Women in Water is part of the
JustWATER Project
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Next Events
- ELLE ITALIA - MILAN 9 NOVEMBER 2025
- L'EREDITÀ DELLE DONNE - 21 NOVEMBER 2025
- WOMEN IN WATER IN ITALY, EUROPE AND THE MEDITERRANEAN (panel session): Bergamo 28th November 2025 AULA 1 , 11 am-13.30 am Via Salvecchio 19, Dipartimento di Lingue, Letterature e Culture Straniere, Bergamo
This website is part of the final outputs of the research project JustWATER. Water Decision Making Tools for Informed Hydropolitics in Italy project. This project component aims to develop a first assessment on the role of women in Italy, regarding all spheres in the water sector: from decision-making in water governance to agriculture and irrigation , from women migrant workers to gender analysis of the access to the human right to water across the Italian divide North/South. The pre-print Paper is enabling the establishment of a first literature review and methodological framework with a list of indicators. The online survey is enabling online data gathering. Online users will be also able to geo-locate themselves into the map, if they consider themselves as "women in water" from Italy, in Italy or outside the country.
The University of Bergamo joined the UNESCO Coalition for the Acceleration of Gender Equality in the Water Domain (April 2024)
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Women and water in Italy: gender roles in the water sector, a preliminary review, methodological framework and indicators
Currently under publication in OPEN ACCESS through UNESCO
Francesca Greco, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Researcher, Bergamo University, Italy; Visiting Research Fellow, King’s College London, UK
Abstract
This study explores women’s participation in Italy’s water sector – science, agriculture, policy, and governance – addressing a critical gap in national research on gender and water governance. Anchored in feminist Political Ecology, intersectionality issues, and gendered institutions theory, it applies the UNESCO World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP) gender-responsive sex-disaggregated indicators to the Italian context for the first time. The preliminary literature reveals persistent gender disparities in the realm of technical professions, decision-making, and policy influence, compounded and exacerbated by regional inequalities and entrenched gender norms of the country. By operationalizing UNESCO WWAP indicators, the study not only contributes to the creation of a methodology but also to the provision of a first questionnaire in order to allow the production of empirical insights into Italy’s gender–water nexus. The paper also offers methodological guidance for integrating gender perspectives into national water policy. This preliminary study provides a foundation for evidence-based interventions that address structural barriers, promote capacity-building, and strengthen institutional accountability in line with European Union (EU) directives and stemming from the UNESCO-led international “Call for Action for the Advancement of Gender Studies and Promotion of Women in the Water Sector”. This research builds on the University of Bergamo participation in the WWAP Coalition for “Accelerating Gender Equality in the Water Domain” and it is funded by the EU-Marie Skłodowska Curie Action “JustWATER”.