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Women are crucial to the fisheries and aquaculture sector. Worldwide, fishery and aquaculture production activities provide revenues to an estimated 155 million people, of whom a substantial proportion is female. In developing countries most fishing activi- ties fall into the small scale fisheries sector employing roughly
37 million people, and directly affecting the livelihood, poverty prevention and alleviation, and food security of approximately 357 million others. Gender analysis in fishing communities is still in its infancy, and is mostly limited to the different occupational roles according to gender. The belief that men do the actual fish- ing, with women more involved in post-harvest and marketing activities, remains prevalent across most cultural, social, political and economic strata. Global average figures, which support this perception, mask the real importance of women at country level. In the world’s two major fish producing countries, China and India, women represent respectively 21% and 24% of all fishers and fish farmers (FAO 2012).
Women make up at least half of the inland fisheries’ workforce, with 60% and 80% of seafood marketed by women in Asia and West Africa (FAO 2012). Women in West Africa, Cambodia and Thailand often own and manage fishing boats and may even have their own fishing gear. In Ghana, income from fisher’s wives is vital for supporting the entire fishing industry, as they invest in canoes and other gear and give out loans to husbands and other fishers. Fisherwomen in the Congo, Cambodia, Thailand, the Philippines, and most of the South Pacific islands, contradict the perceived role of females as gleaners only.
Women have also assumed a leading role in the rapid growth of aquaculture (fish, shrimps, mussel, seaweed, crab fattening), with their participation along the aquaculture value chains (production, transforming, marketing) higher than in capture fisheries.
quaculture is promoted as a development strategy, as it enables poor women to operate low technology and low input systems that are an extension of their domestic tasks, allowing them to integrate aquaculture activities with household and childcare chores. Entry into aquaculture appears to have fewer gender barriers, as this sector developed outside cultural traditions. Bangladeshi women make up about 60% of fish farmers, and many are successful entrepreneurs (FAO). In Sri Lanka, 30% of those engaged in the production and breeding of ornamental fish are women (FAO 2012).
Compared to other sectors, women and gender issues have been missing from key global normative fisheries and aquaculture policies. There have been, however, some promising turning points that highlight the way gender policy aids resilience in fishing communities. These include the 2003 European Commission funded IDDRA UK Cotonou workshop on ‘Room to maneuver: Gender and coping strategies in the fisheries sector’; the FAO 2007 Gender Policies for Responsible Fisheries; and the May 2012 Zero Draft on International Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries, which particularly addresses gender equity and equality.