Addressing gender inequities in the Fishing Sector

hermank256 — Mon, 12 Sep 2016 14:23:32 +0000

It has become clear that the challenges women face in fishing and fisheries needs to be
addressed at various levels. There’s a need to challenge unequal gender relations
within and outside the household, and within organisations. There’s also a need to seek
recognition for the paid and unpaid labour of women that goes towards sustaining
fisheries and fishing communities, and to ensure that women’s roles in the fisheries
sector don’t remain ‘invisible’. Women also need to have an increased right to
participate in decision-making processes with respect to fisheries planning and
management. WOFNET believes that addressing gender inequities by improving
women’s incomes and educational levels, as well as their access to information and
decision-making processes, will enhance women’s capabilities and ability to contribute
to fishing and fisheries with clear benefits on a number of levels for households, as well
as society in general.

The post Addressing gender inequities in the Fishing Sector appeared first on WOMEN IN FISHERIES NETWORK (WOFNET).

Increasing the Role of Women in Fisheries

hermank256 — Mon, 12 Sep 2016 14:23:22 +0000

In Uganda, women make up 12% of people working in fisheries sector. However the
number has been steadily increasing over the past two decades. Women also play a
critical and significant role in small-scale fisheries. In 2010, they represented almost half
the people working in small- scale fisheries with even greater numbers working in inland
fisheries. Women perform many of the pre- harvesting and most of the post- harvesting
tasks. However, since these tasks are not always recognized, information is not usually
gathered and women’s labour remains largely invisible. For example, the activity of
selling is almost invisible in most fisheries statistics and is an activity in which women
make up a large portion of the labour. Women also perform many unpaid pre- and post-
harvesting tasks (mending nets, collecting bait, preparing food for fishers, keeping
accounts), which are unacknowledged or undercounted as employment. WOFNET has
revealed the astounding amount of work that women do in the fisheries sector. In fishing
communities the household often functions as an economic unit where the roles of both
men and women tend to be complementary: women control land-based activities, such
as net- weaving, processing and marketing fish, while men engage in fish harvesting. At
the same time, women remain responsible for sustaining the fishing household, and
maintaining community networks and support structures. The diverse array of women’s
roles in the fishery sector, as well as their activities within the home, make them
important contributors to both national and household food security. However, the
recognition of women’s contributions is not equal to that afforded to men. WOFNET is
thus working to increase the Role of Women in Fisheries and make their work and
contribution more visible.

The post Increasing the Role of Women in Fisheries appeared first on WOMEN IN FISHERIES NETWORK (WOFNET).

Fresh Water Archives - WOMEN IN FISHERIES NETWORK (WOFNET)

Addressing gender inequities in the Fishing Sector

Increasing the Role of Women in Fisheries