Happy International Women's Day!
"I love fishing"
says Zubaida Ani from Teluk Bahang Kampung village, Penang, Malaysia, with a smile. While many women work in small-scale fisheries, few go out to sea, but there are exceptions like Ani. She and her husband Abdul Rahim fish together since many years. She is the mother of seven children, aged between 15-30 years old. Some of them have moved out, obtained higher education and started working outside of fisheries. But for those who remain at home, Ani cooks in the morning before going off with the boat to pull the nets. Ani and her husband share the revenue from their catch equally; he pays the bills and she shops for food items. Although to be honest, Ani admits she is typically the one making sure to put some money aside for family needs, like the children’s education or unforeseen events. “I’m the treasurer!” as Ani puts it, laughing.
Ani and her husband share the revenue from their catch equally; he pays the bills and she shops for food items.
Zubaida Ani and her husband Abdul Rahim from Malaysia go fishing together. Photo by Åsa Ljusenius/FAO.
Åsa Ljusenius
A communication and outreach officer at the FAO, dedicated to raising awareness around small-scale fisheries and the SSF Guidelines.
Women astronauts, engineers, biotechnologists, sociologists, geographers do exist! Fairy tales and princess don’t! Get inspired by science and pursue a scientific career in fisheries! You will not regret it!
You will not regret it!
Policy and decision makers on fisheries have traditionally been men, occupying positions of relevance within the political arena. However, women involved in this sector, from varied standpoints, have been and still are scarce. Researchers, fisheries ministers, community leaders, and fish traders are mostly men. Nevertheless, some advance is currently being done at integrating more ‘women in fisheries’ at varied levels, including community leadership, decision-and-policy making, and trade. Still, within the scientific fora, women working with small-scale fisheries are less represented in comparison to other disciplines. This is why science is such a critical arena in terms of investing resources and efforts in order to attract women. And small-scale fisheries sector could be the perfect opportunity to achieve this.
Let´s motivate more girls and young women to get involved within fisheries science, without the fear of it being perceived as a ‘topic for men only’. Let´s invite girls to read and get them more inspired about women scientists pursuing research and academic careers, and less about princess fairy tales.
María José Barragán-Paladines
A Science Director at the Charles Darwin Foundation for the Galapagos Islands. She was previously a Post-Doctoral Researcher within the Social Sciences Department, at the Leibniz Center for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT) in Bremen, Germany. Her research interests include small-scale fisheries sustainability, fishing community viability, food security from the marine perspective, and marine resource governance.
Fresh faces at Sylhet Agricultural University
Stepping into the classroom full of first year, first semester 'Fisheries' students, during my visit to Sylhet Agricultural University in Bangladesh in February, I was surprised to find a wonderful mix of female and male students. According to Dr. Mahmud Islam, Professor at the Faculty of Fisheries, TBTI member and my host, the female intake has increased significantly in the last few years. With bright eyes and big smiles, the students took turn saying why they choose to study fisheries – to protect the sea and corals, to contribute to sustainability, to improve fisheries management, etc. Sylhet is in the north end of Bangladesh, far away from the sea, but the students speak fondly of the 'Sundarbans' mangrove area while acknowledging the unique 'haor' wetland ecosystem in their district. It was refreshing to see the yearning for knowledge and eagerness for learning in these young female students. They are the future, and the sustainability of small-scale fisheries of Bangladesh is indeed in their hands.
First year fisheries students with their guest. Fotocredit: Md. Ruyel Miah
These young female students are the future, and the sustainability of small-scale fisheries of Bangladesh is indeed in their hands.
Ratana Chuenpagdee
A Professor in Geography at Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada. She is the Director of the Too Big To Ignore global partnership where she’s coordinating research and activities to support the implementation of the SSF Guidelines and the SDGs. Her research emphasizes a transdisciplinary approach to coastal, fisheries and ocean governance, focusing particularly on small-scale fisheries, marine protected areas, community-based management, and food security.
How do we open these spaces so that the voices of women’s lived experience can become part of the decision-making processes? So that girls and women can have more choice about how they want to participate in the activity of fishing? We start one girl, one program, one place at a time! And it grows!
#BalanceForBetter
Fishing for Success is a nonprofit social enterprise that is working to create space in fishing for youth and women. We believe that fishing is a shared human heritage that has encouraged human innovation and creativity around the world since the beginning of time, inspiring artists and musicians, and prompting us to build even bigger boats and more accurate navigational equipment. We believe that fishing is a powerful tool to connect us all to one another no matter our culture or ethnicity, help us reestablish our lost connections to nature, and empower each of us to become more comfortable with taking risk – a most needed trait for entrepreneurs! And it is about access to healthy, local food.
