Gender And Sanitation Research Paper

Roles based on patriarchal norms, disproportionately assign “care giving” roles to women. This socially allocated work is effort-heavy, ‘invisible’, ‘unrecognized’ and ‘unpaid’. For example, women largely bear the burden of taking care of the children, elderly or ill. Often they are responsible for fetching water, and carrying out sanitation-related cleaning activities. Mostly, men do not partake in these responsibilities. These gender based roles and responsibilities, restrict women’s opportunities for education, employment, political engagement, leisure and self-care. Furthermore, while poverty affects households as a whole, women bear a disproportionate burden owing to the gender based division of labour. The gender disparities in economic power-sharing are also an important contributing factor to the poverty of women. Poverty is also characterized by lack of participation in decision-making processes in everyday social and cultural life. Gender And Sanitation Research Paper