to how exactly women (and other marginalised people) are to participate (Singh, 2008). In addition the category of women is not homogeneous and it cannot be assumed that a female representative in a water committee will necessarily speak on behalf of women or in the interests of women.
The issue of gender in water governance is not easily solved. It helps to break governance issues down to look at resources, mechanisms and outcomes, to examine how each portion is gendered and in different ways (Cleaver and Hamada, forthcoming). Examining water governance in this way exposes the pervasiveness of gender as a governing institution, and also the costs of achieving gender equity in water governance.
== Text references ==
<references></references>
Boelens, R. and M. Zwarteveen (2005) Anomalous Water Rights and the Politics of Normalization. Paper presented at the ESRC Seminar Politics, Institutions and Participation.
Cleaver, F. and K. Hamada (Forthcoming) "‘Good’ water governance and gender equity; a troubled relationship." <i>Gender and Development</i>.
Singh, N. (2008) ‘Equitable Gender Participation in local Water Governance: An Insight into Institutional Paradoxes,’ <i>Water Resource Management</i> 22: 925-942.
Tukai R (2005) Gender and Access in Pastoral Communities: Re-evaluating Community Participation and Gender Empowerment. Paper presented at the ESRC Seminar: Access, Poverty and Social Exclusion, ODI, London.
