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Inclusive development from a gender perspective in
small scale fisheries
Dilanthi Koralagama1,2,3, Joyeeta Gupta2 and Nicky Pouw2
Gender inequality and discrimination challenges the social
economic and environmental sustainability of the global small-
scale fisheries sector critically in achieving inclusive
development. The absence of a gender-aware perspective in
fisheries research is often justified from the premise that
fisheries are a male-dominated sector. Although, millions of
women are engaged in small-scale fisheries their work has
been systematically discounted and devalued. This paper
reviews the gender literature on small-scale fisheries to
elaborate on the gender discrimination on; labor division,
accessibility, and power relations, which hinder the
sustainability and development process in marginalized
communities. Ironically, women often contribute to such
discriminatory processes in access and control of resources
and decision making thus directly affecting on household and
community wellbeing. The paper concludes that gender
sensitive research can help to ensure that the conditions for
achieving the sustainable development goals are met
especially in the context of expected global stress on fisheries
from climate change and development processes.
Addresses
1
Department of Agriculture Economics, Faculty of Agriculture, University
of Ruhuna, Mapalana, Kamburupitiya, Sri Lanka
2
Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research, Governance and
Inclusive Development Programme, University of Amsterdam, The
Netherlands
Corresponding author: Koralagama, Dilanthi (dilanthik@gmail.com)
3
Reading for PhD at University of Amsterdam.
Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 2017, 24:1–6
This review comes from a themed issue on Sustainability science
Edited by Nicky RM Pouw and Joyeeta Gupta
Received 13 June 2016; Revised 16 August 2016; Accepted
09 September 2016
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2016.09.002
1877-3435/# 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Introduction
As a contribution to this Special Issue on Inclusive De-
velopment and its disciplinary and thematic roots, this
paper examines the literature on gender issues in inclusive
development in the small scale fisheries sector mainly
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focusing on gender division and discrimination. Equitable
sharing of economic returns, social wellbeing, ecological
sustainability and power equalities [see Pouw and Gupta,
this issue] are crucial for the resource based primary
industries [1,2] like fisheries with critical gender implica-
tions [3,4]. Gender refers to ‘behaviors learned through the
socially prescribed roles of women and men, which are
diverse and dynamic’ [5:5]. As a social construct, gender
defines women’s and men’s behavior, relations, capabili-
ties, resource distribution, and social expectations appro-
priate to their social institutions [6]. Thus, integrating a
gendered socio-economic, ecological, and political ap-
proach is imperative for inclusive development outcomes
for marginalized resource users [1,7,8] like small scale
fishers. Small-scale fisheries, often considered as a male
dominated industry, [5,9,10,11] include women in
invisible roles [9] but also as ‘everybody’s business’
[12:54]. Although, few studies acknowledge the hidden
roles and contribution of fisherwomen in small scale
fisheries [9,10,12] many of the gender neutral research,
statistics, and policy documents [11,13,14] make
male contributions visible and/or women’s contribution
subsumed under male contributions or ignored
[5,12,13,14–16], resulting a significant quantitative
data gap. In fact, a meaningful gendered analysis that
captures the different fishing-related activities of women
is difficult [5].
We reviewed literature on small scale fisheries as it hosts
over 90 percent of the total fishing population in the world
with the contribution from both male and female than the
large scale — industrial fishery but often poorly regulated
and documented with many unresolved complex manage-
ment issues [17]. Gender, as a key variable in fisheries
management [16,18–21] and research [5] enable the
analysis of (a) community member functions [22]; (b) social
production [23]; (c) gender interactions [24]; (d) social
systems and role divisions in promoting food security [25–
27]; and (e) livelihoods [4,9,10,11,12,18–20] motivated
to evaluate the importance of a gendered approach in
inclusive development to overcome the gender differenti-
ation and discrimination which is usually not on fisheries
policy agendas and in action plans but demanding a
stronger conceptual foundation and application [28].
Key trends in the literature
Millions of women are engaged in small-scale fisheries,
but ‘invisible’
Although, 56 million women world-wide are directly
involved in small scale fisheries based income generation
Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 2017, 24:1–6
2 Sustainability science

