Water warriors- by name!
As mentioned last week, in the fight for clean water, women are not just advocates — they are the backbone of the struggle.
The podcast episode is out now! WOMEN WATER WARRIORS
Across cultures and continents, women are disproportionately affected by water scarcity and contamination. This “gendered burden” is not just a talking point — it’s daily reality: from walking miles to fetch water, to caring for sick family members when that water is unsafe, to being excluded from decision-making in the very systems that control it. But there are women who are challenging this imbalance at its roots. Among them: Wanjira Mathai, Maude Barlow, and María Teresa Fernández de la Vega.
Wanjira Mathai: Carrying a Legacy, Building a Future
Kenyan environmentalist Wanjira Mathai knows that water is never “just water” — it’s health, education, and opportunity. As the daughter of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Wangari Maathai, Wanjira grew up seeing firsthand how environmental degradation and water scarcity compound women’s struggles. Through her work with the World Resources Institute and the Green Belt Movement, she emphasizes how climate change and deforestation disrupt water cycles — and how those disruptions force women to spend more hours hauling water instead of going to school or earning income. Mathai’s message is clear: empowering women with access to water is not charity, it’s infrastructure for equality.
Maude Barlow: The Water Warrior
Canadian activist Maude Barlow has been called “the Ralph Nader of water” — though frankly, she’s fiercer. The former Senior Advisor on Water to the United Nations, Barlow has spent decades fighting against the privatization of water and for its recognition as a basic human right. She’s been a thorn in the side of governments and corporations that see water as a profit source rather than a public trust. Her advocacy cuts straight to the gendered burden: when water becomes commodified, it’s the poorest — overwhelmingly women — who pay first and suffer most. For Barlow, protecting water means dismantling systems that profit from women’s unpaid labor and desperation.
María Teresa Fernández de la Vega: Policy for the People
Spain’s María Teresa Fernández de la Vega, the country’s first female Deputy Prime Minister, has used her political clout to connect gender equity with sustainable development. As president of the Women for Africa Foundation, she’s worked to fund and implement water access projects in rural African communities — not just installing pumps, but ensuring women are trained and empowered to manage them. Her approach dismantles the old “aid” model and replaces it with leadership pipelines for women. When women own the water systems, they own their time, their income potential, and their futures.
The Common Thread: From Burden to Power
What unites these three women is the refusal to accept water scarcity as an unchangeable fact of life. They know that solving the water crisis is not just about drilling wells — it’s about shifting power. It’s about making sure that girls spend their mornings in classrooms, not in line at a pump. It’s about protecting rivers and aquifers from corporate theft. And it’s about ensuring that women’s knowledge and leadership are at the center of decision-making, not an afterthought.
Because until the gendered burden of water is erased, equality will remain just out of reach — and these women aren’t about to let that happen.