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Women’s participation in large-scale mining (LSM) has been increasing in Mexico and worldwide; however, few comprehensive studies exist on the socioeconomic effects of mining on women depending on the specific roles they play in this activity. The objective of this study was to analyze, from a feminist political ecology perspective, the effects of mining on women in a rural community in Sonora State, in arid northwest Mexico, a region with important participation of LSM in the country. For this purpose, we developed a mixed methods approach combining literature review on gender and LSM, semistructured in-depth interviews, and analysis of secondary government data. Most literature on women and mining treats them conceptually as a homogeneous social group or focuses on only one role women play in mining. We address this gap by identifying several roles women can play in their interactions with the mining sector and then analyzing and comparing the effects of mining associated with these distinctive roles. In doing so, we unravel the gendered complexities of mining and highlight the socioecological contradictions embedded in these dynamics for individual women who are faced with significant trade-offs. Mining can provide economic and professional opportunities for women of varying educational and socioeconomic levels in otherwise impoverished and landless rural households. At the same time, women are unable to, as one interviewee phrased it, “break the glass ceiling even if using a miner’s helmet,” especially in managerial positions. Extraction of natural resources in the community is accompanied by the extraction of social capital and personal lives of miners. We give voice to the social–ecological contradictions lived by women in these multiple roles and offer potential insights both for addressing gender-based inequities in mining and for avenues toward collective action and empowerment.

El acuífero de la Costa de Hermosillo es uno de los más sobreexplotados de México. A pesar de ello, se sigue utilizando para cultivos de bajo valor y alto consumo de agua. En el presente artículo se estimó, mediante cuatro modelos de programación lineal, la asignación óptima de cultivos con base en la restricción que impone la recarga del acuífero; y es posible generar 90 por ciento del valor de la producción agrícola actual con alrededor de una tercera parte del volumen extraído. Los resultados permiten indicar la importancia de la eliminación de subsidios, de la reconversión agrícola y del uso de técnicas de riego eficientes, como medidas para lograr el manejo sustentable del acuífero.

Addressing wicked problems challenging water security requires participation from multiple stakeholders, often with conflicting visions, complicating the attainment of water-security goals and heightening the need for integrative and effective science-policy interfaces. Sustained multi-stakeholder dialogues within science-policy networks can improve adaptive governance and water system resilience. This paper describes what we define as “dialogic science-policy networks,” or interactions -- both in structural and procedural terms -- between scientists and policy-makers that are: 1) interdisciplinary, 2) international (here, inter-American), 3) cross-sectoral, 4) open, 5) continual and iterative in the long-term, and 6) flexible. By fostering these types of interactions, dialogic networks achieve what we call the 4-I criteria for effective science-policy dialogues: inclusivity, involvement, interaction, and influence. Here we present several water-security research and action projects where some of these attributes may be present. Among these, a more comprehensive form of a dialogic network was intentionally created via AQUASEC, a virtual center and network initially fostered by a series of grants from the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research. Subsequently, AQUASEC has significantly expanded to other regions through direct linkages and additional program support for the International Water Security Network, supported by Lloyd's Register Foundation and other sources. This paper highlights major scientific and policy achievements of a notable suite of science-policy networks, shared practices, methods, and knowledge integrating science and policy, as well as the main barriers overcome in network development. An important gap that remains for future research is the assessment and evaluation of dialogic science-policy networks' long-term outcomes.

Derechos de agua y gestión por cuencas en México. El caso del río Sonora SociedadNo. 61

Livelihoods in rural communities have become increasingly complex due to rapidly changing socio-economic and environmental forces, with differing impacts on and responses by female and male youth. This study contributes to feminist political ecology through an explicit focus on youth and an examination of the intersections of age and gender in educational choices, livelihood systems, and human–environment interactions. We undertake double exposures analysis to explore female and male youths’ livelihood-related decision-making in Rayón, a semi-arid rural community in Northwest Mexico, undergoing global environmental change and globalization-related shifts in agriculture, climate, water, and socio-economic conditions. Global environmental change exacerbates an already fragile, local ecological context. A focus on gender issues among youth in three age categories (14–15, 16–19, and youth in their 20s) with respect to their decision-making concerning the future is critical to gaining a better understanding of the roles women and men will play in linked agricultural and non-agricultural, rural to urban livelihood systems. Agricultural employment increasingly includes global agribusiness where local youth compete with people from other areas. Access to employment, education, as well as water and land resources varied by gender, age, and social class, and played significant roles in livelihood diversification and migration decisions and outcomes. Mothers’ access to government assistance for their natural resource-based livelihoods positively impacted daughters’ opportunities. Educational curricula failed to link environmental change with local livelihoods and to prepare students for urban careers. This study offers insights related to female and male youths’ needs associated with environmental education, technology access, job training, and child and sibling care in order for them to more successfully confront the future across village, town, and city spaces.

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