Table 1

Gender division in small scale fisheries

Category Female fishers Male fishers Related articles


Fishing ground Near shore fishing Off shore fishing [4,5 ,20,25,28,29,36,37]
Choices depend on accessibility, ability to attend home affairs, severity of the
fishing operation due to weather, available opportunities, scale of operations
Target fish Mostly invertebrates Mostly on fin fish and valuable invertebrates [4,14,28,35,37,38–40]
Choices depend on accessibility, ecosystem, value, quantity, fishing technology,
scale of operations
Work Less risky More risky [25,37]
Choices depend on fishing technology, distance from the shore, sea condition,
responsibilities, obligations, working conditions
Income Main/Supplementary Main [11,23,31,41]
Depends on fishing duration, culture, household condition (male/female headed,
marital status), quantity, household economy, vulnerability, policy changes
Engagement Pre and post harvesting Basically harvesting [4,5,9,12,29,32]
Depends on home affairs, demographic factors (age, marital status, and age of
children) commitment, working hours, culture, safety
Fishing time Day time Both day and night [29,42]
Depends on home affairs, child caring, weather, dedication, economy, safety,
culture
Relationships in Poor Good [10,11,13]
the governing
system
Mostly male officers govern the fishing institutions and communication process

*Compiled by authors, texts in italics are implied from the literature.

[17,24] their role is invisible, unrecognized, undervalued,
and underrepresented [4,23,29] not only in the Global
South but also in North [9,10,30,31] where they are
acknowledged as only fulfilling household tasks [31,32].
Most of the women are engaged in unpaid or poorly paid
[28], less capital intensive, minor jobs [15,33] such as fish
vending, net mending, cleaning (fish and equipment), dry
fish processing (salting, fermenting, and drying)
[4,23,31], trading [29], and petty trading on the beach
[12] and many more. Women also engage in capture
fishing [9,10] and dangerous fishing activities like diving
[34] without much recognition and acknowledgment as
fishermen. Hence, often fishermen are considered as the
primary breadwinner and fisherwomen as the primary
caregiver [31,34] although women’s role is far more be-
yond [16,23,34,35]. Table 1 reveals the gender division
in small scale fisheries with supportive literature to illu-
minate the involvement of fisherwomen and fishermen in
fishing operation that makes women’s role visible for
analysis.
Women’s role beyond direct fishing
Fisherwomen also undertake usual tasks like household
upkeep, child care, earning a livelihood, socio-cultural
activities, resource conservation [35], and psycho-social
support for fishermen [12,24,30,31,42] which are also
under-recognized [21] but creditable. Women’s contribu-
tion can ease economic crises in households [39] from
policy changes, commercialization [25], ecological stress,
and dwindling fish catch [43], by searching for alternative
income sources in or outside the fisheries sector [9,10].
Role of fisherwomen also extends as investors, sources of
credits, and decision makers on family food consumption
[17].
Gendered discrimination
The article would address three types of gendered dis-
criminations; (a) restriction on access; (b) restriction on
decision making; and (c) identity based discrimination.
Restriction on access: Access to means of production is also
gendered [12,44,45]. Although, some women have pri-
mary access to the resources most of the fisherwomen are
restricted hence secondary or tertiary access to fish is
permitted with diverse notions, challenges, and obstacles
[11]. Most of the widowed, divorced, or single women in
Lake Victoria (Kenya [33], and Tanzania [42]) use trans-
actional sex to access fishing grounds and also to survive in
the male-dominated fisheries sector. More often, women,
especially young widows or those with disabled husband
are susceptible to sexual harassment [9,23,33,42] in
exchange for access to fisheries and fisheries markets.
Restrictions on participation in decision making: Limited
opportunities in administration [15,16,42], relegation to
non-leadership positions, and male dominance in mana-
gerial positions show the gendered biasness in certain
fisheries [9,34,45] where power relations are skewed
toward men [35] leaving women without decision making
power [9,10,15,29]. Lack of control and representation in
fisheries organizations and negligence in decision making
process affect badly on gender equity creating disparities

Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 2017, 24:1–6 www.sciencedirect.com

 Inclusive development from gender perspective Koralagama, Gupta and Pouw 3
between men and women thus on governance and social
wellbeing [22]. Such discrimination would increase the
vulnerability, food insecurity, and social and health chal-
lenges as experienced among basket fisherwomen (who
use baskets as fishing gears) in the Okavango delta in
Botswana by neglecting their knowledge and voice in co-
management forums [22].
Identity based discrimination: Women paradoxically con-
tribute to discrimination [39] based on their identities
(culture, religion, social structures and so on). For exam-
ple, Flemish fisherwomen are shy, invisible, and stay
anonymous in the shadow of their fishermen willingly
[46] because they superstitiously believe that women in
fishing vessels bring bad luck [19]. In other cases, socio-
cultural embeddedness accept and reinforce the rigid
labor division controlling women’s position, roles, respon-
sibilities, rights, sexuality, and mobility [47] increasing
power and social disparities [45] further. Poverty, lack of
education and supportive institutions, and societal pa-
tronage undermine women’s capacities and contribution
resulting in inferior social positions influenced by culture,
religion, and tradition [11,23]. Women accept their
responsibilities as ‘God-imposed duties’ [23:321]
shaped up with their identity, taboos and social context.
This weakens women causing depressions, inequality,
social and environmental injustice but also reinforces
gendered roles. Gender transformative approaches per
se unravel the institutional context as barriers for gender
equality and social justice [6].
Appreciation for a gendered approach in
inclusive development
As an ever challenging approach [48,49,50], inclusive
development requires to address the social and ecological
inequities and power imbalances through relational in-
clusiveness [3,8,49,50] with an effective gendered ap-
proach because women play a key role in the food supply
chain from production, procurement, preparation, family
food security, and food culture [26]. Besides, women
make invaluable socio-economic contributions to the
sustainability of the community and the industry even
without much accreditation [17] with numerous income
generating activities. Despite, fisherwomen spend multi-
faceted lives with intra and extra sectoral labout substi-
tution [12] taking women out from the poverty cycle is
not easy as the overall economy per se provide limited
opportunities hence needed to re-formulate inclusive
policies toward inclusive development.
As key players in ecosystem conservation fisherwomen
allocate more time and support for conservation initia-
tives and promotions with a higher level of environmental
awareness [4,50]. Oyster harvesters in Gambia [37] and
shellfish extractors in Brazil [4] conserved their ecosystem
by unifying to manage the resource and protesting against
resource threatening activities which negatively influence
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the sustainability of their respective ecosystems. Follow-
ing the discourse that women are intrinsically closer to
nature, the impacts of environmental degradation, cli-
mate change, and resource over exploitation badly affect
on resource dwelling women like fisherwomen hence
considered as ‘victims of climate change and agents for
adaptation’ [7:34]. This inter-connectedness (gender–en-
vironment–climate) claims for special attention on wom-
en empowerment with climate resilience and ecosystem
sustainability in development policy agendas [7].
Women in small scale fisheries are referred as a homoge-
neous group due to the similarities in their occupation but
differ from each other in terms of position in the family
and the society [51], endowments, experience, interests,
responses, and expectations [26] and other contextual
factors. Such differences are crucial to account when
implementing a gendered approach in inclusive develop-
ment. However, community respect is needed with poli-
cies to augment their personal wealth, power, and
political influence [34] which is possible through inclusive
governance [8]. Governing systems need to respect gen-
der equity to safeguard equitable and sustainable acces-
sibility with adequate empowerment, representation, and
decision making power [22,48,50,54]. Participating fish-
erwomen in fisheries associations and institutions would
bring; recognition, improvements in livelihoods, financial
means, and bargaining power strengthening the sense of
self-worth and professionalism to overcome the subse-
quent disparities with men in the industry [11]. In fact,
institutional intervention and gender empowerment is
