Between Water Management and Governance: A Systematic Review of Women’s Participation in Rural Contexts

Rural water insecurity has a clear gender dimension, as women play central roles in supplying, using, and managing water daily. However, these responsibilities do not necessarily translate into an equivalent capacity to influence decisions about the resource. This study analyzed how the scientific literature has addressed women’s participation in rural water management and governance from a gender perspective, identifying responsibilities, knowledge, forms of participation, and conditions that favored or restricted women’s ability to influence decisions. The literature selection process followed the PRISMA 2020 statement. The Scopus search, conducted on 7 July 2026, identified 311 records. After applying the document-type (Article) and publication-year (1986–2025) restrictions, 216 records remained. We included studies that analytically linked gender or women, water-related dimensions, and a rural context; title-and-abstract screening excluded 76 records, leaving 140 studies for the review. We initially analyzed these 140 studies, then conducted an in-depth full-text review of 61 studies for thematic and interpretive synthesis. We also used the 216 records for complementary author-keyword co-occurrence analysis with VOSviewer. The results indicated a thematic broadening from water management and uses toward governance, access, sustainability, and water security. They also showed that responsibility, knowledge, participation, representation, voice, influence, agency, and authority were related but non-equivalent dimensions, whose articulation depended on sociocultural, resource-related, capacity-related, institutional, and territorial conditions. The review was limited by its exclusive reliance on Scopus and by the unequal depth of information available across the included studies. More equitable rural water governance therefore requires moving beyond formal presence or participation to examine the conditions under which women’s responsibilities, knowledge, and forms of organization can translate into effective influence over water-related decisions.