Tutorial on Women and Water

I was recently sent this very useful pdf document on women and water that many will find useful: Why Gender Matters: A Tutorial for Water Managers.

The tutorial covers four major areas - water supply, sanitation, agriculture, and environment--providing data on why a focus on gender is important, and touches on integrated water resources management as well as the economic and social benefits from a gendered approach to water supply and management.

Safe Water as the Global Glass Ceiling

article about women and water on Huffington Post.

Here is the intro:

"There is a photograph that travelers inevitably take when they go to a developing country -- a picture of a woman carrying a large container of water on her head. The woman's posture is ramrod straight, the envy of runway models everywhere, and her face rarely betrays the amount of effort and strength this task involves. Most times this photo is taken because it is a stunning and moving image of a woman's strength and beauty.

Alluring as this image may be, what it truly portrays is the economic, physical and health burden that women and girls must endure everyday of their lives to provide water for their families - this is the forgotten glass ceiling."

For the full article, go here.

Women and Water

On this mother's day I thought I'd post a sobering reminder of the unique challenges women face in their roles as the primary caregivers and food producers when there is insufficient access to adequate amounts of clean water on a daily basis. 2003 was the International Year of Freshwater. The ongoing website has a facts and figures page on women and water, highlighting the role of women in traditional tasks, agriculture and food security, and the need for gender equity, bringing women into decisionmaking around water development, and the need for sustainability.

And here are a few of my favorite mother's day quotes (You can find a much bigger list of these quotes at The Quote Garden):

A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie. ~Tenneva Jordan

All mothers are working mothers. ~Author Unknown

The moment a child is born, the mother is also born. She never existed before. The woman existed, but the mother, never. A mother is something absolutely new. ~Rajneesh

When you are a mother, you are never really alone in your thoughts. A mother always has to think twice, once for herself and once for her child. ~Sophia Loren, Women and Beauty