This International Women’s Day theme is #BalanceForBetter and it reminds us that while there are many women working in the seafood industry, they are not participating in the work in the boats or the boardroom.
Fishing for Success has a program for girls and women called Girls Who Fish, and we are providing opportunity for women to get in the boat! It is a mentorship program that encourages traditional skill and knowledge development, and attaining certifications. Right now, our goal is to get more women participating in the recreational fishery, but we have our eye on the future! We see women moving from the shore, to the boat, to the boardroom and having an impact on policy…..
Kimberly Orren
A founder & volunteer project manager of Fishing for Success. To find out more about the Fishing for Success’, visit their website at www.islandrooms.org. You can also check out a short film about their Girls Who Fish program at https://youtu.be/vRX_19StjRk
Let us continue to work hard for women's recognition in the fisheries sector, as it should be in all other sectors worldwide.
Women participation in the fisheries post-harvest sector
As an individual born and raised-up in Malawi, Africa and living in Norway, Europe, with a passion in fisheries research, I have seen and experienced that women's contributions in fisheries post-harvest is undoubtedly huge in both Global North (Fig. 1) and South (Fig. 2). This implies that, apart from economic contribution, they also play, among others, a crucial role in food security and nutrition. Therefore, let us continue to work hard for their recognition in the fisheries sector, as it should be in all other sectors worldwide.
Fig. 1: Women filleting fish, Norway. Photo: Edgar Henriksen
Fig. 2: Women in fish marketing, Malawi. Photo: Tawonga Sichone & Øystein Bluvold
Mbachi Ruth Msomphora
Holds a PhD in fisheries science from UiT, the Arctic University of Norway. In addition to her everyday work as a senior academic information specialist, she is currently, together with Prof. Emeritus Svein Jentoft,working on a project about stakeholder participation in coastal zone management plans, with special focus where small-scale fisheries and aquaculture coexist in Norway.
On international woman’s day as a researcher, I am asking how do we secure rights for vulnerable and marginalized fisher women of South Africa!
Broken system using technicalities to exclude a fisher woman from access fishing rights
In 2019, South Africa’s democracy will be 25 years old and the promise of a better life for all has not been realized by Fatiema Poppie Kok, a fisherwoman from Ocean View, South Africa. She is not on the new list for small-scale fisher rights and, although she has a strong CV of fishing experience since the tender age of 16, she was not considered as she missed the due date. This is whilst many fishers including women who are 'armchair fishers' are on the list. “The pain you feel inside you, knowing they do not go out to fish and quietly you feel you are unable to provide food for your family. You a widowed fisher and living on social grants to survive.” On international woman’s day as a researcher, I am asking how do we secure rights for vulnerable and marginalized fisher women of South Africa!
For more information, CLICK HERE.
Fatiema Poppie Kok, a fisherwoman, from Ocean View
A visit to fisherwomen in Ocean View community
Moenieba Isaacs
A Professor at the University of the Western Cape. She is the acting director of PLAAS (Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies). She has done extensive research on the politics of knowledge production and policy-making in small-scale fishery management, governance, coastal livelihoods and poverty with specific reference to the contestation of South African fishing policy.
Gender gaps on board and on shore: Why women gain less from working in the fisheries
By: Gro Marit Grimsrud & Bjørn Tore Nystrand
A recently published article by Gro Marit Grimsrud & Bjørn Tore Nystrand, which offers new insights into why women, contrary to men, seem not to benefit from their fishing related skills and experiences when they leave the fisheries to work ashore. A key argument is that the gender gap is not down to different career preferences alone, but is also shaped by the fact that women systematically rate their own fishing-skills lower than men rate theirs. To attract more women, the industry should actively work to change the ways in which attitudes of gender and competence are conjointly formed, both on board and onshore.
the industry should actively work to change the ways in which attitudes of gender and competence are conjointly formed, both on board and onshore
Chapter 9 in: 2018. Akslen-Hoel, Linn Kristin; Thu, Beate Julie (eds.) Blue Growth: Aquaculture, Fisheries, Market and Health Perspectives. Orkana Forlag (ISBN 978-82-8104-347-3)
Gro Marit Grimsrud
Bjørn Tore Nystrand
Women in Zanzibar are stars producing raw materials for important global products
Women in Zanzibar grow high quality red algae (Euchemoids) for carrageenan extraction. Women provide the west world with these important raw materials used in the production of shampoo, tooth paste, candies, medicine, etc. The gelatin properties of the substance make it suitable for many products. Women are really stars in growing the algae! The activity is very hard, physical demanding and pays little money back. Still women need the cash to invest in their families and children well - being. By the time of its introduction, seaweed farming increased life standards, currently a reconsideration of the production process, and negative environmental effects due to climate change need high attention.
