Women’s Studies Lecture: El Agua es Vida, “Water is Life”: Women’s Activism in Lima, Peru

Women’s activism has historically played an important role in the United States in terms of access to a variety of political, economic and social rights. In Latin America, women’s social movements have been foundational in calling attention to human rights abuses and advocating for greater social inclusion. In materially poor neighborhoods across Latin America, women have established survival movements to provide food for their families. Drawing on participant observation and extensive interviews, this talk will examine the role that materially poor women play in gaining access to piped water and sanitation in an urban settlement in Lima, Peru. The experiences they attached to water activism reveal the intersecting ways that their collective action forms part of a larger struggle for dignified lives for themselves and their families. Thus the struggle for access to water and sewage in Latin American cities is directly tied to how women activists engage in global activism for social rights, dignity and inclusion.

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