Access to Drinking Water and the Empowerment of Women in the Southwest Coast of Bangladesh: Intersections of Gender, Class, and Space

The low-lying southwest coast in Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable areas to the effects of climate change, with great water scarcity and high levels of arsenic and salinity. Women are the main accessors and users of water in this area due to their restriction to work in domestic spaces. Their gendered relationships to water in this area play a role in their empowerment and powerlessness. These relationships can be looked at through four examples of power: power over the body, power over mobility, power over decisions, and power over finances. It’s critical to consider the intersections of gender, class, and space in the extent of a woman’s power. The body, movement, political voice, and economic power of a wealthier woman will be policed differently than a poorer woman, and the space each woman occupies assists the process of empowerment differently