“INDIVIDUALLY, WE ARE A DROP. TOGETHER, WE ARE A RIVER”: ANALYSIS OF RURAL WOMEN’S PARTICIPATION IN COMMUNITY WATER SYSTEMS IN ECUADOR

This dissertation examines the position and participation of rural indigenous women within the power relationships that are woven into community water systems (CWS) in Gualaceo, Ecuador. Conceptually, I use the lenses of critical geography, feminist political ecology (FPE), and decolonial theories to understand how and what elements configure the power relationships between the actors involved in community water management, as well as to reveal fissures and inequalities that affect rural indigenous women from three intimate spaces: body, household, and community. Through qualitative methodologies and a critical perspective on social space, power relationships and their implications in daily, embodied, and local scales of interaction, I argue that 1) power relationships determine the different means of using and managing water communally, 2) the ability of women to obtain the materialization of the benefits of water resources is determined by community practices and norms of patriarchal junction; while their participation in decision-making is linked to the level of responsibility within the household and collective grouping and 3) Hegemonic state policies and models on integrated water management have deepened and perpetuated inequalities and violence against women both within the community and in other government spaces.