Alumna in Action, September 2009: Alice Henshaw Eaton ’05

Improving the World, One Drop at a Time

By her own admission, “I didn’t know anything about water,” confesses Alice Henshaw Eaton ’05. “I never thought about it.” That didn’t stop her from signing on with WaterAid, an international nonprofit organization whose mission is to provide safe water, sanitation, and hygiene education in the developing world as well as influence international and national policy on these issues.

Eaton worked for two years in WaterAid’s New York office, mostly focused on development and fund raising, before moving to London to work at the organization’s headquarters. After mornings at WaterAid, Eaton attended classes for her master’s degree in the history of international relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science, focusing on imperial studies.
“After I finished my degree, I wanted to go to the field,” she says. Ethiopia sounded interesting, plus the country has some of the lowest access to safe water—so off she went.

Although she was based in Addis Ababa, Eaton spent much of her 10-month assignment traveling to remote areas of the country, monitoring and evaluating wells, springs, and latrines, and speaking with local women about how water affected their lives. “Women have to endure the drudgery,” says Eaton. “Water is their issue. If the water is bad and kids get sick, [women] have to care for the kids and get blamed. Part of the hygiene education is encouraging women to suggest to men to do more in the domestic sphere, and have women do more money-earning. Putting in a well is easy. Impacting social change is hard.”

A political science major at Barnard, Eaton says she was strongly influenced by a colloquium on “Women, Gender and the Third World,” and notes that “it’s the lens through which I look at development work.” Barnard also “provided me with an amazing sense of self-confidence,” she says. “All my best friends are my Barnard friends. They have such great attitudes about being professional women, seeking adventure, and challenges. You feel like you have a cheerleading team. You never feel isolated, even in Ethiopia.”

A New York native, who spent her middle and high school years in Washington, D.C., where she was educated at The Maret School, Eaton is delighted to be back in the city. Although she’s not sure what her next career move will be, “I would really love to be on the ‘give’ side, at a foundation,” Eaton says. —Merri Rosenberg ’78