Gender and residential water use in Los Angeles: Ingrained, untapped, and porous

This study brings feminist anthropological attention to the important but understudied role of gender—as it intersects with migration, class, and race—in residential water use in the United States. We reveal gender justice concerns about water use, management, and conservation. In the context of international development, research has shown that gender shapes water, especially because women and children are disproportionately responsible for procuring water. A large and separate body of research shows that, in the United States, household divisions of labor and decision-making are often gendered. This study, which is based on interviews, ethnographic observation, and water diary data from diverse households in four Los Angeles neighborhoods, found, first, that women disproportionately are responsible for the household management and use of water. Tellingly, we also find that most research participants deny that gender influences water use. Second, we found that gendered water use is shaped by and co-produced with structures of immigration, race, and class: immigrant households possess untapped knowledge about water and its conservation, and race and class shape people's relations to water. Third, we found that household water troubles the water management categories of “residential” versus “commercial” water use, which correspond to the gendered categories of private versus public: we highlight the “porosity” of household water use. This research contributes to urban political ecology and environmental anthropology by showing why inequalities may be exacerbated, and gender may be produced, in relation to water through gender-evasive water management in the Global North.