Fishing is a very important means of livelihood for more than 27.021 million people globally. But ‘fisheries' is dominated by the men in the literature, though women do play a significant part. When we talk of “women in fisheries”, that does not, by default, speak of a lady with a fish basket on her head, or a lady wearing a mask on her face in the processing industry. Women in fisheries do take up different kinds of roles in both fishing and fish farming, which is beyond marketing and processing.

GENDER BIAS

Gender roles established in the past were handed down from one generation to the next. The fact that, through the ages, women have been referred to as the weaker sex hasn't helped either. Women were, and still are, by and large confined to looking after the family and household; tending to the daily needs of the home such as taking care of the children, preparing food, fetching water, collecting wood for the kitchen and general housekeeping.

Fishing and aquaculture are usually portrayed as occupations of men, hauling nets and lines in dangerous seas, piloting fishing boats, constructing fish ponds and cages, and negotiating with fish traders and fisheries officials. What these pictures miss are the contributions and roles of women, youth, and even children. These invisible groups may, in fact, contribute more in economic terms than the traditionally-recognised fisheries.

Gender analysis in the fisheries sector shows that women in fishing communities participate substantially in most fishery-related enterprises in the organised as well as the unorganised sector. But their recognition in fishing activities is limited to fish processing, marketing and fish culture. Their role in fishing operations, fish culture, disaster and crisis management, community and resource management, and a number of activities still aren't recognised.

INVISIBLE WORKERS

The work and contribution of women is often invisible and there is hardly any documentation or recognition of their work in the fisheries sector. There are no authentic statistics available on the number of women involved in fisheries-related work. Why are women invisible workers?

In Marshal Islands, men are engaged in fishing. It isn't culturally acceptable for women to perform deeper water or large-scale activities such as diving, netting, trapping, fishing with lines or long-lining. It is believed that if a woman boards a boat or goes near men before or while fishing, there will be bad luck, usually manifested in a poor catch. A few surveys carried out in Europe on women and fisheries indicate that inequality between men and women still persists. Men dominate the EU Consultative Committee on Fisheries and Aquaculture, which comprises a group of mainly big fishing industries. Despite their participation, women don't receive a salary. They aren't insured either.

In the US, the women fishers are generally asked not to attend out-of-town conferences, because the other persons attending the meeting would be men, and attendance would have required payment for an additional hotel room. The prevention of fisherwomen from participating in Latin America stems from social taboos and myths, which state that women bring bad luck, so they earn lower income than men for equal work.

Shelly and D'Coasta (2011) have noted that only 1 per cent of the fisherwomen in Bangladesh own land or a physical asset; so it is very difficult for them to access credit. Though micro-finance has paved the way for credit access, decision on how the credit is to be used still remains with men.

It may be seen from these studies that the social taboos and traditional ways of life among the fishers have been responsible for marginalisation of women in fisheries. This is more so in developing countries, than in developed ones, clearly indicating that social acceptance of women in fisheries improves with higher education and exposure. This is also visible in selected states of India, like the higher levels of acceptance of women in fisheries in Kerala compared to women in fisheries in, say, Orissa.

Therefore, in order to transform the invisible role of women in fisheries into a visible one, it is necessary to make a more honest and sincere effort to develop and make available social capital, like better education and on-the-job skills.

(The author is a student at the Central Institute of Fisheries Education.)

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