Wells and Women

The Infrastructural and Gendered Geographies of Water Conservation

in Nature and Culture
Author:
Brock Ternes Assistant Professor, University of North Carolina, USA ternesb@uncw.edu.

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Hannah Lohr Researcher, Elderbloom Farms, USA hannahdv12@gmail.com.

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DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3167/nc.2024.190204
Keywords:
gender; irrigation; pro-environmental behaviors; water management; well owners
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Abstract

The feminization of environmental responsibility holds that women more actively engage in pro-environmental behaviors compared to men. We highlight the gendered patterns of water conservation in a drought-prone region above the High Plains aquifer (HPA). Using qualitative and quantitative data from well owners and non-well owners across Kansas (n = 864), we investigate how gender moderates the relationship between several demographic variables and watering practices. Our multigroup regression results suggest that, among men, being a well owner, politically conservative, and living above the HPA are negatively associated with drought-time water conservation. Qualitatively, women in our study point out the gendered nature of water conservation, while men did not; moreover, we find evidence that male-dominated irrigation reinforces unsustainable groundwater extractions.

Contributor Notes

Brock Ternes (PhD, University of Kansas, 2016) is an Assistant Professor of Sociology in the Department of Sociology and Criminology at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. His research and teaching interests include environmental sociology, the sociology of water usage, environmental policy, quantitative methods, and survey research. Ternes is the author of Groundwater Citizenship: Well Owners, Environmentalism, and the Depletion of the High Plains Aquifer (Lexington Books, 2022). Email: ternesb@uncw.edu.

Hannah Lohr (MA, Texas Woman's University, 2020) is a field researcher and farmer at Elderbloom Farms in Liberty, Missouri, USA. Her research interests include environmental sociology, rural sociology, and qualitative methods. Many of her research interests are used to inform applied practices at her small farm. Email: hannahdv12@gmail.com.

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Cover Nature and Culture
Article Category:
Research Article
Page Count:
25
Keywords:
gender; irrigation; pro-environmental behaviors; water management; well owners
Print Publication Date:
01 Jun 2024
Online Publication Date:
01 Jun 2024
Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2024

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