6.6 Women's Participation In The Processes Of The Water Resources Management
6.6.8 Challenges Faced In The Determination And Allocation Of Roles For Males And
In most rural areas, tradition and culture determine and allocate roles for men and women. There are certain roles, which are traditionally performed by women no matter what the circumstances might be, and the same applies to men. Regarding gender mainstreaming, males and females must be allocated roles fairly, and women should be given the opportunity to perform roles, from which they were excluded in the past. There is a challenge in the application of the Gender Mainstreaming Strategy, especially in the determination and allocation of roles for males and females.
As in most other rural areas, tradition still determines and allocates different roles to men and women.
The community still values their traditional practices and beliefs. In most cases, men are assigned community development roles whereas women are always given household roles. From the survey results, most respondents did not see anything wrong with the traditional determination and
allocation of functions to men and women. They indicated that men and women were treated fairly, especially in the water committees. One respondent said:
“There is no problem with our traditional allocation of roles in the village. Roles are allocated according to the gender abilities we have. Men are born to be leaders and financially support their families while women are created to be their husbands' supporters by doing household chores.” ( Participant in Cwebe)
“Even during elections of water committee officials, men and women know which positions are suitable for them. Women do not even try to stand for the chairperson and treasurer positions.” (Participant in Mbelu)
Some of the reasons why men were always given leadership positions, besides tradition, were that women are considered not to have management and leadership skills. The fact that a person is a man automatically makes him a good leader in the village. The other reason is that women just do not even have time to participate in community development activities. They are always busy in their households, and the fact that they do not attend community meetings also affects the allocation of duties. One male respondent emphasised this more:
“We cannot allocate women chairperson role because they will sometimes not be available to attend to important issues due to their household caregivers’ roles. We need men because they have too much time for themselves as compared to women. This will allow them to attend to important issues in the village which most women might fail to do due to lack of time.” ( Participant in Cwebe)
However, some respondents assured the researcher that there were no challenges in the determination and allocation of roles for men and women in the village. They said that people should just be willing and available to perform the roles regardless of their gender. If they are willing and available, they also have an opportunity to learn many things, which they did not previously know.
Self-confidence and determination also contributed to the allocation of roles along gender lines. One of the male respondents said:
“If women are self-confident and are determined to work hard, they can hold all the positions in the water committee. This will prevent women from being given the secretarial and additional member positions only,” (Participant in Ntilini)
Many men were not willing to perform female roles especially traditional households' roles.
The challenge faced in this regard is the attitudinal change. Traditionally, women and men are allocated certain functions in the villages. The challenge is that there are roles that are considered to be male preserves that according to the community women cannot do and vice- versa and that is hard to change in the village. For example, the people continue to believe that the chairperson and treasurer positions are male preserves and the secretary and additional member are female preserves.
It is worthy to note that the overall challenges that the respondents identified are evident of some of the theoretical challenges are indeed experienced in the village. This study shows that challenges such as structural changes, creating awareness and understanding, epistemological issues, the presence of actors/change agents, implementation of the strategy, cultural/traditional problems and attitudinal change which are described and explained in theory were experienced in the three villages. There is a
lack of gender policy guidelines and lack of integration of the needs of both men and women. As already indicated, women's concerns regarding the issues of water resources management were not always taken into consideration. There was an awareness campaign on human rights in the three villages one of the measures of gender mainstreaming. This results in most community members not knowing and, some not understanding, their human rights. As already discussed, the majority of the women were not interested and committed to the application of the strategy in the village. The respondents indicated that most women did not attend the community meetings, which serve as consultation mechanisms. Additionally, there were problems with the application of the strategy due to lack of staff capacity as well as attitudes which often included resistance to gender equality. The people's traditions in most cases influence their attitudes.
6.7 CONCLUSION
There were no specific measures designed and mechanisms put in place for releasing women from their traditional roles; helping women to feel able to do things they could not previously do; to ensure that opportunities that were previously denied to women are made accessible. It is to ensure that women can hold any of the positions in the water committee; to raise awareness about human rights among men and women; to protect women, who exercise their human rights, to listen to the voices of women and to ensure that women can perform masculine roles and vice-versa.
The respondents assisted in identifying the challenges faced, among others, in capacitating and empowering women in the processes of consultation and consideration of women's concerns in the water resources management and determination and allocation of roles for men and women. The community still believes strongly in their traditions regarding who holds which position in the water committee. Men are still treated as leaders and women as their supporters and followers. Women are not always allowed to participate on an equal footing with men in the processes of the water committee. In addition, the majority of women felt incapable of holding higher positions such as chairperson and treasurer in the water committee. Women's concerns were not always taken into consideration. All this contributed to the challenges in the application of the Gender Mainstreaming Strategy.