Involving women in water and sanitation initiatives; an action/research project in an Egyptian village.

Women have voiced opinions about proposed activities and offered suggestions during informal water and sanitation meetings (Egypt), and both men and women noted that women are likely to speak out in public settings and take action on water-related issues given their role as household water managers (Mexico).

“Women have voiced opinions about proposed activities and offered suggestions during informal water and sanitation meetings (Egypt), [78] and both men and women noted that women are likely to speak out in public settings and take action on water-related issues given their role as household water managers (Mexico) [93].”

Women have organized to form lending groups to support women-led WASH businesses, provide community education about water safety, monitor open defecation, and respond to sanitation-related harassment.

“Women have organized to form lending groups to support women-led WASH businesses, [66] provide community education about water safety, [56, 61, 73, 78, 89, 91, 125, 129, 163, 165, 168, 169, 193, 296] monitor open defecation, [145] and respond to sanitation-related harassment.[174]”

Women's collective action has led to funding, demand, construction, repair, and maintenance of water services and latrines.

“Women's collective action has led to funding, demand, construction, repair, and maintenance of water services [56, 61, 73, 78, 89, 91, 125, 129, 163, 165, 168, 169, 193, 296] and latrines [129, 139, 147, 168, 170, 174, 175].”

Women and girls feared, risked, or experienced varied harms related to their water and sanitation circumstances and activities, with water fetching related harms in particular resulting in serious and long-term consequences, including general and localized pain, headaches and head injury, and injury from falls, trucks, and/or car accidents.

“Women and girls feared, risked, or experienced, varied harms related to their water and sanitation circumstances and activities (_((((xxx))))_)[62, 63, 78, 90, 101, 135, 141, 143, 144, 158, 168-170, 172-174, 177-179, 181, 182, 184, 186, 187, 189-191, 197-199, 201, 214, 226, 231, 244, 257, 258, 261, 276, 277, 296].Many noted exacerbated”

Women formed and maintained social connections when collecting water and relied on social capital from family, friends, and community members for multiple water needs; they leveraged social capital to access water when queues were long or water was scarce, jump water queues, get water from private wells, haul water using carts, receive improved home water access, wait on water deliveries, or get

“Women formed and maintained social connections when collecting water [57,78,110,115,153,279] and relied on social capital from family, friends, and community members for multiple water needs.They leveraged social capital to access water when queues were long or water was scarce, [61,110,114,164,165,179,198,279] jump water queues, [168, 179] get water from private wells, [279] haul water using”