This women’s day, let’s bring a thought to these heroes, who make our western lives’ style easier, making their own lives difficult.
Narriman S. Jiddawi
A Senior Lecturer at the University of Dar es Salaam. She works on marine biology but has always been closely tied to socio-economic analysis, policy formulation and stakeholder empowerment to promote marine conservation. She has conducted extensive multidisciplinary work in several projects involving both biological and social sciences in marine and coastal areas of East Africa.
Maricela de la Torre-Castro
A senior lecturer and associate professor since 2012 at the Department of Physical Geography at Stockholm University, Sweden. Maricela’s research focuses on social-ecological systems in coastal communities. Her main interests are to understand human–nature interactions for sustainable development.
Small-scale fisheries is not only about catching fish or only about men
It is July 2018 on the Swedish island of Fårö and Mr. Jansson has agreed to take us fishing on his 8 m length boat. But like in most small-scale fisheries worldwide, a fishing day in the Swedish Baltic Sea, starts when a woman helps her husband and son to get ready for the fishing trip and finishes when she has sold the daily catch. After our two hours fishing trip and spending most of the day with the Jansson’s family one important aspect of fisheries is evident for us: she doesn’t go to the sea, but that is definitely the only activity in which she is not centrally involved.
a fishing day in the Swedish Baltic Sea, starts when a woman helps get ready for the fishing trip and finishes when she has sold the daily catch
Milena Arias-Schreiber
A Researcher and Project Leader at the Swedish Institute for the Marine Environment, Gothenburg University. With a background on marine ecology and doctoral studies in the social sciences from the University of Bremen (Germany), her research focuses on institutional challenges for sustainable fisheries management.
Gender equality is not only about women, it is about human rights; and that should matter to all.
Gender equality is essential for sustainable fisheries and transdisciplinary science
The role of women in fisheries is increasingly recognized but poorly quantified. In Mexico, the role of women in fisheries is not explicit in our legal framework and thus in decision-making processes. By including women richer discussions, more representative visions, and more creative solutions can be obtained. Let’s make visible women contributions and remove gender-inequality for the next generation. Fisherwomen have proven to be great leaders, entrepreneurs, and scientists. Gender equality is not only about women, it is about human rights; and that should matter to all.
María José Espinosa Romero
Leads the four thematic programs of Comunidad y Biodiversidad (COBI) in Mexico: capacity building, sustainable fisheries, no-take zones, and public policies. She is currently enrolled in a joint PhD program on Governance and Public Policies by the United Nations University and Maastricht University.
Gender Justice for Positive Nutritional Outcomes, Improved Livelihoods and Sustainable Fisheries
Women’s involvement in small-scale fisheries sector transcends beyond the traditional female-centric postharvest sub-sector and in developing countries, there are more challenges to engaging in and benefiting equitably from the sector. Totality of women’s more diversified roles and contributions are not given appropriate economic value and rarely reflected in fisheries or national data. In reality, social and economic empowerment to enhance women’s participation in fisheries governance is often not achieved simultaneously. Hence to achieve Sustainable Development Goals on poverty reduction and food and nutrition security as well as sustainable fisheries, focal interests should be on gender justice and interactive governance.
social and economic empowerment to enhance women’s participation in fisheries governance is often not achieved simultaneously
Kafayat Fakoya
A Senior Lecturer in the Department of Fisheries, Lagos State University, Nigeria. Her main interests are in the fields of fisheries biology, aquaculture, small-scale fisheries, ethnographic knowledge and gender.
Women’s tide keeps going
Without being an expert, I think of the subject Gender in fisheries as addressing hidden populations, hidden roles, and hidden rights. Likewise, within the scientific community there are gaps in fully recognizing the leading roles of some women carrying out research and actions to enhance fisheries sustainability. In both cases, women’s tide keeps going.
I think of the subject Gender in fisheries as addressing hidden populations, hidden roles, and hidden rights
Minerva Arce-Ibarra
Works at the Department of Systematics and Aquatic Ecology of the College of Southern Border (ECOSUR). She holds a BSc. in Fisheries Biology (UAS), an MSc. in Marine Biology (CINVESTAV-Mérida) and a Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Studies (Dalhousie University).
