Fluid Bonds: Views on Gender and Water ‐ Edited by Kuntala Lahiri‐Dutt

This book recognizes the centrality of gender as an organizing principle in the ways water is\udenvisioned, used and managed every day at different locations and in different contexts. Gender\udintersects with other factors such as race, ethnicity, and economic, social and geographical\udlocations. Consequently, the connections between gender and water are contingent and\udheterogeneous, multifaceted and changing. As water itself is fluid, so are the social constructs of\udit, shaping women and men's lives. Fluid Bonds makes gender visible in the various ways water is\uddealt with, and questions how these ways affect gender and how gender affects views on water.\udThrough a rich offering of case studies, it identifies the multiple and changing relationships\udbetween the two, and notes some commonalities whilst gendering the use and management of\udwater.\udDevelopment experts perceive the connections between gender and water as mainly related to\udpoverty, raising questions of unequal access to resources, and poor sanitation leading to ill-health\udof women and children. This 'othering' becomes a constant feature, leading to a perception that\udthe 'problems' have been sorted out in gender-wise North. The gendered realities of poverty and\udwater are such that no one can possibly deny them; the case studies included in Fluid Bonds\udillustrate various issues: of rights, of access, of health and sanitation, of women’s invisibility in\udfarming and fishing, of women facing the impact of policies, of being excluded from the\udsustainability agenda, of being 'given' solution from above, and also of women’s agency in\uddealing with water-related issues. However, the streams of hydrofeminisms coming together in\udFluid Bonds also create a common terrain for the scholars from the North and the South to begin\uda reappraisal of water as an essential and gendered substance.\udFluid Bonds brings together a group of experts representing a wide range of methodological\udapproaches, backgrounds and understandings on gender and water. The twenty-two chapters point\udto the need of greater rights of women in determining how water is used by communities, show\udhow women's roles remain hidden, how their priorities are neglected, and how discourses about\udgender roles and rights determine women's participation in water management. Collectively, the\udcontributors consider the problematic fluidity and indefinite categories of gender and water,\udtracing the bonds as well as drawing out some differences, focusing on the gendered nature of\udwater in life, of which women and men, at all times, constitute a part. The book will be of\udimmediate interest to academics, development planners, administrators, educators, activists and\udwater experts (see over for contents)