Toxic Homes, Toxic Water: Looking at Gendered Responsibilities for Household Water Insecurity in the American Rustbelt

Cara Jacob
PhD Candidate, Department of Anthropology, Michigan State University

Friday Jan. 20th, 2023, from 12:00-1:00 PM on Microsoft Teams

Abstract: Failing infrastructure is becoming an ever more common source of water insecurity throughout the United States, but particularly in the deindustrialized cities of the Rustbelt, which cluster around the Great Lakes. My research focuses on the types of responsibilities created as a result of urban water insecurity stemming from a toxic environment and the ways in which those responsibilities are gendered. In Milwaukee, WI old housing stock and aging water infrastructure have intersected with structural racism to create a racialized lead epidemic among children living in the North Side area of the city. Using data collected as part of a community-based participatory photovoice project, this case study shows the impact of living with lead in this community and ties housing precarity to household water insecurity. Findings indicate that embedded in this context, while men and women are involved in reducing potential lead hazards in the home, the types and timing of these responsibilities have gendered components, with women shouldering the majority of this burden due to the water-intensive nature of care-work.

For questions about the talk email: angela.storey@louisville.edu