Negotiating Water: Lived Experiences of Female Practitioners

Based on interviews, this chapter shares the stories of five female water professionals from Southern and Northern Africa, Europe, South America, and Southeast Asia, who reflect on their education, work history and discipline, interactions with (mainly male) colleagues, and challenges and opportunities related to being a woman working in transboundary waters. Through sharing their personal stories, in all their diversity, this chapter draws attention to how experiences of women have been generally underrepresented in scientific studies on transboundary waters. The accounts highlight how relations between countries are managed by the people who, with their own experiences, wishes, values, and ideas, work in gendered social systems that affect men and women differently.