Unravelling gendered practices in the public water sector in Nepal

Despite decades of gender mainstreaming in the water sector, a wide gap between policy commitments and outcomes remains. This study aims at offering a fresh perspective on such policy gaps, by analysing how gendered discourses, institutions and professional culture contribute to policy gaps. We rely...

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Main Authors: Shrestha, Gitta, Clement, Floriane
Format: Journal Article
Language:Inglés
Published: IWA Publishing 2019
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/106469
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author Shrestha, Gitta
Clement, Floriane
author_browse Clement, Floriane
Shrestha, Gitta
author_facet Shrestha, Gitta
Clement, Floriane
author_sort Shrestha, Gitta
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description Despite decades of gender mainstreaming in the water sector, a wide gap between policy commitments and outcomes remains. This study aims at offering a fresh perspective on such policy gaps, by analysing how gendered discourses, institutions and professional culture contribute to policy gaps. We rely on a conceptual framework originally developed for analysing strategic change, which is used to analyse gender in the public water sector in Nepal. Our analysis relies on a review of national water policies and a series of semi-structured interviews with male and female water professionals from several public agencies. Our findings evidence how dominant discourses, formal rules and professional culture intersect to support and reproduce hegemonic masculine attitudes and practices of water professionals. Such attitudes and practices in turn favour a technocratic implementation of policy measures. We argue that gender equality policy initiatives in the water sector have overly focused on local level formal institutions and have not adequately considered the effects of masculine discourses, norms and culture to be effective in making progress towards gender equity. We conclude with policy recommendations.
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spelling CGSpace1064692025-03-11T09:50:20Z Unravelling gendered practices in the public water sector in Nepal Shrestha, Gitta Clement, Floriane water supply public water gender equality gender equity women's participation water institutions water user associations corporate culture water policy decision making attitudes case studies Despite decades of gender mainstreaming in the water sector, a wide gap between policy commitments and outcomes remains. This study aims at offering a fresh perspective on such policy gaps, by analysing how gendered discourses, institutions and professional culture contribute to policy gaps. We rely on a conceptual framework originally developed for analysing strategic change, which is used to analyse gender in the public water sector in Nepal. Our analysis relies on a review of national water policies and a series of semi-structured interviews with male and female water professionals from several public agencies. Our findings evidence how dominant discourses, formal rules and professional culture intersect to support and reproduce hegemonic masculine attitudes and practices of water professionals. Such attitudes and practices in turn favour a technocratic implementation of policy measures. We argue that gender equality policy initiatives in the water sector have overly focused on local level formal institutions and have not adequately considered the effects of masculine discourses, norms and culture to be effective in making progress towards gender equity. We conclude with policy recommendations. 2019-10-01 2020-01-08T09:00:32Z 2020-01-08T09:00:32Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/106469 en Open Access IWA Publishing Shrestha, Gitta; Clement, Floriane. 2019. Unravelling gendered practices in the public water sector in Nepal. Water Policy, 21(5):1017-1033. doi: 10.2166/wp.2019.238
spellingShingle water supply
public water
gender equality
gender equity
women's participation
water institutions
water user associations
corporate culture
water policy
decision making
attitudes
case studies
Shrestha, Gitta
Clement, Floriane
Unravelling gendered practices in the public water sector in Nepal
title Unravelling gendered practices in the public water sector in Nepal
title_full Unravelling gendered practices in the public water sector in Nepal
title_fullStr Unravelling gendered practices in the public water sector in Nepal
title_full_unstemmed Unravelling gendered practices in the public water sector in Nepal
title_short Unravelling gendered practices in the public water sector in Nepal
title_sort unravelling gendered practices in the public water sector in nepal
topic water supply
public water
gender equality
gender equity
women's participation
water institutions
water user associations
corporate culture
water policy
decision making
attitudes
case studies
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/106469
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