From the Blue Community / Blue City of Paris:
Is tomorrow’s water a women’s issue? Métamorphoses Workshop #13.
In the collective imagination, water nourishes and cradles like a mother and shelters nymphs and mermaids. In traditional societies, women look after the water supply in the home and go to the well… Although water has no intrinsic gender, it has been largely feminised through representations, language, myths and social roles.
In the nineteenth century, in Western countries, the management of resources became technical, artificial and transformed into an activity based on networks, factories and, from the last quarter of the twentieth century, automata and computers. As with the Romans and the construction of thermal baths, canals and aqueducts, the sector and its vocabulary have become masculine.
But in the last fifteen years or so, women have emerged as key figures in a sector that is increasingly recognised as being at the heart of major economic, social and environmental issues. They are local councillors, company directors, hydrologists, researchers and engineers who are raising the profile of water issues in the media.
At the same time, the water sector is now using the lexicon of care, prevention and resource protection. And tomorrow, one of the major challenges facing the world will be the sharing of water. This will require new ways of thinking about resources and the common good. Do these emerging professions, which complement the traditional technical professions and require listening, dialogue and mediation skills, herald an opening of the water professions to women and a greater attraction for them? Are these signs that tomorrow’s water will be a women’s business?
This is the theme of this new session of the Ateliers des Métamorphoses, during which we will cross points of view and time scales.
- How can we explain, historically and in terms of representation, the paradox between the feminine association with water as an element and the masculine control over its management and use?
- Do the future challenges of water sharing and the changing nature of our professions open a new era in which we can move beyond the gender dichotomy and embrace the complementary nature of our talents?
- Will this new vision of water issues encourage the feminisation of the professions, an important issue for the sector? How have other heavily male-dominated sectors addressed this issue of representation in their professions to increase the number of women in their workforce? Will the power of example be enough to break cultural stereotypes?
The speakers
This new session of the Ateliers des Métamorphoses will be chaired by Anne-Sophie Leclère, Deputy Managing Director of Eau de Paris, with
- Anne Grosperrin, Deputy Mayor of Greater Lyon, responsible for the water cycle, President of the Greater Lyon Water Board.
- Christian Gatard, sociologist, futurist, myth analyst, essayist, member of the Comptoir prospectiviste, founder of Christian Gatard & Co.
Practical information
The event is free of charge. This workshop will be organised in person at Sciences Po and remotely.
Thursday 15 May 2025 from 18:00 to 20:30 Sciences Po – 27 rue Saint Guillaume – 75007 Paris
