The effect of gender on residential water usage behaviors in the United States

Social science suggests the existence of a gender gap in environmental behaviors in the United States. If these gaps do indeed exist, subgroup-targeted water conservation education and advertising efforts may achieve improved results. The 2009 Hamilton College Environmental Survey is used to determine the existence of a gender gap in residential, water usage-related environmental behaviors. These behaviors include self-reported frequencies of watering the lawn, washing the car, running the dishwasher/washing machine without a full load, and drinking bottled water. An ordered logit model is used to determine the existence of an environmental behavior gap. This gap is behavior dependent for the four water-related behaviors examined in this analysis, although it should be noted that the average age of this sample is higher than the national population and thus these results should be applied with care. Women are more likely to exhibit more environmentally friendly behaviors when it comes to washing the car and running the dishwasher/washing machine without a full load. Men are more likely to both water the lawn and drink bottled water less frequently. These results indicate that there may be certain gender preferences toward conserving water in some contexts more than others; encouraging water conservation may be more efficient via a targeted approach.