ABSTRACT
The water, sanitation, and hygiene needs of women and girls have received renewed attention in the Sustainable Development Goals, but remain under-defined. The following chapter explores these gendered needs through the lens of WASH security – having secure and consistent access to appropriate water and sanitation resources to safely and securely meet their individual and contextually defined needs. In addition to SDG water and sanitation targets, addressing WASH in/security is central to efforts to eliminate violence against women, reducing gendered inequities in education, and recognising the unpaid economic contributions of women and girls. Gendered WASH in/security is the product of gendered power relationships that in turn define gender roles, gender norms, and inequitable access to and control of resources. WASH in/security has gendered impacts on women’s health and well-being, including but not limited to, caloric expenditures, accidents and injuries, adverse pregnancy outcomes, and stress and well-being. WASH policy and programmes must recognise the underlying gendered dimensions of WASH insecurity and move away from purely technical solutions to meeting SDG targets.
