This parallel event, held on Tuesday 14 March, was presented as a joint session between Soroptimist International (SI) and the Women for Water Partnership and featured panelists from around the world, discussing the nature and role of gender and technological innovation surrounding Water issues.

The session was introduced by SI President, Maureen Maguire, who stressed the need to involve women and girls in water solutions in order to strive for a more sustainable future. President Maureen highlighted the need to incorporate indigenous knowledge in tacking the global water crisis which disproportionately affects women and girls.

The first speaker was Mariet Verhoef-Cohen, President of the Women for Water Partnership since 2014 and former SI President in 2017 – 2019. Mariet illustrated the gender gap in the water sector, highlighting the fact that women make up only 17% of the workforce. She argued that in order to bridge the gap and strive for SDG 6, we must increase technical education around water and sanitation and boost financial resources to increase accessibility of jobs within the sector. Mariet stated that a gender responsive and transformative approach will help to place women at the forefront of global water solutions.

This presentation was succeeded by Professor Grace Oluwasanya, who is the project lead for Water, Climate, and Gender Research at the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment, and Health. Professor Oluwasanya delivered a talk on the importance of digital literacy for bridging the inequality gap within the water sector, noting the holistic nature of the SDGs (particularly SDG 5 & 6), linking the significance of water to human development, as well as highlighting the centrality of gender equality to safe water and sanitation provision.

One particular question raised during this talk was on how gender equality can be promoted in the context of effective water management; Professor Oluwasanya noted that the water sector is largely considered a male environment, especially for technical roles, since the notion that women are not decision makers or technical has often been perpetuated throughout their lives. In order to bridge this gap, it is important that we seek ‘True Representation’ in Water Education; first, by quantifying the current representation of women in the water sector, before deciding appropriate methodologies for ensuring women’s inclusivity in leadership positions.

SI UN Representative in Geneva, Stacy Ciulik, followed up this talk by discussing the significance of women in STEM and how, since 1975, the UN and other Civil Society Organisations have sought a more equal representation of the sexes in the design and implementation of projects and programmes in STEM fields. It is important that we acknowledge and celebrate the technological contributions of women, who have historically worked alongside men to co-create the world we live in, yet often without comparable recognition.

In order to illustrate this work that often goes unrecognised, Stacy drew our attention to a project co-ordinated by the Swedish Union of SI and their project to deliver solar safe water systems; the effect of these systems stretches well beyond their main function of sourcing safe drinking water. In particular, their use in isolated rural communities can reduce water costs and decrease the effort required to manage household water supplies – as this household burden often falls on women and girls, they can thus find an increase of free time for pursuing education and other productive roles.

Rounding off this session, Soroptimists Joanne Yeoh and Saradha Narayanan shared a short film focusing on the empowerment of rural women through resilience building against floods. Spotlighting a project coordinated by SI in Malaysia, in response to damaging extreme weather events such as floods, droughts, and fires, which caused around 1.3 billion USD worth of damage to public assets and infrastructure, as well as displacing over 125000 people. The project sought to mitigate and reduce the risk of floods and their adverse effects, empowering women in isolated communities to better handle future disasters. Women were taught how to weld, as well as how to create and fit platforms for water tanks; this was in addition to other productive and income generating skills such as farming and basket weaving.

Ultimately this has helped women in Malaysia emerge from these disasters as agents of change rather than victims, where their uniquely indigenous experience, knowledge, and skills prove vital for mitigating and adapting to climate change.