Message 38: Juana Vera
What is needed?
In order to grasp fully the significance of inequalities in gender relations and water management, it is necessary to study how women and men construct their gender ideology and identity systematically. Attention must be paid to the social position of men, the significance of being male, of having masculine characteristics and behavior. Women’s and men’s own perception of themselves has to be de-coded in order to understand social structures and patterns. That implies:
“...How could a man aspire to get married if he has not proved to be a ‘macho’, how if he has not challenged and crossed the frontier? (migrating to “the North”) (a man’s testimony)
“... I did not inherit the land to my daughters, but to my sons, because I already left my daughter a husband. He will sustain her.” (a man’s testimony)
“...no, no I will not inherit any land to my daughter, only to my sons because they work on the land and they will support me (economically) . The married daughter serves her husband as well as her parents in-law” (a widow’s testimony).
“ It would be humiliating for us to allow women to work in the maintenance of the canals, this is men’s work”. (a man’s testimony)
Testimonies like these are quite common in rural areas. These discourses reveal to us how local women and men perceive gender qualities, rights and domains. Adjectives such as “independent”, “hard work”, “risk”, “valiant”, “strong character”, “authority” and even ‘mujeriego’, have been used for qualifying a man or “good macho” or ‘cabron’. While qualities such as “hard work”, “honor”, “unity”, “respect”, “patient”, “modesty” and “obedient” are appreciated in a woman. This ideology emerges in the core of the household and is reproduced in every day practices, in discourses and in organizing practices. These types of discourses form part of the differentiated stock of knowledge and resources available to actors. The more a discourse is internalised and accepted as true, the stronger will be its effects. In this way practices and discourses are patterned and reproduced through organizations and institutions in favor of men.
Renegotiating gender roles, towards a gender balance
Even though women are gaining access to productive resources, as well as formal spaces of decision-making in water management, there is hardly any change in the power of decision making about the division of labor within the household. Men (and also women) tend to act and decide according to their prejudices about the appropriate tasks for men and women. The household division of labor and the assignment of domestic responsibilities to women is so deeply institutionalized in household rules and practices that it appears to be non-negotiable. Women, who wish to for instance take up water authority, can only do so by cutting down on their leisure time or by withdrawing their children from school. They rarely do so by renegotiating the division of labor in such a way that husbands take over a greater share of domestic chores.