demanded to ensure a strong gender equality based
approach [47,52] with social and economic investments
on fisherwomen while respecting the socio-cultural, eco-
nomic, and political context [23,45] to access finance
and resources [12].
Performing as agents of wellbeing [30] women ensures
the material, relational, and subjective wellbeing of fish-
ermen and children often sacrificing their own wellbeing
[31,53]. Women act as drivers of community cohesion
with better communication, conflict resolution, collabo-
ration, and solidarity with inter and intra communities/
institutes weaving the social fabric through information
dissemination and networking than fishermen [17,21].
Since, the contribution of fisherwomen to enhance social
capital in communities (fishing and non-fishing) and
household and community wellbeing is significant, the
gendered responsive approach is inevitable to achieve the
development objectives in marginalized resource based
communities like small scale fisheries.
Gender related information would be useful to: (a) accu-
rately assess the state of fisheries; (b) understand the
diverse effects of fisheries change; (c) manage fisheries
populations; (d) construct inter-disciplinary models; and
(e) policy making where the data can be collected via
Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 2017, 24:1–6
4 Sustainability science
observational studies in anthropology, ethnography, and
human behavior [13]. The exclusion of women from
small scale fisheries results numerous underestimations of
(i) fish catch; (ii) diversity of targeted fish species; (iii) fish
habitats/fishing grounds; (iv) socio-ecological links; and (v)
fishing methods [13,14] that result incomplete implica-
tions on inclusive development policy options. Inclusion
of women in decision making forums in rural communities
are blessed with multiple benefits; (a) increase awareness
on domestic violence ensuring social justice; (b) increase
children’s schooling; (c) enhance equitable access and
transparency in fisheries management; and (d) foster com-
munity wellbeing and economic growth [11].
Census data mostly calculate the number of fishermen/
fishing households/subsistence labor but ignore women as
they work part time [10,55]. Sometimes, women’s in-
volvement is intentionally eliminated due to cultural
prohibitions [23] when their participation is considered
as an indication of poverty and a matter to shame [14].
Inclusion of invisible women workers in fish harvesting is
a prerequisite for an ‘absolute gendered approach’ with
gender sensitive policies and legislations to improve the
status of women in the development process [52]. Evok-
ing these discriminations the United Nations Entity for
Gender equality focuses on; freedom from violence
against women and girls, gender equality on knowledge,
health, and access to resources, and decision making
power across families, communities, and entire public
and private domains [6,56]. Moreover, ‘fishers’, the
gender neutral term [5,13,14], is well suited for fish-
eries societies since the roles, activities, and behavior
determines men and women’s engagement [56,57] rather
than sex. Further, a gendered approach is recommended
on inclusive development not only for the small scale
fisheries but also for the sectors where marginalized rural
communities are interacting.
Conclusion
Although, millions of women engage in small scale fisher-
ies, the gender segregated labor division highlights fishing
for men and processing for women that can be disproved
with the existing literature. Shifting roles of women and
men in fishing are mainly adaptations to the environment,
family income, market, and responsibilities but poorly
documented. Thus, invisibility, restrictions on access
and control of resources, discrimination in participation
and decision making, and discrimination on identity,
culture, and other contextual factors make the gendered
approach complex and difficult but critical in development
policy options. Gender discrimination and disparities are
common in any socio-ecological systems (fisheries, agri-
culture, livestock, and forestry) with unequal outcomes
[1,46] hindering the inclusive development process. In
essence, gendered approach in small scale fisheries is
needed focusing economy, health, society, culture, eco-
system, climate change, and governance aspects widely.
Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 2017, 24:1–6
Women empowerment, equality, and institutional repre-
sentation are crucial to overcome the disparities and
discriminations assuring household and community well-
being in achieving productivity and sustainability of pri-
mary production systems with wider socio-ecological-
economic understanding toward inclusive development.
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