ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we use examples and illustrations from Nepal and Peru to critically rethink conventional gender wisdoms and strategies to either empower women or achieve more gender equity in water management. By now, it is quite well documented that water decision-making and management in irrigation (at least the formalized and public parts of it) are, almost everywhere in the world, dominated by men (Arroyo and Boelens, 1997; Bustamente et al, 2005; Meinzen-Dick and Zwarteveen, 1998; Shyamala and Rao, 2002; Vera, 2005, 2006a; Zwarteveen and Meinzen-Dick, 2001). Male dominance is not limited to collective action in water, but has also been documented for other participatory natural resource management organizations (Agarwal, 2000, 2001; Sarin, 1995). The near absence of women in management organizations is hard to reconcile with the rhetoric of accessibility, democracy and participation that characterizes thinking about and acting on user-based water management groups.
