'Access to energy enables girls to attend school just like boys'

Tanja Winther heads the

Centre for Development and the Environment

at the

University of Oslo

. Sharing her insights with

Times Evoke

, she discusses how gender impacts energy access — and shapes social equity:

I began my research by studying poverty in

Africa

. I found energy access was key to poverty alleviation and so, I studied engineering to help provide energy solutions. I got the opportunity to go to

Zanzibar

in

Tanzania

, where a Norwegian project to expand the grid was underway. I had studied anthropology and I could use this perspective to learn how, after electricity came to a village, its life changed.

NOT JUST COSMETIC CHANGE: The arrival of electricity can help women set up their own small businesses as seen in fieldwork in the Endau village, Kenya. Photo courtesy: Tanja Winther
I learnt that social and cultural aspects always affect technology access and usage. Traditional engineers think about the end uses of electricity — but a lot happens along the way which they know little of. For instance, I found that the elderly who didn’t have energy access would lose their status in the

Zanzibar village

. In a short time, electricity and its associated commodities like television sets became prestigious — the young who had better access to these grew in status compared to the elderly. Electricity even impacted the spirit world — villagers felt spirits would withdraw to areas without electricity, making the village a safer place for humans. But, most importantly, gender relations emerged as very important in energy access, its usage and the long-term impacts of these.




Electricity is a social phenomenon with human elements impacting the technology. State regulations powerfully shape energy access. There are regulations in many countries which stipulate you need to be a house owner to have an electricity connection. Now, more men tend to own houses, so this gives them an advantage over women who’ve spent many years in the same house but don’t have the right to obtain a connection.

A TRUE FOUNT: The introduction of an electrified water pump enables women to spend less time on household chores. Picture courtesy: iStock

The connection is the first step which leads to the use of appliances and services associated with electricity. One of our studies compared the gender aspects of electricity in rural

Chhattisgarh

, Nepal and Kenya — we found men, being home owners, could obtain an electricity connection and become customers to the electricity company. Men also decided more on what appliances entered the household. In both the India and Nepal case studies, women wanted to get electric rice cookers. In Nepal particularly, with its hilly areas, women found it very tiring to carry firewood for cooking. More women in Nepal got such cookers because many men had migrated and would send money home. This empowered women to decide to buy such appliances. In the Indian case, as the men were living at home, they prioritised appliances other than the rice cooker.




Here, regulations again played an important role in impacting the gender dynamic. In Kenya, we studied an area where many men had perished due to HIV. Their wives owned homes but had no access to electricity owing to its very high price. In contrast, in India, official policies gave the poor — which often included women — cheap or even free electricity. So, due to supportive social schemes, women here would often get better energy access than in Kenya.

Similarly, in Kenya, we found people had multiple light points in their homes but not in the kitchen. In our India study, we found that even if a home had just one light point, that would be in the kitchen which really helped women who had to cook a family meal every night. We found that the men doing the wiring had been advised by the energy provider to suggest that the consumer first put light in the kitchen. Again, regulations and guidelines helped women access energy, which made a difference to their lives.

However, more frequently, when electricity is rolled out, there is a focus on men’s productive activities while women’s productive activities remain in the shadows. Energy suppliers mostly think of women in a caregiving role and don’t prioritise their productivity — women thus continue with a very high level of drudgery, spending time collecting firewood and water, making tedious cooking arrangements, missing out on education, work, etc. This keeps women in an economically vulnerable position.

Access to electricity comes as a blessing. When electrified water pumps arrived in their village, girls in the Zanzibar study could finally go to school like the boys because they didn’t have to journey for miles to fetch water for their homes. In Kenya, we established an energy centre where women worked at providing energy. This inspired girls in the village to say confidently, ‘I can become an engineer.’ In contrast, in India, we found women withdrew in energy-related meetings. They simply didn’t voice their opinions. We must include them and focus on their energy needs — empowering women will improve equity in society.

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