Women & Gender

“Women are an important agent of small-scale fisheries/aquaculture where they accomplish different tasks from pre-harvesting operation to first sale and administration. Post-harvest handling, processing and sale are often under the responsibility of women. In capture fisheries, women are mainly involved in harvesting fish, shellfish and others species on or near to the shore. They rarely use boats because is requires investments and access to credit that is not so easy for them to acquire. There are also cultural barriers as well as legal barriers for access to resources. But this can be different from place to place. In some West African countries women are often boat owners besides being the main vendors of fish. Women participation in production is more important in inland fisheries and aquaculture than in marine fisheries. In poverty and subsistence contexts, women go fishing to sustain their livelihoods and for food security.

Women involvement in fisheries is poorly documented in statistics as their contribution is most often not recognized economically and administratively. According to FAO (State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture, 2012) women represent 50% of the workforce in inland fisheries and 60% of seafood is marketed by women in Asia and West Africa. SOFIA 2016 states that “it is estimated that women account for more than 19% of all people directly engaged in fisheries and aquaculture primary sector in 2014”. And among them, a vast majority if not all, is found in small-scale fisheries (SSF). But, because of the lack of recognition of their role and because of gender related inequality and inequity that prevail in society, their needs are far from being addressed and are insufficiently studied. The cluster ‘Women and Gender’ aims at filling this knowledge gap and addressing the issue at the policy level.

The Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication (SSF Guidelines) is the first international document recognizing women contribution in fisheries and calling for Gender equity and equality. Gender equity and equality is the fourth guiding principle of the SSF Guidelines. The inclusion of gender equity and equality in the guidelines is important and the cluster ‘Women and Gender’ is aiming to contribute to the implementation process of the SSF Guidelines by collecting examples from around the world about women equity and equality in SSF, identifying barriers, challenges and opportunities in such a way to highlight the approaches that can be used to implement gender equity and equality.

We are currently calling for contributions for a special issue on Women and gender in fishery-related work and communities. In addition, we are documenting women and gender issues by gathering and questioning knowledge on gender relations in SSF in different parts of the world through an online survey. For more information about the call for contribution, survey and other ways to participate in the cluster, see the “How to contribute” section below.