An Interview with Kelsey Kim: Gender and Everyday Household Water Use in Los Angeles

Gender and Everyday Household Water Use in Los Angeles

We spoke to graduate student researcher Kelsey Kim about her work on the groundbreaking “Gender and Everyday Household Water Use in Los Angeles” report.

The innovative study set out to examine the often-overlooked intersections of gender, race, class, and migration in shaping water use patterns across diverse Los Angeles neighborhoods. Through in-depth interviews, household observations, and creative water diaries, Kim and her team aimed to uncover how day-to-day realities and household activities reflect gendered labor, broader social dynamics, and challenge conventional understandings of urban water management.

1. Your research team used a combination of in-home interviews, guided household observations, and water diaries to uncover gendered patterns in household water use. Can you elaborate on the challenges and benefits of this multi-method approach?

We took an unconventional approach to water diaries: we gave every household a blank notebook and told them to record their household water use for four days. Initially, many of them were confused about how to structure their water diaries; Jaehyun Park*, an engineer in Koreatown, even suggested that we instead give him a rigid chart that detailed everything we’re looking for. But we really wanted to have the diaries be as open-ended as possible, to allow our interlocutors to show us not only who used water and how, but also what they categorized as household water use. And this format also yielded amazingly creative water diaries as a result. One household opted to audio record their water diaries instead, another illustrated her household’s water use, while an artist incorporated her diary into her own art project. The guided household observations further gave us insight into how LA residents think about household water. When we would ask to see their household water features, they would first show us their sinks, showers, and toilets; many also branched out to their apartment complexes’ pools, laundry rooms, and sprinkler systems; then some would even show us the carton of juice they bought the other day, or their cleaning sprays. For many, these became storytelling times that generated insights.

2. The report found that women were disproportionately responsible for water use and management, yet most interviewees denied gender as a relevant factor. How did you and the team navigate this disconnect during your research?

There were definitely moments of tension when people denied that gender was a relevant factor in household water use and management, despite having shared data with us showing it to be a factor. A lot of our households described household water labor as egalitarian, but women, especially when referring to male partners, would also use language like, “he pitches in.” Or, they would claim to do the bulk of chores because they’re more “particular” about them. Gender patterns were evident in the water diaries, which showed the division of labor as less equitable than how they described it in the interviews. I think the denial was important for showing discomfort in the relationship between their beliefs about gender equality and how their household labor is actually divided. All but one of our households said that gender was irrelevant to how they divide labor, and many expressed feminist views in comparison to, say, their parents’ or grandparents’ generations. Yet the reality is that women still bear the brunt of household labor, including the cognitive labor of managing the household. One more point on this: it is not the case that water use simply maps onto existing gender roles; instead, we caught a glimpse of how water use helps to produce gender.

3. Your research found that women disproportionately manage household water use. Can you provide specific examples of how this manifested across different socioeconomic backgrounds in Los Angeles?

Across the board, women did most water-related tasks, including managing others’ water use. There were class differences. Several households outsourced some of this labor to housekeepers and gardeners, which created an interesting dynamic around whether or not household members wanted to manage workers’ water use. Diane Prescott and Steven Ward of Beverly Hills were very mindful of their own water use—saving leftover bath water for watering the plants, not wasting tap water by letting it run to get hot—yet they felt hesitant to tell their housekeeper not to use too much water, even though it seemed to bother them at times. For Maria Martinez, renting out a room in her Koreatown apartment to afford her daughter’s education meant that she had a greater responsibility to keep the shared spaces clean. When her daughter took her usual hour-long baths, experimenting with colorful bath bombs, Martina made sure to clean up after her right away.

4. The study examined four diverse Los Angeles neighborhoods. How did factors like race, class, and immigration status intersect with gender in shaping water use patterns?

Low-income, immigrant, and/or Black and brown households are sometimes criticized by water policy experts for buying potable water from water stores rather than drinking from the tap. Immigrant communities in particular are viewed as needing to be educated on water conservation practices in the Global North. But several households from Koreatown, MacArthur Park, and Inglewood were quick to point out the disparities between what is being asked of them versus wealthier neighborhoods. Maria Martinez told us that her Koreatown neighborhood was not being street-cleaned during the drought, while this service was still being provided to more affluent areas. Cesar Sanchez from MacArthur Park also pointed out that rebates for converting to drought-tolerant lawns are only given to those who pay upfront, while no compensation is given to people who simply stop watering their lawns during the drought. Race, class, and perceptions on immigration also played a role in intrahousehold tension. In the Horowitz household in Beverly Hills, Evelyn, who is originally from Argentina, was quickly shut down by her husband Michael’s retort, “We’re not Argentinian, we’re American!” when she mentioned that she re-wears her clothes several times before washing them.

5. Your report also investigates generational water knowledge and the immigrant experience on Angeleno families’ water consumption. What were some notable findings regarding immigrant families’ water knowledge and practices?

The immigrant households we interviewed—with migration histories from Colombia, Mexico, Sierra Leone, Korea, the UK, and more—carried on conservation practices and care for water from their countries of origin and applied it to times of drought in California. For instance, Kimberly Zambrano, who was born in Ecuador but moved to Inglewood, was taught by her mother that water is a precious finite resource. She now hates seeing people waste water and will even turn off other people’s sinks in public restrooms if she feels they’re letting the tap carelessly run. Other immigrant households also practiced conservation through their own greywater systems—reusing household water to water their gardens, for example. Even in immigrant households that did not implement water conservation practices, knowledge of how to cut back was prevalent. We refer to this knowledge as an “untapped” resource in LA water conservation.

6. Given your findings, how might current water conservation campaigns’ lack of attention to social dynamics and consequences (like gendered division of labor) limit their effectiveness? How do you think the findings from this study could be applied to water conservation campaigns to make them more effective and equitable?

Many water conservation campaigns are implicitly targeted towards a gender-neutral water user. These campaigns encourage people to water their lawns less frequently, only wash full loads of laundry, take shorter showers, or use water-saving appliances. A lot of these everyday water-based household chores are done by, or monitored by, women. Without explicit attention to gender, water conservation campaigns may exacerbate inequalities within Los Angeles households. If anything, I hope this study helps water policy experts rethink “residential” water use. In California, urban water use is divided into residential and commercial categories. In our interviews, several households started to push back on this categorization. During COVID, it became even more evident that the home isn’t easily separated from commercial or public activities, quickly becoming residents’ school, office, etc. Conservation campaigns that focus on household water conservation strictly in the “private” sense reify the public/private divide, a divide that, historically, has not been good for women. Other interlocutors further remarked that the residential and water categories don’t accurately record a household’s water use because they don’t account for other people’s water, like the water used in their cleaning sprays, or the water needed to grow their produce.

7. As a graduate student researcher on this project, how has this experience shaped your understanding of the intersection between gender studies and environmental sustainability? What do you hope people learn from this report?

A lot of scholars focus on the intersections of gender studies and environmental sustainability when it comes to the Global South. But gender is just as relevant in environmental sustainability in the Global North, where we still have water quality and access issues, not to mention issues of stolen Indigenous water. While it’s not always obvious, gender also factors into policy decisions, as well as day-to-day decisions that people make at the household level. As a graduate student, working on an incredible team with other graduate and undergraduate student researchers was a wonderful opportunity to learn how to conduct collaborative, feminist research. CSW’s support of feminist research projects provides graduate students like me with enriching opportunities to grow as scholars.

*All names used are pseudonyms.

Gender and Everyday Household Water Use in Los Angeles