Despite a large body of evidence showing how costly it is for countries to rely predominantly on male employment, the gender gap in labour market participation has remained large and fairly constant over the past decades. As of 2022, just over 50% of working-age women, compared to around 80% of men, participate in the labour force1. Female participation in the labour market varies between countries and between sectors. It is, for example, estimated that women make up about 43% of the agricultural labour force and 32% of the renewable energy workforce2,3.

Data on women in the water workforce is, however, scarce and fragmented, and the few numbers we have are not encouraging. According to a 2018–2019 World Bank survey of water and sanitation utilities in 28 countries, only 18% of the workers were women. And while on average 23% of the engineers and managers in the utilities were women, 12% of the utilities had no female managers at all4. This level of female participation is similar to that emerging from other studies of the water and sanitation sector in low- and middle-income countries, in which women have been found to comprise between 17 and 25% of the workers, with an even lower representation of women as technical exerts or in managing roles4,5.

Slightly more positive numbers are reported in the Comment by Grace Oluwasanya and colleagues, who discuss the results of a recent survey on women in the water workforce at national and regional levels in the Global South. In the 173 surveyed water organizations, including national water ministries, water utilities, transboundary water organizations, and formal educational institutions, women representation averaged 36%, 38% and 26% at junior, mid-level and leadership positions, respectively.

The generally low participation of women in the water workforce may be explained by a wide range of factors that hinder their participation in paid employment. These barriers also vary between countries, but include traditional gender roles, restrictive policies and laws, social and cultural norms, discrimination in hiring and retention, and the small proportion of female graduates in STEM areas. The lower representation of women in leadership roles in the water domain may in turn be explained by the shortage of female water professionals, as well as gender stereotyping and false perceptions that women lack managerial skills6.

While women are underrepresented in the formal labour market, both in general and even more so in the water workforce, they are overrepresented in the unpaid work of managing water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) resources at the household level. In low-resource settings, women are, for example, more likely than men to be responsible for ensuring that the household has enough water for drinking, cooking and cleaning, and they often play a large role in taking care of community water and sanitation services and facilities as well as providing water for livelihood. These time-consuming responsibilities can in turn further hinder women’s participation in the formal labour market. Recognizing this unpaid work in the water domain is vital for gender equality and a fairer distribution of work.

The central role that women play in managing household WASH resources can however be exploited by the very organizations and projects that aim to improve WASH conditions. In their Article, Bethany Caruso and colleagues evaluate how women have been engaged in health-related WASH research and intervention activities. By assessing 133 WASH studies, which aimed at improving conditions related to diarrheal diseases and acute respiratory infections, they found that many of the studies relied entirely on women’s participation in intervention delivery and to provide survey data. They found the majority of the WASH studies to be either gender-unequal or gender-unaware, meaning that they either reinforce or ignore gender inequalities, by, for example, specifically targeting female household members to perform programme tasks.

It has been approximately 30 years since the international community agreed upon women’s central role in the water domain and to take measures to ensure women’s equal participation in power structures and decision-making, through the Dublin Principles and the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. The goals of gender equality and women’s empowerment in the water sector have since then been included in several international declarations and agreements. And although some progress has been made, many old problems persist. As discussed above, women are still underrepresented in the water workforce yet women are central in the provisioning and safeguarding of water. In most instances, these responsibilities are not accompanied by the authority to make water-related decisions, not even at community levels6.

Moving forward, efforts to eliminate gender inequalities in the water domain are crucial. Women must not only be able to have equal access to water, but also have equal influence over its governance and management. Let’s make sure that future research programmes and interventions do not inadvertently contribute to cementing the existing gender inequalities.