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the world must be shared in order to expand
capacity in other countries. GWP invests heavily
in developing and spreading knowledge and
technical advice for mainstreaming gender in the
context of IWRM.
One of the most comprehensive and powerful
knowledge tools available on GWP’s IWRM
Action Hub is the GWP and UNEP-DHI
publication, Advancing towards gender
mainstreaming in water resource management.
Published in 2021, and based on national responses
to the gender-related question in the survey on
Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) indicator
6.5.1 on the degree of implementation of IWRM,
the publication identifes seven enablers to gender
mainstreaming in water management, identifying
cultural, legal and institutional barriers and
opportunities.
Invest in women: Accelerate progress
This year’s International Women’s Day
theme, ‘Invest in women: Accelerate progress’,
highlights one of these key enablers for gender
mainstreaming: the participation of women in
forming and implementing policies, programmes,
and projects. Women’s employment rates in the
water sector have historically been low, owing to
the popular belief that engineers (still a very maledominated profession) were the most important
to work in the water community, and that
physical strength was a main criterion since the
work involved heavy water pipes, construction,
and installation machinery. Decades of advocacy
and on-the-ground education, empowerment,
and monitoring programmes have resulted
in positive trends in women’s involvement in
water management, which various studies have
concluded in turn leads to an increase and
efectiveness and efciency of water system.
Wa t e r u t i l i t i e s h a v e i n c r e a s i n g l y
acknowledged the specifc skills that women ofen
bring as well-suited of the modern water utility.
Tese utilities are evolving quickly as they become
more customer oriented. Many are creating new
departments to respond to emerging needs, mainly
in client-facing areas such as customer service
divisions. Because of technology and digitization,
certain jobs no longer require physical strength.
With the newest developments in artificial
intelligence, leak detection, and new technological
polymers and materials for pipe repair, utilities
are identifying important employment needs to
manage detection technology that does not put a
premium on physical strength.
Of course, empowering women to get
involved in water management is not enough
on its own. Women must see the water sector as
attractive for their individual career paths. More
women managers and leaders must be appointed
and visible to the ranks of new employees. And
this is where the ripple effect of investing in
women, water, and the world comes into play.
While data in this important area tends to lag
(which is a gender issue in itself), in a survey of
362 water utilities conducted by the World Bank
in 2019, the percentage of women employed in
those utilities rose from an average of 12% to
