GWC Helpdesk

Contact GWC
Go Back

A feminist study on the impact of COVID-19 on WASH access and the WASH sector response

Through a feminist approach to qualitative online survey and document analysis, this research explored how social inequalities intersected with the COVID-19 impact to shape access to WASH in developing countries while also examining the integration of gender into COVID-19 WASH interventions and policies. After describing the inspiration for this study, this article reviews relevant gender studies’ scholarship to explain why gender matters when responding to emergencies through WASH. It also presents the criticism addressed by gender scholars to the emergency community in general, and the WASH sector in particular. In dis- cussing the research findings, this article shows that the pandemic has exacerbated existing gendered barriers to WASH access in surveyed communities and reinforced an unequal gen- dered division of labour. It thus argues that women, and especially those living with disabili- ties, are disproportionately vulnerable to the impact of COVID-19 on WASH. In looking for gender gaps in the WASH response to COVID-19, it suggests that gender was not successful- ly factored into five documents selected from WASH international policies for COVID-19, while interventions in surveyed communities tended to adopt a simplistic and apolitical ap- proach to gender.

Subscribe to Our Mailing List

To make sure you only get content you're interested in, please take a moment to fill out your details and preferences & subscribe to GWC Mailing List.