Masculinities and hydropower in India: a feminist political ecology perspective

Mainstreaming gender in water governance through “how to do gender” toolkits has long been a development focus. It has been widely argued that such toolkits simplify the complex, nuanced realities of inequalities by gender in relation to water and fail to pay attention to the fact that the proposed...

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Main Authors: Shrestha, Gitta, Joshi, Deepa, Clement, Floriane
Format: Journal Article
Language:Inglés
Published: Uopen Journals 2019
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/105648
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author Shrestha, Gitta
Joshi, Deepa
Clement, Floriane
author_browse Clement, Floriane
Joshi, Deepa
Shrestha, Gitta
author_facet Shrestha, Gitta
Joshi, Deepa
Clement, Floriane
author_sort Shrestha, Gitta
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description Mainstreaming gender in water governance through “how to do gender” toolkits has long been a development focus. It has been widely argued that such toolkits simplify the complex, nuanced realities of inequalities by gender in relation to water and fail to pay attention to the fact that the proposed users of such gender-water toolkits, i.e. mostly male water sector professionals, lack the skills, motivation and/or incentives to apply these toolkits in their everyday work. We adopt a feminist political ecology lens to analyse some of the barriers to reduce social inequalities in the management of global commons such as international rivers. Our findings highlight the leap of faith made in the belief that gender toolkits, as they exist, will filter through layers of a predominantly masculine institutional culture to enable change in ground realities of complex inequalities by gender. Analysing the everyday workings of two hydropower development organisations in India, we show how organisational structures demonstrate a blatant culture of masculinity. These two organisations, like many others, are sites where hierarchies and inequalities based on gender are produced, performed and reproduced. This performance of masculinity promotes and rewards a culture of technical pride in re-shaping nature, abiding by and maintaining hierarchy and demonstrating physical strength and emotional hardiness. In such a setting, paying attention to vulnerabilities, inequalities and disparities are incompatible objectives.
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spelling CGSpace1056482025-03-11T09:50:20Z Masculinities and hydropower in India: a feminist political ecology perspective Shrestha, Gitta Joshi, Deepa Clement, Floriane gender mainstreaming women hydropower gender equality men social aspects human behaviour risks organizations water institutions public sector private sector case studies Mainstreaming gender in water governance through “how to do gender” toolkits has long been a development focus. It has been widely argued that such toolkits simplify the complex, nuanced realities of inequalities by gender in relation to water and fail to pay attention to the fact that the proposed users of such gender-water toolkits, i.e. mostly male water sector professionals, lack the skills, motivation and/or incentives to apply these toolkits in their everyday work. We adopt a feminist political ecology lens to analyse some of the barriers to reduce social inequalities in the management of global commons such as international rivers. Our findings highlight the leap of faith made in the belief that gender toolkits, as they exist, will filter through layers of a predominantly masculine institutional culture to enable change in ground realities of complex inequalities by gender. Analysing the everyday workings of two hydropower development organisations in India, we show how organisational structures demonstrate a blatant culture of masculinity. These two organisations, like many others, are sites where hierarchies and inequalities based on gender are produced, performed and reproduced. This performance of masculinity promotes and rewards a culture of technical pride in re-shaping nature, abiding by and maintaining hierarchy and demonstrating physical strength and emotional hardiness. In such a setting, paying attention to vulnerabilities, inequalities and disparities are incompatible objectives. 2019-04-25 2019-11-06T06:14:06Z 2019-11-06T06:14:06Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/105648 en Open Access Uopen Journals Shrestha, Gitta; Joshi, Deepa; Clement, Floriane. 2019. Masculinities and hydropower in India: a feminist political ecology perspective. International Journal of the Commons, 13(1):130-152. doi: 10.18352/ijc.920
spellingShingle gender mainstreaming
women
hydropower
gender equality
men
social aspects
human behaviour
risks
organizations
water institutions
public sector
private sector
case studies
Shrestha, Gitta
Joshi, Deepa
Clement, Floriane
Masculinities and hydropower in India: a feminist political ecology perspective
title Masculinities and hydropower in India: a feminist political ecology perspective
title_full Masculinities and hydropower in India: a feminist political ecology perspective
title_fullStr Masculinities and hydropower in India: a feminist political ecology perspective
title_full_unstemmed Masculinities and hydropower in India: a feminist political ecology perspective
title_short Masculinities and hydropower in India: a feminist political ecology perspective
title_sort masculinities and hydropower in india a feminist political ecology perspective
topic gender mainstreaming
women
hydropower
gender equality
men
social aspects
human behaviour
risks
organizations
water institutions
public sector
private sector
case studies
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/105648
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AT joshideepa masculinitiesandhydropowerinindiaafeministpoliticalecologyperspective
AT clementfloriane masculinitiesandhydropowerinindiaafeministpoliticalecologyperspective