Pro-environmental behaviour in household water use. A gender perspective

Abstract

AbstractEfficiency in the use of water resources is one of the SDG 6 in all sectors. This research focuses on the efficient use of water in households. Specifically, we analyse differences in people’s behaviour towards ten household water uses. Compared to previous research, the main contribution of this study is the emphasis placed on the gender perspective. This research is carried out for Andalusia, a region in southern Spain with high water stress. OLS and probit estimations were made with a database of 2650 observations from 2018. No gender differences are found in the number of habits applied to make efficient use of water in the household. On the other hand, after studying ten household water uses in isolation, gender differences are found in certain pro-environmental habits. We cannot conclude the existence of a gender gap in environmental awareness of water use. However, the results suggest that there are differences in the adoption of pro-environmental habits in water use due to the distribution in the household chores, especially in those which are traditionally female or male.