Gender and Waste Nexus: Experiences from Bhutan, Mongolia and Nepal

work in themanual labour sectors. Schooling for girls and women, by contrast, was considered more necessary, due to the prevailing assumption that women need credentials to obtain work. Street sweepers In Ulaanbaatar, street sweeping is considered a good, stable job, although it can be somewhat dangerous, especially in the winter months. Street sweepers interviewed reported taking pride in theirwork and feeling that they contribute to the betterment of the city. Each street sweeper is responsible for around 800 m 2 and will typically pass the same area twice a day. The streets in central Ulaanbaatar are noticeably clean and litter free. Street sweepers in Ulaanbaatar earn approximately MNT 650,000 per month (US$ 265) and are paid the same, regardless of gender. In comparison, the averagemonthly salary for allworkers inUlaanbaatar in the last two quarters of 2017 and first two quarters of 2018 was MNT 1,240,000 (US$ 466) for men, and MNT 1,006,000 (US$ 378) for women (Mongolian Statistical Information Service [MSIS] 2019). Until recently, street sweeping was mostly carried out by women, though this started to change once the work was professionalized, offering higher wages, uniforms and better protective equipment. Young people are increasingly applying for this type of job, which is now less stigmatized. Since street sweeping is now a more prized position of employment, women are losing what was once their niche. For example, in 2017, one private waste collection TUK company employed 44 women and 10 men as street sweepers. When their contract for street cleaning was sharply reduced in 2018, they dismissed 41 women and no men. When asked why the men were disproportionately retained, the TUK director stated that men did the best work, referring in particular to the cold weather and harsh conditions. However, this contradicted a later assertion made by the director that women cared more about cleanliness and were more conscientious workers. The public waste collection offices in Ulaanbaatar employ 137 female sweepers and 142 male sweepers. Both women and men expressed the view that men were more careless about waste and threw it on the street, often out of car windows too, as if it was their right and an expression of their freedom. Truck drivers and loaders Truck driving and loading is easier in apartment districts than the ger districts, which have narrow, unpaved, hilly roads. Waste loading is dangerous and strenuous, especially in ger districts during the winter months when

most of the waste is ash. Trucks assigned to ger routes tend to be open pickups without loading lifts. Loaders are provided with new gloves four times a month. Overall, the category of “transportation drivers” is the most male-dominated occupation in Mongolia, with 93.6 per cent of the positions filled by men across all sectors (Begzsuren and Aldar 2014). Waste truck driving in Ulaanbaatar is almost exclusively carried out by men. A kheseg administrator reported that one woman worked in the district as a waste truck driver, which seemed to be the only case for all public and private waste management offices. During the Soviet period, more women were reportedly employed as waste truck drivers, perhaps as many as 30, though no data have confirmed this. The same is true ofwomen loaders: in one public office of 112 loaders and drivers, there was only one female employee. The director of the Bayanzurkh district public waste collection office reported that they had received applications from women to be drivers, though no women had been hired in the positions yet. During the field research, both men and women expressed stereotypical opinions regarding women and their ability to drive waste trucks or the desirability for women to drive them, such as: • women are not supposed to drive (any vehicle) • women are worse drivers than men • women are unable to drive large or heavy vehicles • women do not know how to drive large or heavy vehicles • women should not drive large and heavy vehicles • drivers sometimes have to assist with lifting the waste into the trucks, which is heavy work that women cannot or should not do • truck driving is a man’s world and women should not be working that closely with men • waste collection is dirty work; it would be both unhygienic and inappropriate for women to go home after doing such work to prepare meals for the family. Truck drivers and loaders are paid by distance and weight, but a typical wage is around MTN 1 million per month (US$ 408). Waste collection companies Men are in most of the managerial positions of the private waste collection businesses that have contracts with the city. In public waste collection companies, several women are directors. Overall in Mongolia, recent studies have found that employment sectors with the most women are often thosewith the lowest salaries and that are typically paid through state budgets (Begzsuren and Aldar 2014). This is also seen in the waste sector, as reflected in the staffing of a relatively small private waste collection company contracted by the city and a large public TUK (Table 1).

Mongolia

34 Gender and waste nexus