This book represents an important contribution to a growing subfield of feminist scholarship. Moving beyond a focus on the traditional policy areas normally associated with women and politics, the authors bring a gender analysis to bear on the “politics of water” in Latin America. Not only is this a policy issue not usually linked to women's rights, but, as the editors argue, even the national-level women's policy agencies created in many Latin American countries have overlooked the way gender discrimination impacts the heightening water crisis facing much of the region. Nevertheless, they maintain that “the right to water underpins all other social rights” (p. 15) and that “a gender perspective is not only possible but essential for effective water management” (p. ix).

By focusing on gender, rather than on women alone, the authors are able to examine how the relationship between women and men, which varies across cultural context, impacts women's access to water. As the editors note, “In most rural societies, almost all the work in the home and in the fields involves water. Women's and men's access to water, use of water, and understanding of the principles of water management within their spheres of life can differ markedly. Though women are usually responsible for water management within the home, both women and men are involved in the fields” (p. 5). Thus, the goal of the case studies is not to argue for a new inclusion of women in water management but to recognize that women already are deeply involved in the process: “Bringing in women's knowledge, experiences, and priorities regarding water use alongside men's is to implement a gendered perspective in water management. The connection between gender and water is actually as visible as the connection between water and sustainable development, but the mainstream current of global policymaking until now has tended not to look at it” (p. 2). The primary objectives of this work are threefold: to explain, through a focus on Latin America, the intersection of water and gender policies; to illustrate the importance of women to water management through a diverse set of case studies; and consequently, to prove the centrality of gender relations for sustainable water management (p. 2).

The first case studies illustrate the critical lack of effective water management in Latin America, as well as the ways that neoliberal policy reforms—with their emphasis on short-term profit over basic service provision—have aggravated rather than ameliorated the global water crisis. Case studies from Cochabamba, Bolivia, and Tucumán, Argentina, highlight the profound economic dislocation caused by the privatization of water management. In both cases, women's organized protests helped defeat government plans for water privatization.

The second series of case studies focuses on the importation of new technologies of water management, arguing that a consideration of gender dynamics in a particular location is critical to the ultimate success of development projects. Vera Delgado's case study of the village of Llullucha (Peru) is particularly interesting in this regard. When a development team failed to include women in their “participatory” project on water management, the women of the village organized themselves and purchased a piece of farmland, which entitled them to irrigation water and, therefore, to participation in the development project. Lorena Aguilar's study of water management in Heredia, Costa Rica, notes that although the team of outside specialists initially failed to incorporate women into the water management project, the heterogeneity of the team itself nevertheless “modeled” equitable gender relations. In both cases, the authors argue that development teams need to recognize that technology transfer interacts with the gender relations of a given context, and that the importation of new technologies acts as a catalyst for social and cultural change, often unintentionally.

The case studies in the third section of the book chart the impact of women's increasing participation in water management and the cultural transformations that result. While the local context and type of participation vary considerably across the case studies, a common theme is the change caused by the absence of men from local communities. While in some cases the focus is on the single mothers and widows, in most cases men have migrated in search of work. Across the case studies, it becomes clear that household changes lead to the emergence of women in more participatory roles. Where the men are permanently absent (Elena P. Bastidas's case study of Carchi, Ecuador), we see higher participation; where men are only periodically absent due to migration (the Mexican case studies by Michael C. Ennis-McMillan and Stephanie Buechler), we see less change in women's participation. The migration dynamic underscores the book's conclusion that “it is in the lower-income neighborhoods that either receive poor water service or have no piped water, where women increasingly become involved” (p. 200).

The practical advice offered by the editors in the conclusion is limited to a reiteration of the main conclusions stemming from the case studies. They underscore the importance of local context and culture for the shape of negotiations over water, the importance of broad participation by the community in the planning and implementation of water management policy, and the importance of government will in building an “enabling environment” for equitable water resource management. The editors echo the authors of the case studies in emphasizing the impressive resourcefulness of women at all levels of the process. Opposing Currents clearly demonstrates the relevance of gender (and gender analysis) for all policy areas, beyond the usual topics normally defined as “women's issues.” Practitioners and policymakers will find this a helpful roadmap for the development of sustainable water policy, and even those not focused on water management will see parallels to other policy areas in the importance of gender for sustainable development.