The water sector has made considerable efforts over the past years to move towards a system of holistic water management. While significant progress has been made in some of these areas, the field has struggled to fully embrace modern feminist thinking. Without adequate gender analysis, tools that support decisions become gender-blind. This can lead to decisions that have the potential to entrench disadvantage and undermine efficiency.

 

To truly embrace feminist thinking, the water sector must move beyond its focus on just women and engage in gender relationships. It must explore intersecting identities and social norms about where men and women's natural jurisdiction over water decisions lie should be challenged. Furthermore, the sector should conduct genuine gender mainstreaming that addresses gender-blind policy. This is not a trivial task. Social dynamics are complex and heterogeneous. The cross-cutting nature of gender makes it especially so.

 

In an attempt to help SDIP move towards gender mainstreaming with clear and precise impact, I use Wallbrink et al.'s Guidelines for Water Management Modelling, to explore if and how each step of the modelling process could consider gender dynamics.

 

Evangeline Packett is an undergraduate student at ANU studying a Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of International Security Studies. In science, she majors in hydrology and minors in environmental science and policy. She wishes to use her interdisciplinary study to explore new ideas in socio-hydrology. Her previous research includes essays on transboundary groundwater in Israel and Palestine, indigenous water rights in Australia and New Zealand and the effect of urbanisation and climate change on the Pacific islands' water security.

 

 

 

Scientists working on development projects have been confronted with the critical requirement to integrate gender into their work. This has been particularly challenging for 'hard sciences', such as CSIRO's water modelling work for the Sustainable Development Investment Portfolio (SDIP). Where has the gender issue come from, why is it important, and why can't we seem to get the results we want?

 

I will discuss the rise of gender mainstreaming and engage with contemporary critiques of its effectiveness from the perspective of water development. From these critiques I will draw out a common concern: how scales, the geographical assumptions made by scientists, can lead to unclear or unimplementable gender goals.

 

How should we rethink gender and scale as scientists to ensure our gender targets are generating impact? This seminar will explore the scale in the SDIP, and explore solutions for scientists grappling with implementing gender in their projects and institutions.

 

Toby Walmsley is an undergraduate student at the University of New South Wales, Studying a Bachelor of Advanced Mathematics and Arts. He studies pure mathematics, including number theory, cryptography, analysis, and graph theory, as well as social and political philosophy, including gender and race theory, social ontology, and connections between ecology and society. His research intends to explore the connections between institutions, and social and ecological interrelationships.

 

For enquiries about the seminar series or to nominate to present a seminar, please contact

Dr Yun Chen E: yun.chen@csiro.au P: 02 6246 5729 

Susan Cuddy E: susan.cuddy@csiro.au P: 02 6246 5705