Chapter 4: Water GLOBAL GENDER AND ENVIRONMENT OUTLOOK Energy Chapter 2


which acknowledges that people’s intimate needs are socially intertwined and culturally embedded (Tilley et al. 2013). Such an approach is necessary not only in order to address the specific needs and preferences of women, but to create spaces where taboo personal activities can be carried out without exposure to danger and shame.


Access to toilets is a prerequisite for full public participation and citizenship (Plaskow 2008). In most of the world, women do not have the same access to toilets as men. In the UN-Habitat report State of Women in Cities 2012-2013 sanitation and the burden of disease associated with unsafe sanitation was the most commonly identified infrastructure barrier to women’s prosperity (UN-Habitat 2013). In this survey across a range of cities, women ranked their access to sanitation as considerably less advanced than their access to other types of infrastructure such as transport (Table 2.2.2).


Provision of public toilets often discriminates against women. In Mumbai, India,


there are 40% fewer


public toilets for women than for men. The municipal government reportedly provided almost 6000 public toilets for men compared with 3536 for women; men had an additional publically provided 2466 urinals; and increasing the disparity, the urinals were free while women were charged to use their facilities (Yardley 2012). An even greater imbalance was reported in New Delhi, with 1534 public toilets for men and 132 for women (Yardley 2012).


Even in public spaces with the most modern toilet facilities, gender equality needs are seldom met. Women’s toilets typically have long queues, while men


Cities


1= least; 5: most Transport Water


Electricity Sanitation


Telecommunications Recreational


66


Bangalore (India)


3.15 2.60 2.90 2.52 3.38 2.68


seldom wait long to use such facilities. Women also use them for longer periods for many reasons, including menstruation, social expectations around childcare (children typically use such facilities with their mothers), and social norms in regard to femininity and more binding and cumbersome clothing than men (Chemaly 2015). When women are pregnant, disabled or infirm, these constraints are even greater. Yet the design and provision of public toilets typically take little account of these differences.


On a larger scale, toilet provision reflects broad equality struggles. The absence of public toilets for women is associated with the exclusion of women from public power, and from public spaces more generally. Women’s empowerment activists have sparked toilet access equality movements, including a global “right to pee” women’s movement (BBC 2015a). In many parts of the world, gay rights and transgender rights movements include, prominently, demands for appropriate toilet needs for sexual minorities and that recognize transgender choices (McGee 2016; Johnston 2016).


Lack of suitable sanitation provision in schools can prevent girls receiving an education. Schools without toilets, or with shared toilets, pose health and safety risks. They are also a significant cultural barrier that keeps girls away from these schools (Roma and Pugh 2012). One of every three primary schools in Africa does not have any toilet (Mundy et al. 2015). The evidence base on the relationship between schooling and sanitation is still undeveloped (Birdthistle et al. 2011), but most research suggests that girls’ school absences are directly related to sanitation provision. In Bangladesh, for example, when separate facilities


Table 2.2.2: Ranking by women of their access to different types of urban infrastructure


Johannesburg (South Africa)


3.33 3.48 3.34 3.25 3.34 3.19


Kampala (Uganda)


2.93 2.97 2.88 2.98 3.11 2.87


Kingston (Jamaica)


3.70 3.92 3.96 3.41 4.02 3.28


Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)


2.53 3.09 3.23 2.59 3.18 2.78


Source: UN-Habitat (2013)


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120  |  Page 121  |  Page 122  |  Page 123  |  Page 124  |  Page 125  |  Page 126  |  Page 127  |  Page 128  |  Page 129  |  Page 130  |  Page 131  |  Page 132  |  Page 133  |  Page 134  |  Page 135  |  Page 136  |  Page 137  |  Page 138  |  Page 139  |  Page 140  |  Page 141  |  Page 142  |  Page 143  |  Page 144  |  Page 145  |  Page 146  |  Page 147  |  Page 148  |  Page 149  |  Page 150  |  Page 151  |  Page 152  |  Page 153  |  Page 154  |  Page 155  |  Page 156  |  Page 157  |  Page 158  |  Page 159  |  Page 160  |  Page 161  |  Page 162  |  Page 163  |  Page 164  |  Page 165  |  Page 166  |  Page 167  |  Page 168  |  Page 169  |  Page 170  |  Page 171  |  Page 172  |  Page 173  |  Page 174  |  Page 175  |  Page 176  |  Page 177  |  Page 178  |  Page 179  |  Page 180  |  Page 181  |  Page 182  |  Page 183  |  Page 184  |  Page 185  |  Page 186  |  Page 187  |  Page 188  |  Page 189  |  Page 190  |  Page 191  |  Page 192  |  Page 193  |  Page 194  |  Page 195  |  Page 196  |  Page 197  |  Page 198  |  Page 199  |  Page 200  |  Page 201  |  Page 202  |  Page 203  |  Page 204  |  Page 205  |  Page 206  |  Page 207  |  Page 208  |  Page 209  |  Page 210  |  Page 211  |  Page 212  |  Page 213  |  Page 214  |  Page 215  |  Page 216  |  Page 217  |  Page 218  |  Page 219  |  Page 220  |  Page 221  |  Page 222  |  Page 223  |  Page 224  |  Page 225  |  Page 226  |  Page 227  |  Page 228  |  Page 229  |  Page 230  |  Page 231  |  Page 232  |  Page 233  |  Page 234  |  Page 235  |  Page 236  |  Page 237  |  Page 238  |  Page 239  |  Page 240  |  Page 241  |  Page 242