Beginning with colonial times and continuing to the present, irrigation engineering has been and is an important site for the construction of gendered power and hegemonic masculinities. The strong connection between masculinities and professional irrigation cultures provides one possible explanation of why hydraulic bureaucracies are so resistant to change: it makes behaviours and codes of conduct that are learned seem natural. Taking inspiration from masculinity studies and from feminist studies of technology and organizations, this article proposes two possible lines of inquiry for critically disentangling how the irrigation profession becomes or is made masculine. The first is the feminist historical analysis of water bureaucracies, and the second is a critical ethnography of contemporary irrigation organizations. Such studies are needed both to create more space for women engineers in government water agencies and to contribute to unravelling important cultural aspects of water politics.

从殖民时代开始一直延续到现在，灌溉工程一直并且一直是建设性别权力和霸权男性气质的重要场所。男性气质与专业灌溉文化之间的紧密联系为水力官僚机构为何如此抗拒变革提供了一种可能的解释：它使习得的行为和行为守则看起来很自然。从阳刚之气的研究以及对技术和组织的女权主义研究的启发中，本文提出了两种可能的研究思路，以严格区分灌溉专业如何成为或成为男性。第一个是对水官僚机构的女权主义历史分析，第二个是当代灌溉组织的重要民族志。