Women in Water 2026

In my role as head of content for WaterWorld, I think each year about the importance of featuring women in the water industry for Women’s History Month.

When I say I think about its importance, I mean that I think about the why. Why should we do this? Why shouldn’t we? Has feminism given way to political correctness, fatigue, or even anger? Do we risk highlighting women at the expense of men? Why isn’t there a Men’s History Month? Aren’t my buckets — people who treat others with respect, and people who don’t — sufficient? What does it mean to talk about women, feminism, and progress in 2026, especially in an industry that prides itself on the “eternal now” of service and protecting human health?

The answers I arrive at aren’t always tidy.

Women often do have a different experience at work — sometimes subtly, sometimes not. Yes, focusing on one group can make others feel left out. No, feminism hasn’t become obsolete simply because progress has been made. And no, making space for women’s stories does not require shrinking anyone else’s.

As for Men’s History Month, men’s accomplishments and experiences, particularly in well-compensated and leadership-heavy fields, have historically been documented, analyzed, and elevated continuously. That context matters.

I’ve heard arguments that the landscape has changed: that women now graduate college at higher rates than men, that leadership and pay gaps are narrowing, that the fight has largely been won. And at times, the subtext of that argument feels like: You’re here. You made it. Can we move on now?

My answer is no. Change doesn’t solidify in silence. It stabilizes through conversation, reflection, and a willingness to examine what progress actually looks like on the ground.

In an industry already facing workforce shortages and generational turnover, whose voices we document — and whose we don’t — has real consequences.

Beyond that, feminism is not an untethered theory defined by critique from solely men. There are broader legitimate critiques of it, including the second-wave. Many of the gains that movement achieved were real and necessary, but the benefits were not evenly distributed.

Women of color, LGBTQ+ women, and other marginalized groups were often excluded from the center of that progress, or asked to wait their turn. That criticism is not wrong.

But pointing out where something fell short does not negate its value as a foundation. It clarifies where the work must continue.

If the conversation stops at critique — if we decide the project is flawed beyond repair — then those who are still fighting for visibility, equity, and safety are left to do so alone. They are outnumbered. They are easier to ignore.

Their concerns can be quickly drowned out by other topics that have dominated public discourse for decades: the state of education, war and peace, and healthcare among them. Important issues, to be sure, but they are also juggernauts of iterative debate that do not reach final-form resolution either. Ending this conversation doesn’t create neutrality. It creates silence. And silence has never favored the marginalized. In silence, other matters can become simply louder in the economics of attention before equity has fully been reached.

Women’s History Month started as a day (International Women’s Day), became a Women’s History Week (in Sonoma County, CA 1978), turned into a national week in 1980, and was declared Women’s History Month in 1987. Perhaps at a future time, there will be no need to differentiate, but I see no beauty in sameness either. All people are different. All people deserve a voice in the endeavor of society.

That’s why I resist the idea that we should simply “move on.” Progress doesn’t arrive fully formed, and it doesn’t belong only to those who benefited first. It is imperfect. And it requires people to be willing to stay in the arena even when the work is messy or incomplete.

Theodore Roosevelt famously said that it is not the critic who counts, but the person who is in the arena — marred by dust and sweat and blood — who errs, who falls short, but who spends themselves in a worthy cause. That framing matters here. It reminds us that engaging, revising, and continuing is harder than dismissing from the sidelines or resting on laurels.

It is not to the exclusion of any person that I believe highlighting women has value. It is to create a chorus that can be heard in all arenas (even across the world) and to the benefit of all people by seeing through their unique, individual lenses in a deliberate way.

It is my guess that where there will be differences illustrated through this record, there will be strong similarities across the whole audience, and that is a story worth telling too.

We often choose high-ranking women to feature because representation at the top still matters. But leadership is not the only story worth telling. My grandmother used to say, “You can be anything you want if you just work hard at it.” I’ve learned that this is only partly true. You have to work hard just to survive. And then, with preparation, timing, and a measure of luck, opportunity might meet you where you are.

I’ve been a decorated college student, a trailblazing, ROI-building editor-in-chief — and I’ve been employee of the month at the local gas station. In that order. Careers are rarely linear. Progress is rarely clean.

Telling the stories of highly accomplished women in the water industry is important. So is listening to women who are still finding their footing, navigating barriers, or simply doing the work, day in and day out, in an industry that depends on them.

This year, instead of assuming what those experiences look like, we asked.

And this is what they said.

What is one lesson your career has taught you that you wished you had learned sooner?

What advice would you give to women entering the water industry today, especially those early in their careers?

Can you share a moment when mentorship, sponsorship, or peer support made a meaningful difference in your career?

What change, big or small, would you most like to see to better support women working in water?

How has working in the water sector shaped your perspective on leadership, service, or impact?

What does “lifting others as we climb” look like in your day‑to‑day work or leadership approach?

What skill or mindset has been most critical to your success in the water industry?