Women’s Exposure to Unsafe Sanitation and Political Engagement in African Cities

• In Event: Women's Political and Civic Participation

Abstract

There is significant literature on policy feedback to show that citizens having negative experiences vis-à-vis the rules and procedures in the delivery of welfare services are less likely to participate in political claims-making (e.g., Campbell, 2002; Mettler, 2007; Soss, 1999). On the other hand, there exists research which shows that women who experience violence are able to mobilize into community-level political action groups (e.g., Prillaman, 2017). Yet, much less is known about the effect of violence and psychosocial stress in everyday access and use of public services on women’s political behaviors. To this end, this article investigates the impact of risk to personal safety in accessing and using public sanitation on women’s engagement with service providers for service improvement in three major cities in Africa. The study draws on a subset of 2,137 women in Lusaka, Kampala, and Dakar from the larger ARISE survey database of eight cities across five countries (Sinharoy et al., 2022; 2023). Designed to capture and validate multi-dimensional indicators of women’s empowerment, the survey includes questions on sanitation conditions and related experiences, and women’s problem-solving processes. The article proceeds by, first, identifying the characteristics of sub-groups of women who vary in their risk of experiencing sanitation-related shame, embarrassment, or violence using hierarchical latent class analysis. This is followed by an examination of the association between latent classes of risk exposure and direct engagement with sanitation service providers to estimate the propensity for political participation. I expect women that have a high probability of belonging to the high-risk profile to be the most reluctant in reporting sanitation-related problems to government officials or government-contracted service providers. I also anticipate women’s engagement to vary by their time-use on household responsibilities, self-efficacy, and critical consciousness of gender-based inequalities vis-à-vis sanitation. This study advances scholarship on the barriers to women’s political participation in the global South, especially in Africa where women’s political voice remains muted despite adoption of affirmative action and other gender-sensitive legislations. Findings will be significant for: (i) re-framing policy discourse around improved sanitation to incorporate women’s perspectives on safety and security in access and use, and (ii) not making the delivery of a basic needs service like sanitation contingent on political mobilization.

Author

• Tanushree Bhan, Emory University