Citation: “In Cambodia, women clean the dishes at home, women take the waste to the garbage bin […] So they play a very important role in waste management at household level.” – says Sok Serey, Professor of Philosophy at the Royal University of Cambodia.
This article delves into the intricacies of gender and waste management in Cambodia, building upon the general gender-waste nexus discussed earlier. Despite the scarcity of detailed statistics on gender-specific aspects within the waste sector in Cambodia, this exploration serves as an initial step towards advocating for gender mainstreaming in the industry.
Providing a brief context, Cambodia exhibits progress in waste management (see article “Waste Management in Cambodia”), including waste collection services in Phnom Penh, the installation of 74 battery waste garbage cans, and a government-led no-plastic campaign. However, 44% of waste still landfilled, limited recycling and composting, and substantial waste disposed of improperly. The main problems are, among others, that there is no comprehensive collection service in rural areas, no separation possibilities for the inhabitants, no nationwide recycling industry that leads to the informal sector taking over.
Challenges in Cambodia are further exacerbated by gender disparities, evident in its low global gender equality rankings. The Gender Inequality Index places Cambodia at 116th out of 160 countries, and on the Global Gender Gap Index (You 2023), it ranks 108th out of 142 nations (Ministry of Women’s Affairs of Cambodia 2014). The country also exhibits one of the lowest Gender Empowerment scores in Asia, ranking 91st out of 109th (Khourn 2019). There have been changes since the commitment to gender equality in Cambodia’s 1st democratic constitution in 1993 and the ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) in 1992 (Morris 2007). The establishment of the Ministry of Women's Affairs in 1996 aimed to advance women's rights, introducing initiatives such as the "Neary Rattanak," a five-year strategy plan for gender promotion. However, lingering policies, including post-divorce remarriage restrictions for women and gender-biased childcare policies, continue to impact gender equality. Further shaping societal expectations is the enduring influence of the code of conduct, chhbab srey, passed down for generations. While no longer taught in schools since 2007, 80% of society still deems it relevant, perpetuating expectations for women to "maintain peace within the home, walk and talk softly, and obey and respect her husband" based on the traditional poem.
The household, where most of the waste is generated, is mainly allocated to women. Influenced by the code of conduct chhbab srey, this societal expectations also persist in Cambodia. A 2022 study by Klahaan, one of the partners of hbs, revealed that 88% of believed women performed more housework than men (Klahaan 2022). The UN formulates that women in Cambodia were spending an average of 188 minutes daily on unpaid domestic housework, compared to men's 18 minutes (United Nations Cambodia 2022). According to Sok Serey, Professor of Philosophy at Royal University, women are the ones who clean the dishes, and are the ones who bring the waste to the garbage bin. That is why they play an important role in waste management at the household level[1]. With 55.3% of municipal solid waste generated by households, one can imagine what kind of pivotal role women play in waste disposal (Open Development Cambodia 2023).
At the community level, women in Cambodia often shoulder more responsibility in managing local resources, as a United Nations study shows (2022). However, according to Sok Serey, men are more likely to be invited to comment on environmental issues at local level than women, who usually do not have the opportunity to participate in environmental planning. Klahaan's study states that the burden of unpaid work is greater for women in rural areas of Cambodia than in urban areas (Klahaan 2022). This therefore means that women bear the burden of taking responsibility of waste at the community level (especially in rural areas where there are no private collection services), but they are relegated to the lower level at the decision-making level. In general, however, and very remarkably, the civil society actors involved in waste reduction are predominantly women. This became clear throughout the waste research and among the interviewees of the best practice examples (see article “Best Practices: Pioneering Zero Waste in Cambodia).
In the operational sector, mainly executed by the private sector, gender biases limit women's participation due to limited childcare facilities and biased policies for example. Only a quarter of children under the age of five were enrolled in any kind of preschool. Only 25% of manager positions are held by women, and 53% of women (compared to 41% of men) are in precarious employment, i.e. work for which no wage is paid, including unpaid family workers and own-account workers (2019). Even if there are no public numbers regarding the manager positions of the waste collection services or landfill operators, it can be assumed that the numbers are similar. Sok Serey also underlines the challenge for women to reach higher positions than men. Furthermore, also in Cambodia the informal sector contribute a lot to the waste management (see article “Waste Management in Cambodia”). Considering the percentage of 94.2% of women (87.3% of men) in Cambodia work in the informal sector (excluding the agricultural sector), it reflect the broader trend of more women in the informal workforce of waste management (United Nations Cambodia 2022).
At the political level, women are underrepresented in decision-making roles related to waste management. Despite a rise in female representation in the National Assembly (20.3% women in 2013), the Ministry of Environment, responsible for waste management regulations, has predominantly male leadership. In general, only 10.7% of all the minister positions were hold by women. At the local level, where provincial and municipal authorities are responsible for implementation, budgeting and commissioning waste collection services, no female governors were appointed at provincial or capital city level in 2013. However, 29% of deputy governors of municipalities, districts and khans were women. That all indicates little agency for women in decision-making process of waste management in Cambodia (Ministry of Women’s Affairs of Cambodia 2014).
This article underscores the visible gender influence in Cambodia's waste sector and the potential role of women as change agents. Policy considerations include creating opportunities for gender-inclusive waste management at the household level; modernizing operational practices without jeopardizing informal sector livelihoods (particularly more attention to the social and health protection of women working in the waste sector, as Sok Serey says); establishing a gender focal point in waste management policies; and investing in research on the nexus of gender and waste in Cambodia. These measures collectively contribute to gender mainstreaming and sustainable waste management practices in Cambodia.
References
You, S. (2023): Gender Justice: What should be done in Cambodia?. Oxfam. Online Available: https://cambodia.oxfam.org/latest/stories/gender-justice-what-should-be-done-cambodia. Last updated: 01/12/2023.
Ministry of Women’s Affairs of Cambodia (2014): Leaders. Women in Public Decision-Making And Politics. Cambodia Gender Assessment. Women in Public Decision-Making And Politics 8.
Morris E. (2007): Promoting employment in Cambodia: Analysis and options. ILO Subregional Office for East Asia, Bangkok (xxiii).
United Nations Cambodia (2022): Gender Equality Deep-Dive for Cambodia. Common Country Analysis.
Klahaan (2022): Housework: Whose work? An exploration of gender roles, unpaid care work and the mental load in Cambodia. A feminist participatory action research study.
Open Development Cambodia (2023): Solid waste. Online Available: https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/topics/solid-waste/. Last updated: 01/12/2023.
Khourn, C. (2019): Women’s Participation in Politics in Cambodia. Strengthening Human Rights and Peace Research and Education in ASEAN/Southeast Asia.
[1] The interview with Sok Serey, Professor of Philosophy at the Royal University, was conducted online on November 15, 2023.